Common enemy question

[Danny McG]

This is for the 20th century history buffs, and apologies if I already mentioned it here in Chronicles:-

I read somewhere (can't recall where or when) that during World War One there was a short time when German and Allied troops turned their lines around, and fought side by side to stem the advances of Russia.
This was afterwards known as "The war of intervention"

For no real reason I decided this morning to look into that, but online searches have failed.
Did this happen and then get airbrushed out of the history books?

 

[CupofJoe]

After WW1 there was certainly Allied [and others] fighting against Soviet forces in Russia.
But I don't think Germany was involved or at least not in any meaningful way.
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
As a kid I'm sure I read a Biggles style book about an [ex?] RAF flier fighting with the White Russian against the Bolshevik forces...

 

[Montero]

I once met a Hungarian, who'd fought with the Germans against the Russians in WW2. He left the country after the post war Hungarian uprising, in which he took part. He wasn't a fan of the Germans, he just disliked the Russian Communists a LOT.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Ive not heard of such a thing. It's unlikely that the French, British and Belgians would fight alongside Germans, but the situation was more fluid and less clear cut on the Eastern Front, especially after the Revolution.

 

[svalbard]

After WW1 there was certainly Allied [and others] fighting against Soviet forces in Russia.
But I don't think Germany was involved or at least not in any meaningful way.
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
As a kid I'm sure I read a Biggles style book about an [ex?] RAF flier fighting with the White Russian against the Bolshevik forces...

Remember reading Charley's War as a kid and after WWI he got stationed to Archangel in Russia. Or my memory could be playing tricks with me.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Remember reading Charley's War as a kid and after WWI he got stationed to Archangel in Russia. Or my memory could be playing tricks with me.

Sounds about right. The merchant fleets travelled there during WW1. Obviously British some soldiers would be stationed there as a result, but a long way from the Eastern Front and any German troops.

 

[Aquilonian]

This certainly didn't happen in either of the world wars. In WW1 (which the original post specifies) Russia dropped out of the war following the revolution in 1917 and made peace with Germany/Austria (Treaty of Brest Litovsk) allowing the Germans/Austrians to keep a large part of Russia (mostly what is now Ukraine and Belarus). The new government in Russia had their hands full with internal opponents, plus which exhaustion with the war was a big reason why the people became exasperated with their previous (Tsarist) government. From Russia's POV the war was unwinnable (despite enormous size of Russian army) due to gross corruption in supply of arms etc. Russia was not "advancing" so there was no question of "stemming" her advance.
Following WW1 Britain was among many countries who invaded Russia in an attempt to overthrow the Bolshevik (Communist) government. I think there were 13 different armies operating in Russia at one point. These interventions all failed and didn't last long.
In WW2 the Russians (or rather the Soviet Union which included many other ethnic groups) were certainly advancing from 1943 onwards, they were our allies so there was no question of British or even American forces turning against them. The Soviets/Russians were very much admired by the British public at this time so I'm sure that British forces would have refused any order to attack their former allies. Even in the 1960s when I was a child there was still a lot of admiration in Britain for Soviet achievements, especially their space programme.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

The First World War had a long and messy afterparty, I know that much. After civil war broke out in Russia, first Germany and then Poland attempted to prop up Ukraine as a separate buffer state. The German effort collapsed in 1918 for the obvious reason, plus local resistance when they tried to rule more directly. The Polish attempt resulted in a major war with Russia in 1920. (Mikhail Bulgakov's "The White Guard" is a superb novel set in Kiev during this period.) So I guess it's possible that the Allied and German interventions in the former Russian Empire overlapped for a while, though they weren't co-operating with each other.

 

[Lostinspace]

As far as I know, almost everyone fought everyone over 1918-9 in what used to be the Russian Empire. Latvia is described in The forgotten fleet: the British navy and Baltic independence. Interestingly the defeated Germans did write a good song about it

. If you want an odd battle, can I recommend Battle of Castle Itter - Wikipedia.

 

[Brian G Turner]

If you want an odd battle, can I recommend Battle of Castle Itter - Wikipedia.

Ah, yes - this came up a while back. I bought the book. Interesting stuff. Would make for a great film.