of happenings. On the morning of February 10, 1920, Koehler came ashore at Odessa lighthouse from the destroyer on a mission to evacuate the few American citizens believed still in the city, which had been overrun by the Bolshevik Red Army in the Odessa Operation after General Nikolai Shilling, Denikin's appointed commander of White forces in the Odessa area, had failed to mount any defense and been among the first to evacuate. Russian and British mission officers, along with 5,000 refugees were being evacuated by sea under the protection of the British cruiser . Negotiating his way up from the lighthouse keeper, who was loath to go into the city, to the captain of the Red Guard, Koehler quickly arranged to be taken to meet with General Ieronim Uborevich of the Red Army, the victor of Odessa that had vanquished Denikin's Whites from the town. Repeatedly questioned by a commisar what Entente men-of-war were doing in the harbor and why they had fired on Bolshevik troops, Koehler steadfastly and calmly parried the charges, insisting that no firing had occurred since Talbot anchored in the harbor, that the Americans were there for the sole purpose of evacuating refugees, and that he understood the reason for prior naval gun fire was because Odessa had been occupied by "marauders and thieves" before the Red Army entered. When Uborevich questioned Koehler about American opinion of Bolshevism and its recent victories, Koehler responded that he "had not been in America since the war, so he "did not know American opinion in detail, but that in general, I thought that American opinion was not impressed with the chance of success of any government based on the will of so minute a minority as that of the present Bolshevist regime." Koehler was initially told by Uborevich and a commisar that they would need "word from Moscow" on his request to make contact with the Americans, that might take two or three days. Koehler was able to expertly manipulate around the delay and avoid becoming an extended "guest" of the Reds. When Uborevich asked Koehler what he thought of the recent Red victories, Koehler told him that his impression was that the Red advance was more an example of the weakness of Denikin's forces than the strength of the Red Army. "No one made any comment on this reply and I became very definitely of the opinion that