Operation Kronstadt | Historical
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Disclaimer, this episode contains descriptions of violence. This is True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time. Week by week, you'll hear the true stories behind the operations that have shaped the world we live in. You'll meet the people who live life undercover. What do they know?

What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? I'm Rhianna Needs, and this is True Spies from Spyscape Studios. The Cheka appointed a specialist in hunting British agents, and he made it his personal mission that he would track down Paul Dukes. Operation Kronstadt, June 1919. The Volkovo Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Within one of its tombs lies a man. Unlike his neighbors, for him breathing is still a priority. He's 29 years old and a fugitive. He's drifting between sleep and consciousness, swatting at the unrelenting mosquitoes. - He now had nowhere else to go. And if by chance a Bolshevik patrol had checked the graveyard, he would not have been able to hide. - This man is codenamed ST-25.

A British agent on a covert mission to supply his government with intelligence about the Bolsheviks in Russia. He hasn't eaten in days. He is gravely ill and he has no one to turn to. ST-25 is on a treacherous mission.

Evading some of Russia's most brutal men. But time is running out. The Russian Revolution had occurred in 1917 and the Bolsheviks under Lenin had taken power. In order for their regime to survive, the Bolsheviks instituted something called the Red Terror, which is they basically just took out and shot a lot of their enemies, tortured the rest.

That is Harry Ferguson, a former MI6 officer and undercover agent for the National Investigation Service , who wrote the book Operation Kronstadt. He's the man who'll guide us through ST-25's covert mission on the perilous streets of Bolshevik Russia and help us discover his fate.

To understand why ST-25 is there, we need to turn back the clock to the summer of 1918. As the First World War slowly drew to a close, another conflict intensified. The Russian Revolution was almost a year old. Europe and America were concerned and sponsored the White armies to oppose the Red Bolsheviks.

But in August 1918, nobody knew who would emerge the victor of the bloody civil war. The lead intelligence officer in Russia at the time of the Russian Revolution wasn't in fact an MI6 officer as you would expect these days, but Francis Cromey of the Naval Intelligence Division. He was a chap brought up as a naval officer, but actually a fantastic natural spy. Captain Francis Cromey's operation was providing vital coverage of Russia to Britain.

He'd successfully evaded capture in St. Petersburg each day, and the British embassy became his sanctuary. Until one day, everything changed. And the Bolshevik secret police spent a long time trying to catch him. They often burst into buildings. And the one place that was a sacrosanct was the British embassy, as all embassies tend to be. But the Bolsheviks broke the rules. The troops were authorized to go in and simply round up all the diplomats.

It's over. Cromie had kept British intelligence's Russian operations alive under the most testing conditions. With his death, the game was up. Any agents left fled the country. And that was really the end of the British intelligence picture in Russia. MI6 in particular, or MI1C as it was known in those early days, had no coverage of what was happening in Russia. It was just as though a great blanket had descended and cut off all information that was coming out of there.

Now, no Allied nation had a presence in Russia. A new agent needed to be found. Paul Dukes.

The reason he was selected was because after all of the existing agents had either been killed or fled from Russia and they looked around, his name came up. Dukes is a concert pianist with language skills and local knowledge. By 1918, he has been living in St. Petersburg, Russia for eight years.

After attending the St. Petersburg Conservatoire and getting by as a language tutor, he signed up for the Anglo-Russian Bureau, a British-run government organization that monitored conditions in Russia. What he is not is a spy. So he's not the obvious choice, but he is the only choice.

He's so unlike Bond, you know, he is a loser. He's not debonair. He's not suave. He's this spindly guy who can play the piano and that's about his only skill. Nonetheless, he is summoned. At the most volatile point of 1918, the British government decide to pull him out of the Anglo-Russian Bureau for a meeting in London. It's July when Paul arrives. He is on a hair-raising drive around the streets of London.

Whitehall, the nerve center of Britain's civil and military administration, looms into view. Then, the driver veers left sharply. This is a street and a building that he doesn't recognize. Once inside, he meets Captain Mansfield Cumming, the head of the British Secret Service Bureau. Cumming is an extravagant older gentleman, known as "C" within MI6.

With refined taste and a reputation for adoring women, gadgets, and above all, speed, he has an air of mystery about him.

He explains that he desperately needs intelligence from Russia. And you can imagine his shock when they said, "Actually, what we'd like you to do is to get into Russia." To which he might well have said, "Well, actually, I was just there, and you just called me all the way out." Paul is being asked to retrace his steps and return to Russia.

while millions of people are desperately fleeing the civil war. It was unbelievably dangerous to travel either around Russia or into or out of Russia. More to the point, once inside, what would he have to look forward to? A broken spy network, bloodshed on the streets and the feeblest chance of survival. Not to mention the sub-zero temperatures that he would have to endure to reach St. Petersburg.

For a man like Paul though, it's an incredible opportunity. He had watched his friends join the army, first feeling only envy and then guilt as they were killed one by one. This is a chance to quiet his conscience.

and do it his way. It was a great time to be a secret agent because there were no rules. The intelligence services were barely 10 years old. There was no training. You were just told to go out there and decide how to do the job. Paul accepts the mission. He is given a codename,

ST-25. With barely any instructions, Paul heads for the Finnish-Russian border. Of course, as with any wartime border, it was absolute chaos in Finland. And he wandered around, and as you can imagine, amongst that sea of refugees who were swirling around Finland at the time, there were all kinds of chancers and conmen and so forth. One of the people he meets at the border is a man named Melnikov.

He's one of the deceased spymaster Francis Cromey's former agents. Paul is wary and interrogates Melnikov on why he opposes the Bolsheviks. Melnikov explained that in 1918, the Red Army had surrounded his hometown, storming his house and murdering his parents. His story seemed to stack up, but even if it hadn't,

What other choice did Paul have? He had his first lessons in espionage from Melnikov. And for instance, Melnikov taught him how to disguise himself. And Melnikov has contacts. He introduces Paul to a British businessman on the run called John Merritt, a name that would prove useful. What's more immediately helpful is an introduction to a group of Finnish border guards. Paul uses the only tool he has to get into Russia: money.

The bribe works. They said they would get him across the border, which sounded quite nice. But actually, when the event actually happened, they simply took him to the river that marked the border between Finland and Russia, gave him a rowing boat and said, away you go. In the dark of the night, Paul tentatively climbs into the boat and pushes off. On the other side, he makes a leap for the bank and plunges straight into the icy water.

He hauls himself out and hurls his body face-first into the skull. All he can do is lie still and wait. He's sure that a shot will ring out at any second. Luck is on his side. If there are Bolshevik patrols in the area,

They don't see him. It's a miracle that he wasn't shot or murdered. And he simply crawled through the snow until he reached the edges of the forest and then marched through the forest until he found a railway line, followed that to a railway station and managed to jump on the first train to St Petersburg. It's the 25th of November, 1918, and he's in.

He went through fear to concentration to elation that he'd made it into the country and he was the only British agent in the country, as MI6 had told him. And then that was followed by the fear again as he suddenly realised, OK, I'm in. Now I have to create an agent network and I haven't got a clue where to start. Sleeping on the streets and with nowhere to turn, Paul remembers the British businessman he had crossed paths with on the border, John Merritt.

This connection proves to be a lifeline. Paul quickly makes for one of the safe houses Merritt told him about and tries to slip in unnoticed. In doing so, he makes one of his first errors. Paul mentions Merritt's name to the building's caretaker. His expression immediately shifts into a suspicious frown.

By this time, many caretakers, perfectly placed to observe comings and goings, were clandestine members of the dreaded Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka. Paul can't think of a convincing explanation for his association with Merritt. Panicking, he mumbles that he has a package for the runaway businessman and holds his breath. The caretaker is far from convinced and demands that Paul leaves the package with him. That was too close.

Although thankful to be walking away with his life, Paul kicks himself for mentioning the parcel. It has his spare clothes and most of his money in it. This is a wake-up call. There is danger on every corner, and Paul needs to have his wits about him. He needs to start thinking like a spy. Your life is busy.

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First, he needs somewhere to gather his thoughts. Then he needs food.

It has been days since he's eaten properly. He remembers a cafe that Melnikov had mentioned, an intimate venue running out of a private home. He had agreed to make contact with Melnikov there once they had both made it to St. Petersburg.

So Melnikoff was a very lively, happy-go-lucky sort of chap who was determined to get back at the Bolsheviks, but at the same time was rather careless in what he did. He wasn't terribly organised, he wasn't terribly security conscious. True to form, Melnikoff's choice of rendezvous is flawed. A tall, thin man with a black moustache approaches his table. Paul judges him to be a former army officer.

His name is Captain Zorinsky, and he tells Paul he knows he's waiting for Melnikov. Paul reels, hearing Melnikov's name. How does he know him? Who has Melnikov blurted his name out to? He starts to worry about who else knows he's in St. Petersburg. Is Zorinsky an ally, or is this a trap? He slips out of the cafe and makes for the address of another one of Melnikov's contacts, a smuggler with an apartment in the city.

He arrives. The smuggler is not there, but the housekeeper reluctantly lets him in. After entire days walking and no sleep the night before, he collapses. Two days later, after building some strength and calling the cafe to get word from Melnikov, Paul is beginning to feel at home. Someone is at the door. Paul is in his pajamas.

With no idea what to do and no exits prepared, he jumps behind the door and curses his own stupidity. What sort of an agent is he? A figure wearing glasses clumps into the room and then embraces Paul. It is Melnikov, followed by John Merritt. Merritt's wife had been captured by the checker, so Merritt was now back in St. Petersburg in hiding. He couldn't leave her behind. His two confidants were alive and well.

And Merritt started to share his intelligence with Paul. This was more like it. He suddenly had not only these contacts he got from Merritt, but also a secure, warm, safe base for his operations. And so after that, he was on his way and he could really get to work. For the first month that Paul is in St. Petersburg, he learns how to live among the shadows.

Using invisible ink on tiny pieces of tracing paper, he writes reports on the bloodshed on the streets and national politics for MI6. And he gets them out via a system of secret couriers, some of whom had been part of Kromy's old network. Slowly but surely, he's rebuilding the British intelligence picture in Russia. One day, however, Paul turns a corner and bumps into none other than Captain Zorinsky.

the old army officer he'd met at Melnikov's ill-chosen cafe. A man whose allegiances were unclear, to say the least. But instead of dragging our true spy off to a dark cell, Zirinsky invites him for dinner. It's quite a risk to take. What exactly does Zirinsky want? But with famine spreading through the streets and starving people carving the flesh from dead horses, the offer of a decent meal is hard to turn down.

At dinner, the men chat amicably. And then, Zirinsky slides a copy of clandestine Bolshevik paperwork over the table. Paul's heart races. Smelling a rat, he pretends not to be interested. Nonetheless, Zirinsky tells him to keep the papers. He also brags that he was an agent of Francis Cromey, knows John Merritt personally, and offers Paul a bed for the night.

Now Paul's head is spinning. This barrage of information has him quite confused. How does he know the name John Merritt? Does anything he says have any credibility? With more to lose from offending Zorinsky at this point, Paul accepts the bed. So they have this cat and mouse game in which Dukes tells him some things and accepts a limited measure of help from Zorinsky, but doesn't tell him so much that Zorinsky can betray him.

Soon, Paul is thoroughly entangled with Zirinsky. Captain Zirinsky has become Paul's main contact and a contact that Paul is very suspicious of because he suspects that Zirinsky will sell him out unless Paul is able to keep him supplied with money. Now, Zirinsky knows that Paul is playing a game with him and trying to hide a lot of information. Another night, another dinner.

And on one occasion, in January 1919, just as the evening is drawing to a close, Zirinsky slips a new document under Paul's nose. This time, it is a detailed plan of the minefield at Kronstadt.

a heavily guarded island fortress under Bolshevik control. The port of Kronstadt is just about the most heavily defended port in the entire world, and it's screened by these minefields. The port itself is surrounded by artillery, machine guns, just about every defense you can imagine. This is a priceless piece of intelligence. Understanding how ships could navigate the underwater minefield was worth its weight in gold for any enemy of the Russian fleet. And that's not all.

Zirinsky produces another document and smiles smugly. He's enjoying this.

One of the greatest risks in St. Petersburg at this time was if you were a man of military age being picked up off the street. And what was probably one of the most valuable documents, if you could get hold of it, was a military exemption document. And he knows that Paul desperately needs it. But Paul also knows, as he looks at this document that Zorinsky has passed to him, that he has to fill it out with the address and so forth so they can be checked. And Zorinsky, therefore, will know everything about him. And that then what's most likely is that Zorinsky will betray him.

And for a moment, Paul is absolutely stunned. Paul knew he was in a tight spot. He needs this document. If he doesn't fill it out, Zorinsky will probably just nab him there and then. Gingerly, Paul signs the papers right under Zorinsky's nose. Joseph Kralenko. The name on his forged passport is now out in the open. He trudges to bed, along with a map of the minefields he needs to copy.

and feels Zorinsky's grip. It's a restless night. Now Zorinsky knows his operational name. He can hand him into the checker whenever he wants. Paul's nerves are shot. He folds the paper for safekeeping, and as he does, notices there are two sheets of paper. It's an unbelievable turn of fate. Zorinsky has unwittingly handed Paul a second military exemption form.

He can use these for a new identity, one that Zorinsky doesn't know about, but will still keep him safe on the streets. Paul stashes it away hurriedly. He's back in the game. It just goes to show that he didn't win all the time, and sometimes he needed what all great heroes, all great sportsmen need, that little bit of luck. In February, Paul makes the gruelling journey in and out of Russia once more, miraculously undetected.

He needs money desperately and is exhausted from the strains of living undercover. He makes it out carrying invaluable intelligence for coming and does not intend to return. Somehow MI6 convinces him otherwise, giving him assurances that very special measures will be taken to help his final escape. Paul makes it back to St. Petersburg, where he can feel the net around him tightening.

By May 1919, the Cheka is really on his trail. He can't survive much longer. He knows that. Had Paul's fears about Zorinsky come true? Not quite. In fact, the seeds of his downfall were sown by the new head of the Cheka in St. Petersburg, a man named Yakov Christoforovich Peters.

The checker appointed a specialist in hunting British agents and he spent a long time finding out who Dukes was and what he'd done when he'd lived in Russia, whereabouts he'd lived in Russia, who his friends were. And quite a few of Duke's old friends were rounded up by Peters. His efforts paid off. Peters knew exactly who ST-25 was. Paul Henry Dukes, concert pianist, 29 years old.

One by one, Paul's sources and safe houses disappeared. His money ran dangerously low. Time to get out of Russia for good. The border is absolutely sewn up tight. So he's got a lot of intelligence, which he's gathered from key contacts, including right from the very top. But he can't get it out of the country. He has a courier network, but even his couriers can't get out. How do you get out of a city crawling with guards determined to find you?

And if you do manage to leave St. Petersburg, what next? MI6 realises that he's not going to be able to do this on his own and they need some new daring idea to rescue him. Back in London, Captain Mansfield Cumming has summoned a young naval officer, another bold and determined 29-year-old to his office.

Augustus Agar, known as Gus. Gus came from a large family. He was born in Ceylon, which of course is now Sri Lanka. And the family had a long tradition of supplying naval officers. In fact, his elder brother was a naval officer. And he desperately looks for adventure, but adventure always seems to elude him. He's hugely frustrated that he missed most of the action during the First World War.

Once the war had ended, he was stationed at the Thames Estuary alongside a flotilla of disused coastal motorboats, CMBs. It was those very boats that the illustrious Cummings wanted to speak to Gus about. He had the idea that the way to get past the Russian naval defenses was one of these fast motorboats. He figured they'd be so fast they'd be through the sea forts before the Russians even knew they were there.

Cummings could see Gus's thirst for adventure. He asked Gus to embark on the ST-25's rescue mission. The extraction would take place at Kronstadt Harbor. The harbor was one of a series of impenetrable defenses that guarded the route in and out of St. Petersburg.

Each of these sea fortresses running from the Finnish coast in the north to the Estonian coast in the south, there is a breakwater just three feet below the surface. And this is one reason why the coastal motorboats were chosen for this mission. Because while no other ship could make it across this breakwater, the CMBs, when they were at top speed, only drew about two feet of water.

So they were right for the mission, but this also meant if you get it slightly wrong, you're going to rip the bottom out of the boat. Far from being well thought through, Cummings had presented Gus with a suicide mission. The Russians had motor patrol boats of their own patrolling the area. There were also minefields.

The very minefields that Paul had mapped from Zorinsky's papers. But in fact, the Bolsheviks had started cutting the mines loose, disabling the safety devices that were supposed to disarm the mines if they did float loose. And so you had no idea where these mines were going to be. It was absolutely a lottery. Gus was not given a plan. Cummings told him that it was up to him. He could pick his own crew, as long as they were all unmarried.

He was only told a code number, ST25, of this guy that he must rescue. And things such as finance and where they're going to live and all these sorts of things, Gus has to make up for himself. And he would have to move fast. The nights are getting shorter and shorter as the summer goes on. And soon there will only be a couple of hours of full night for him to try and get through this line of defences.

It's the 26th of May, and Gus is aboard a Finnish cargo ship, the Fenia. The ship is lurching from side to side. Gus's crew are dreadfully seasick, and the end of May is fast approaching.

He writes in his diary as they make slow progress towards Finland. Who is ST-25? What is he doing there? What does he even look like? I don't know anything. All I know is that I've got to hurry. Hurry the devil, is the phrase that he uses. Four days later, the team docks in the Finnish port of Abo. The precious CMBs are being towed behind another ship.

They are faring about as well as Gus's crew. This covert mission is suffering setbacks before Gus has found a base for the boats. In transporting these highly sensitive motorboats, they were filled with seawater as they were being towed behind a British naval vessel to get to the steamer that was to take them to Finland. So when they turn up in Finland, they've got almost no spares and the engines won't work.

Gus gives 24-year-old mechanic Hugh Bealey a look. And Gus Agar says, look, we're here. This is all we've got. You've got to make these ruddy things work. And Bealey does. It's an absolute triumph of being a mechanic. But this work isn't exactly quiet.

and almost immediately it's known who they are. And what's interesting is that for a secret mission, when they eventually find a base at a small yacht club called Teriyaki, from which they can launch these motorboats and try and find Dukes and rescue him, everybody knows who they are. They even had a journalist from the Daily Express, the British newspaper, who came and stayed with them for a week. The head of French intelligence in Finland comes out to visit them. So there's absolutely no secrecy.

Despite the suspicions surrounding this team, the undercover mission is finally underway. Gus and his six comrades arrive in Teriyaki, 30 miles from the nearest British naval base, under the command of one Admiral Cowan. Gus gets to work taking the CMBs around the bay, testing them. With Beely working his magic on the engines whenever they are pushed too far, they go out to get a better look at the Russian battleships.

The Baltic fleet is vast, with three enormous warships: Petropavlovsk, Andrey Pervozvani and Oleg. And that fleet is confidently bombing the mainland fort of Krasnaya Gorka, which had revolted against the Bolsheviks.

The rebels take all their families into this fortress and the Russians surround it by land. And the attacking forces, by the way, were led by the young Joseph Stalin. And meanwhile, the Russian Navy sends a couple of battlecruisers out, which sit several miles away, well out of range of the fort's guns, and just pound it to bits.

Gus is incredulous. He thinks of the trapped families and of his gleaming CMBs. And he sent back to London for instructions and said, look, we're not actually needed at the moment because the nights are so short. I've got these two boats with torpedoes. I can go and save these people.

But Cummings didn't want anything done that wasn't to do with intelligence. And Gus simply couldn't get orders allowing him to attack these Russian ships. And eventually, it just becomes too much for him. He thinks, I've got to do something. I'm not going to let these people be massacred. Would you do the same? Risk the lives of you and your crew against huge warships? What about ST-25? He's the whole reason Gus was there, after all. It's June 16th.

Gus climbs into CMB4 alongside Beely and second-in-command John Hampshire. They creep at absolute minimum speed through the screen of destroyers protecting the Oleg, are about to launch their one torpedo when all of a sudden there's a malfunction and the thing nearly blows up. It nearly took Hampshire's hand off. And Beely, the mechanical genius, is sent down into the bowels of the boat again, told to do something.

It works. Beely fixes the problem and the torpedo is ready to be fired. They need to get a move on. They have drifted and are now sitting ducks.

They're sitting in the middle of the Russian Baltic Fleet, who are all around them, and at any moment might realise there's this tiny boat sitting there in the middle of them. And as soon as Beely gives Gus the word that the repair has been made, Gus throws open the engines, they hit maximum speed, fire the torpedo and get the heck out of Dodge. The Russian fleet opens fire. CMB-4's engine is at full throttle.

Nothing. The torpedo must have missed. And then just as they're getting out of the perimeter of the Russian ships, the Oleg is hit and immediately starts to capsize. It's hard to hear over CMB-4's thunderous engine. Gus looks back to see the damage. His disregard for orders has paid off.

Admiral Cowan is impressed by his bravado and quick thinking and tells Gus he will pretend to MI6 he had approved the attack all along. And it's this incredible victory for the Royal Navy against the Russians at a time when the Royal Navy, which had a force up there, hadn't actually been able to do anything. And instead of getting a rocket from his bosses, Gus is awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry.

The remarkable attack on the Oleg had made Gus the hero he'd always wanted to be. And now, Admiral Cohen was looking at him differently. He asks Gus, "Could he do it all again?" While Gus ponders that question, Paul is where we first met him. Alone, crouching in Volkovo Cemetery. It is his fourth day sleeping out in the elements.

In the distance, he hears the sound of naval gunfire and shudders. He's unsure whether it is British or Russian and hopes it is his side. Paul's health is lapsing and with the greatest will in the world, he knows it won't last much longer. He feels the weight of his revolver in his pocket and easy out, but he's determined not to take it. Paul climbs to his feet.

and rests on the tombstone like an old man. He takes a deep breath and shuffles off towards St. Petersburg. It's the final push. Paul Duke's mind is also on sailing. He has met a new courier called Gefter and been told of the escape plan.

On Thursday the 14th of August, you have one of those incidents that shows the incredible resources that Paul has. I mean, this frail concert pianist, who before he became involved in this adventure wouldn't say boo to a goose, has finally got a chance to meet the man who's supposed to save him. So a courier has got in and delivered the arrangements for his rescue. Before Paul can get excited about finally meeting Gus, Gefter realises there is a problem.

The courier has forgotten where he left the rowing boat that he came in on. They are forced to improvise and scour the shore until they find an old fishing boat. And then they're off to rendezvous with Gus on the water. Well, that's the plan. Anyway...

they find that actually the boat is taking on water. And Gefter opens the cupboard at the front of this large rowing boat and finds out that the valve that lets water into the boat has been left open and they're awash. And the reason this boat had been abandoned on the shore is because it can't be closed. So suddenly they're bailing for their lives as the boat is going down in what is the freezing waters of the Baltic. At the other end of this stretch of coast, Gus sets out to retrieve ST-25.

He is on time. The CMB arrives and flashes its torch towards the bank. That's the signal. There's nobody there. A soaking wet paw swims back to shore, dragging Gefter with him. He turns to see Gus's CMB two miles away from where he's standing. He is completely spent. The rescue attempt has failed. Gus tries not to let it dampen his spirits. He knows he'll need to try again soon.

More CMBs arrive in Teriyaki. As per Admiral Cowan's request, he's planning an offensive. The next day, Gus boards another CMB. Not for Paul this time, but for the one and only rehearsal of the Kronstadt attack. It is set for Monday 18 August. Just after midnight, British aircraft take to the skies.

The Royal Air Force sends a whole assorted ragbag of planes up there and the idea is that they will attack from the air as these tiny motorboats sail into the most heavily defended port in the world and try and take out these Russian battleships. The mission is deadly and timing is everything. The flying conditions are far from perfect and the aircraft all take off late.

And the worst thing is that basically the port is like a circle with the Russians all around. So it's kind of like taking your boat into a barrel and everybody's shooting into the middle of that barrel. Your chances of survival are practically zero. In the tight harbour, with the schedule out of the window, the Russians begin to light up the waters with their gunfire. The CMB teams have to improvise quickly. Their attack is not going to plan.

They fire their torpedoes into the Bolshevik fleet, but are taking heavy fire. While Gus is navigating the choppy seas around Kronstadt harbour, Paul also finds himself in hot water in the wake of the failed rescue. At one stage, he was heading back to one of his old haunts. Back in St. Petersburg, he's breaking a simple rule.

A spy should never return to an old safe house. The problem is that the Bolsheviks had such a tight control on the food, there was already practically famine conditions in much of the city. And so sometimes he did have to do things like go and see old friends and beg for money. And of course, Peters and the other Cheka agents were watching for him to do just that. It is the dead of night and he's decided it is worth the risk.

He enters the block of flats. And as he was creeping up the stairs, he actually heard voices above. The checker. Paul freezes. His heart thuds. And he swears the men must be able to hear it from the floor above. Anxiously, he turns around. As he hurries out of the building, he trips. Thud. The Bolsheviks swing around and give chase.

Before he is out, a hulking great hand nabs him by the collar. A Cheka officer. He pushes him against the wall and presses a revolver to his temple. Suddenly, Paul starts to drool and rolls his eyes backwards as if he had a handicap. Astonishingly, the officer believes his act. Sometimes he did take it very close to the line. And what the example of Paul shows is that with no training,

And in the harshest of conditions, you can be incredibly successful if you apply your imagination. Back at the Yacht Club in Teriyaki, Gus is on dry land.

although only half of the men have survived. After the raid, Gus's prospects dropped considerably for two reasons. One, because the Russians now knew how deadly these small motorboats could be and they were working in the area. And secondly, Teriyaki had become known as the base of Gus and his motorboats. The Soviets flew over Teriyaki two days later. The bombs they dropped missed, but the message was received.

Gus now has a price on his head, and Paul is still in Russia. Gus does not hesitate. On Monday, the 25th of August, he heads for the line of Russian defense once again. This time, there is no element of surprise. This is the most perilous journey yet. Four of Gus's comrades climb aboard, despite Gus telling them to stay. At the dead of night, CMB 7 sets out once more.

The Russian searchlights sweep the harbour and they are spotted. Gus turns the boat around, but it's too late. CMB-7 is not steering properly. Gus thinks one of the mechanisms must have been shot through. Then silence. In fact, Paul Dukes, waiting for Agar to come and rescue him, reads in the Russian press that a small motorboat has been sunk trying to penetrate the defences and assumes that Agar has been killed and he must make his own way out.

MI6's special measures have not worked. Gus has not rescued Paul. And as far as he knows, Paul is totally alone. He shows that even when you've got nothing, as long as you've got your brain and your imagination, you can still fight back. The Finnish border is now too dangerous. So where would you turn?

Would you risk Estonia to the west, crawling with a checker? He decides to do something very bold. He's going to head way south, down to Latvia, which is a difficult journey, not so much because of the geographical distance, but just because of the number of checkpoints and other security matters that will happen if he takes a long journey like that. So he heads out with one of his key agents and also a young Russian army recruit called Kostya. It's a risky move.

After taking the train to the border, they find Russian sentries at every suitable crossing point. Finally, they come to a lake. So they spend ages scouring the shore, looking for something, whether they can build a boat, find something, and they find an old wreck of a rowing boat that's got a great big hole in the bottom. But of course, by now, Paul Triggs has had some experience of sinking rowing boats. Paul finds himself bailing for his life yet again.

But this time, the boat stays afloat. And they made it all the way across, only to be picked up by the Latvians on the other side when they reached the opposite shore. And the Latvians immediately set up a firing squad because they assume having caught them crossing the border, they're actually Russian spies. Paul scrambles in his pocket and pulls out a clandestine document addressed to the British embassy. It does the trick. After months of survival...

Paul is finally out of Russia. September 1919. Paul has made it back to London and is leaving Cummings' office. A young man sits in the waiting area, who he walks past. And they pass each other, and nobody's told them that they're there on the same day. But something passes between them, and Dukes looks at Agar and says, Do I know you?

And Gus A. Gus says, I don't think you do. But are you by any chance Paul Dukes? There's something about the bearing of this man who's at secret intelligence headquarters that just makes him think this may be the guy. And Paul Dukes says, yes, I am. The two men had both made it home. Gus's failed attempt to rescue Paul on the 25th of August had not taken his life.

After CMB 7's controls had been shot through, the young mechanic, Beely, had saved the crew. He had fashioned a tiny sail from the deck covering, allowing them to sail out of range of the Russian guns and safely home. Paul could not believe his eyes, and shook Gus's hand warmly. Gus had been given the Victoria Cross for his bravery.

And in 1920, Sir Paul Dukes was made a Knight of the Realm. He is the only MI6 officer ever to be knighted for work in the field. And it's a great lesson in how you may not think that you have the makings of a hero, you may not think you have the makings of a spy, but it's deep within us, even some of the most unlikely of us. I'm Rhiannon Needs.

If you enjoyed this story, you can read all the fascinating details in Harry Ferguson's book, Operation Cronstadt. Harry's also on TikTok as The English Spy, dishing out fascinating real-life insights from the world of espionage. Next time on True Spies. Fort Hunt, codenamed P.O. Box 1142, where Nazis and Americans came eye to eye on U.S. soil.

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Robert's colleagues were beginning to hear rumors that this park, Fort Hunt, had a far richer history than anyone knew of. The park would have tours of the fort and they'd get toward the end and they'd say, you know, we're beginning to piece together some information about what happened here during World War II. And we would really like to find someone who was here during that time. The

the tour guides would add. For years, no one had anything to say. But then... This couple said, you know what? We had a neighbor who was here and we think he might be able to talk to him. One of the park rangers tracks down the man, one Fred Michel. Now, it took a while before he could arrange it. And he knew the reason was because every single person who was stationed at Fort Hunt was sworn to secrecy. They were told that they were going to take the story of what happened there to the grave.

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