Operation Albion: The German Conquest of the Baltic Islands.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, (2008). Octavo, red cloth (hardcover), 298 pp. Fine in a Fine dust jacket. From dust jacket: The Germans were desperate. The English offensive at Passchendaele had drained German manpower, placing in doubt the success of a planned 1918 offensive in the West. With the city of Riga now in German hands, one hope would be to deliver a final blow to Russian morale, causing a collapse and freeing troops for the Western Front. Thus was born Operation Albion. In October 1917, an invasion force of some 25,000 German soldiers -- accompanied by a flotilla of 10 dreadnoughts, 300 other vessels, a half-dozen Zeppelins, and 80 aircraft -- attacked the Baltic islands of Dago, Osel, and Moon at the head of the Gulf of Riga. It proved to be the most successful amphibious operation of the First World War. The three islands fell, the Gulf was opened to German warships and now a threat to Russian naval bases in the Gulf of Finland, and 20,000 Russians were captured. The invasion proved to be the last major operation in the East. ON October 25, the Bolshevik Revolution convulsed Russia, Lenin initiated armistice talks, and fighting ceased. Although it had achieved its objectives and placed the Germans in an excellent position for the resumption of warfare in the spring, Operation Albion faded into obscurity, having been overtaken by events. Michael B. Barrett has returned to the original archival sources to produce this definitive history of one of the most unusual operations of the First World War.