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Auction: 6017 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 127

An Interesting Great War M.C., Second War Croix de Guerre and Légion d´Honneur, Syrian and Lebanese Order of Merit, Group of Fourteen to Colonel A.P. Hodges, Royal Artillery, who Survived a Trek from Petropavlovsk to Pekin, across the Kirghiz steppes and Gobi Desert 1919-1920 (a) Military Cross, G.V.R., reverse inscribed ´Lt A Major Phelps Hodges France 1917´ (b) 1914 Star, with Bar (2. Lieut. A.P. Hodges. R.F.A.) (c) British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. Oakleaves (Major A.P. Hodges) (d) 1939-1945 and Africa Stars (e) Defence and War Medals (e) General Service 1918-62, G.VI.R., one clasp, Palestine 1945-48 (Col. A.P Hodges. M.C. Staff.) (f) Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., reverse dated 1947, with ´Territorial´ bar (g) France, Légion d´Honneur, Chevalier breast Badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamel (h) France, Croix de Guerre 1939-1940, with ´Palme´ (i) Syria, Order of Civil Merit, Fourth Class breast Badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with two ´Palmes´ on riband (j) Lebanon, Order of Merit, breast Badge, silver-gilt, with ´Palme´ on riband the group good very fine (k) Group of fourteen associated miniature awards, mounted for wear (l) Original documents including - M.I.D. Certificate, 8.11.1918, ´Capt. (A./Maj) A.P.Hodges, M.C., A/160th Bde.´ - Légion d´Honneur, Certificate dated Paris 20.8.1955 - Nomination for the Croix de Guerre 1939-1945 avec Palme, dated Paris 30.8.1955, to ´Hodges, Alexander, Phelps- Colonel- Armée Britannique´, ´Officier en retraite de l´Artillerie Royale de l´Armée Britannique, a rendu des services importants et distingués à la France et aux Forces Françaises Combattantes pendant la dernière guerre surtout dans le Moyen-Orient de 1944 à 1946´ - Lebanon, Order of Merit, Bestowal Certificate dated Beruit 14 3.1947 - A quantity of photographs, including two albums illustrating Hodges´ travels in Russia and China 1919-1920, and several individual and group portraits - Hodges, Major Phelps, Britmis- A Great Adventure of the War- Being an account of Allied intervention in Siberia and of an escape across the Gobi to Peking´, Jonathan Cape, London 1931, with sixteen illustrations and two maps, signed by the author (14) Estimate £ 1,200-1,400M.C. London Gazette 1.1.1918, Lt. (A./Maj.) R.F.A. Efficiency Decoration London Gazette 30.5.1947, Lt. Col. (T/Col.) R.A.R.O. Colonel Alexander Phelps Hodges, M.C.; Second Lieutenant, Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery 17.7.1914; embarked for France 5.11.1914; Lieutenant June 1915; Acting Captain (in command of a Battalion) August and Acting Major (in command of a Battalion) September 1916; Captain (Acting Major) November 1917. BRITMIS In the summer of 1918 Hodges, using the pretence that he could speak ´a little Russian´ (he had learnt a few phrases through a Hugo correspondence course), applied for a posting to Russia. In December he received instructions to hold himself in readiness to embark for Vladivostok at short notice. On 12 January 1919 he embarked at Liverpool on the Empress of Russia for Hong Kong via Gibraltar, Suez, Colombo, and Singapore, a journey that took five weeks. At Hong Kong he transferred to the Sunning, a coastal steamer, which took him up the Yangtze, across the Woo-sung Bar, to Shanghai. There he and a few companions boarded the Russian Volunteer ship Penza for an uncomfortable voyage to Nagasaki, across the Sea of Japan, and finally into Vladivostok. At Vladivostok Hodges learnt he was to proceed to the British Mission Headquarters, at that time at Omsk. He was placed in command of a train being prepared for the three thousand mile journey across Siberia. The train was carrying arms and ammunition for the White Russians. A detachment of the Hampshire Regiment, with one Lewis gun, was to act as guard. They passed through Manchuria, arriving at Harbin, 6 February, Tulun on the 13th, Nijni Udinsk on the 16th, Taishet on the 18th, and Novo Nikolaevsk 22nd, and three days later, they finally reached Barnaul, where they were ordered to halt. At Barnaul the 11th and 13th Siberian Divisions were being formed. Hodges was to instruct the 11th in the use of the British 15-pr. B.L.C. guns and 5-in. howitzers that had been sent from Europe. The two Siberian Divisions departed for the front in June, and Hodges was ordered on to Omsk. The military position however deteriorated, and soon the Hampshire Regiment, and the British Mission, was also retreating back to Omsk. During the summer Hodges was involved in several minor incidents during journeys along the Trans-Siberian Railway, and also suffered badly from typhoid. Despite this, having returned to Omsk in September 1919 he was selected for liaison work with the Orenburg Cossack Army. Hodges describes the fluid situation, ´The Orenburg Cossaks, after their disastrous retreat along the Tashkent Railway at the end of the summer, were said to be reassembling their scattered forces at Atbasar, a small town in the Kirghiz steppe some 250 miles south of the Trans-Siberian Railway. They were again under the command of their old general, Atman Dutov. I was to take the train to Petropavlovsk, due west of Omsk, and then strike south across country until I reached the headquarters of the Army. Once there it would be my duty to report to the British Mission by wire and letter whenever possible, keeping General Knox informed of the position as fully as I could. I was given a code, and also told that it was important to use every means in my power to get information about the Tashkent Railway. This important line opened up the Soviet´s communications with central Asia, and might be used to threaten India. The War Office was anxious to have it cut, and I was to urge Dutov to do this if possible.´ The Bolshevik advance however continued, and with the defeat of the Orenburg Cossack army, all plans were abandoned. Petropavlovsk, through which Hodges passed on the 21 October, was captured by the Bolsheviks ten days later. The Orenburg Cossak army was split and demoralised, and was beginning to disintegrate. General Dutov was ordered to retreat, and Hodges, unable to rejoin the British Mission, which was itself now in full retreat, was left to his own devices. Thus began a remarkable journey east across the Kirghiz steppe, in a desperate attempt to escape, with both Bolsheviks and the Russian winter relentlessly advancing. Hodges summarises of the final chapter of his adventure thus: ´Although the part I played in the general scheme of things was a very humble one, my experiences are worth recording, for I not only saw a great deal of Siberia under exceptional conditions, but during the final Bolshevik attack, which caused the collapse of (General) Kolchak, I became involved in a retreat that very nearly finished my career. Only by escaping across the Kirghiz steppes in the dead of winter with a few companions, taking refuge over the Chinese border, and traversing the great desert of Gobi, did I succeed in reaching civilization again in safety. For seven months, on foot, on horseback, and by cart, we wondered more than three thousand miles across some of the most desolate country in the world, until one glorious day in May 1920, we reached the gates of our goal, the old Imperial City of Peking.´ Hodges transferred to the Reserve of Officers; Lieutenant Colonel (War Substantive) 1946; Colonel 1947

Sold for
£3,800