that had counter-attacked and reentered the city. Rather than try to flee, Koehler and his party commandeered a cart and hid with their load of papers by a flour mill for a few hours, until the Red troops themselves retreated with White cavalry on their flank. Koehler and his group rode on to Radionovka "with their loot". Within a few days, Slashchov had conquered the entire province and doubled Wrangel's White-held territory, secured enough grain to feed the Crimea and his cavalry's horses, and improved the standing of the White cause in Europe. When Pisarev attacked at Chongar and Kutepov's Volunteer Army troops engaged the main Red forces at Perekop, the Reds were caught off guard and had to retreat to avoid being surrounded. The day Koehler headed back to Crimea, Leon Trotsky arrived in Alexandrovsk and announced that the Tauride with its great stores of grain, had to be retaken, since a winter of starvation for the Reds had to be avoided at all costs. Koehler observed the White army equally needed the Tauride and its grain, "For the south too, will go hungry without this grain, and the army would be the first to starve... An army that has known cold and hunger as has this army, will fight hard before it leaves plenty to go back to cold and hungry." For Koehler's exploit in Melitopol, Rear Admiral McCully recommended him for award of the Distinguished Service Medal in July 1923 with the following citation, "During the capture of Melitopol by the Wrangel forces on June 10, 1920, he was in the advance guard [that] entered the town, immediately proceeding to the Bolshevik headquarters and began collection of their papers. While engaged in this work the town was recaptured by the Bolshevik troops and Lt. Cmdr. Koehler for several hours was cut off from the troops which he accompanied. He managed to conceal himself and in addition saved the papers which he had secured and which were of much value." The Bureau of Navigation declined to make the award, presumably not prepared to officially recognize an American naval officer in Bolshevik Russia, much less, in combat. Each of Wrangel's corps had a chief of civil administration to organize the newly occupied territory. In his report, Koehler recounted his interviews with the administrator in Melitopol, "He said his guiding idea was that this is a civil war, a struggle