One US Rifle Company (300 men) One British Rifle Company Canadian Artillery Battery (57 men) Ma~2,500 infantry[2] Unknown; Estimated at 500 killed The Battle of Tulgas was part of the North Russia Intervention into the Russian Civil War and was fought between Allied and Bolshevik troops on the Northern Dvina River 200 miles south of Arkhangelsk.

[3]: 5  Farthest north was another small village, Lower Tulgas; here the Allied field hospital was set up in a log hut, almost unguarded.

[3]: 3  At about the same time another Bolshevik force of around 600 men[3]: 1  attacked Lower Tulgas to the north, to the surprise of the Allies who thought that the swampy pine forest to the west had not frozen enough to be passed through.

[3]: 4  The Bolsheviks, led by "a giant of a man,"[3]: 5  the renowned Ukrainian ice fisher, Melochofski, spent several minutes ransacking Lower Tulgas, including the hospital.

But while the Bolsheviks were in Lower Tulgas, the Canadian gunners had swung their south-facing guns around, and fired two salvos at point blank range, killing many and driving the rest back.

Meanwhile, Captain Boyd's troops in Tulgas itself had been easily able to hold off the Bolsheviks approaching from the south, as the bridge that was the only route across the stream was defended by machine gun fire from the strong log blockhouse.

At around the same time the Canadian gunners bombarded buildings in Lower Tulgas where Bolsheviks had taken refuge (except for the hospital), and then swung the guns around to fire two salvos into the woods to the south.

[3]: 9  Meanwhile, in the north, the Royal Scots retook Lower Tulgas, and found their wounded from the hospital still alive, under the care of Melochofski's mistress.

In the early morning of November 14, the American forces, led by Lieutenant John Cudahy advanced stealthily to the woods near Upper Tulgas, where the Bolshevik troops were encamped.