| Raid on Kronstadt | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of British campaign in the Baltic (1918–1919) | |||||
 Aerial photograph of Kronstadt harbour taken on 26 July 1919. The positions of Soviet vessels did not change significantly before the raid. The depot ship Pamiat Azova is berthed at the end of the central pier (right of the middle 'x'), the battleships Petropavlovsk and Andrei Pervozvanny are moored at the end of the pier on the right. A guardship lies just outside the harbour. | |||||
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| Belligerents | |||||
 United Kingdom |
 Russian SFSR | ||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||
|
Claude Congreve Dobson Grahame Donald | - | ||||
| Strength | |||||
|
8 coastal motor boats 12 aircraft | - | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
|
3 coastal motor boats sunk 7–10 killed 9 captured |
1 battleship damaged 1 submarine depot ship sunk | ||||
The raid on Kronstadt (also known as Operation RK or the Scooter Raid) was an attack by Royal Navy coastal motor boats (CMBs) and Royal Air Force aircraft on the Bolshevik Baltic Fleet at its home base on 18 August 1919. After the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, Allied naval units operated in the Baltic Sea to support the independence of Estonia and Latvia, which were threatened by Bolshevik movements. The raid followed a similar one carried out by a single motor torpedo boat outside the harbour on 17 June 1919, in which Lieutenant Augustus Agar's CMB-4 sank the Bolshevik cruiser Oleg.
The raid on 18 August 1919 was carried out by a newly arrived force of seven larger CMBs under Commander Claude Congreve Dobson, guided by Agar in CMB-4. One CMB broke down en route to the harbour but the remaining six penetrated the defences and scored hits on the submarine depot ship Pamiat Azova, which sank, and the battleship Andrei Pervozvanny, which was damaged. A simultaneous air raid by the Royal Air Force damaged a destroyer. Three of the British CMBs were sunk by Bolshevik fire or collision with each other and up to ten British personnel were killed and nine captured.
The raid was regarded as a British success, with the Baltic Fleet afterwards largely confined to the harbour for the rest of the campaign. Of the 55 British participants 48 received gallantry medals or were mentioned in despatches.