risk encirclement. A week later, Koehler was in Yalta with McCully who wrote in his diary, "Summer is definitely over, although Koehler still goes in swimming." Wrangel had hoped that the tidal marshes at the neck of the Crimea would hold back the Bolsheviks, but a series of very low tides drained many and a cold spell froze over the rest, so that the Reds poured over, sending his remaining forces into full retreat to Sebastopol and a desperate rearguard action. He described the end of his campaign, "I gave the order in October 1920 for retreat. The troops fell back by forced marches on the seaports and embarked according to a plan previously arranged. The civil population, those who served in the rear, the sick, the wounded, women and children, were the first to be put on board. The evacuation took place in perfect order. I inspected personally on the Cruiser Kornilov the harbours used, and I was able to assure myself that all who wished to quit Russian soil found it possible to do so." At the time of the collapse of the White army, "mustang" rear admiral and early naval aviator Jackson Tate was a "lowly ensign" attached to the off Sebastopol. He recalled writing a set of orders for himself "to escort the Princess Olga Sargieff Rostigieff, Rear Admiral McCully's secretary, out of the Crimea," a well-laid plan, until Koehler got wind of it. "Hugo Koehler tore up the orders and said HE was escorting the princess and I was assigned to escort out three children on the [destroyer] . There were over three thousand people aboard, mostly standing on deck. The children were not at all popular with the C.O. of the destroyer. They- and most of the refugees- had "cooties", the nickname at that time for body lice... I saw little of Koehler. He was a very dapper and dashing individual and quite a lady's man. He spoke excellent Russian and was very highly thought of by Admiral McCully." Sebastopol, November 1920 His work on the Mission to South Russia completed, on November 1, 1920, Koehler sailed for Constantinople. After that, he made a yachting trip to Egypt. The destroyer , was already at Sebastopol when the Bolsheviks defeated Baron Wrangel's White Army in November 1920. Overton distributed relief supplies, provided transportation and communication services, and relocated refugees. A single ship could not cope