Who's Who - Petr Wrangel
Petr Nikolaevich Wrangel (1878-1928)
served in active field commands within the Russian army during World War One
and was a prominent White anti-Bolshevik leader from 1917-20.
Wrangel emerged from a technical education with a degree in mining in 1901, after which he embarked upon an initially short-lived military career.
Having resigned from the army to take up an engineering position in Siberia he nevertheless returned to serve with distinction during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.
Remaining in the army he next attended the General Staff Academy. Upon the outbreak of war in August 1914 he was given command of a cavalry squadron in East Prussia and was later handed command of a Cossack regiment whilst being dispatched to Galicia in 1916.
Having risen to the rank of Major-General Wrangel led the 7th Cavalry Division during the notably unsuccessful Kerenski Offensive of July 1917.
The following month Wrangel joined the anti-Bolshevik White Russian forces initially led by Lavr Kornilov, where he led (with some success) forces in the Caucasus, capturing Tsartisyn in July 1919.
However Wrangel's relations with White Commander-in-Chief Anton Denikin were never warm and ultimately led to Wrangel's dismissal from the movement. Before retiring to Yalta however Wrangel organised the evacuation of some 150,000 White forces to Turkey following the Red Army's success in November 1920.
Even in retirement Wrangel established and maintained an organisation comprised of White veterans, the Russian Social Union.
"Beachy Bill" was the name given to one of the Turkish guns which regularly shelled Anzac Cove.
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