7. The Battles of Bolshie Ozerki checked the Allied Intervention
At the end of March, 1919, Allied units attacked elements of the Red Army and supporting partisan fighters at the village of Bolshie Ozerki, through which supplies were shipped in winter from the port at Murmansk, which did not freeze over, to Allied positions around Arkhangelsk, which did. From late March through the 2nd of April Allied and Red Army troops engaged in several fierce battles around the strategically critical village, which the Bolsheviks seized and then repulsed numerous attempts by the Allies to dislodge them. It was the last engagement of the Allied Intervention in North Russia to involve British troops, though the Americans were not yet ready to end combat operations.
The troops of both sides suffered from exposure during the fighting around Bolshoi Ozerki, despite the temperature being relatively mild by Russian standards. The troops found their feet soaked in the daylight hours through deficient footwear and melting snow, later to have them frozen when the nighttime temperatures dropped to below zero. On some days American and British troops assaulting the Russian defenses around the village had to move forward in snow which was waist deep. Following the fighting at Bolshie Ozerki, the Allies began the evacuation of Arkhangelsk, waiting only for the spring thaw to melt the ice and allow the port to open.