he knew only by the MI6 codename ST-25, from the coast of the Bay of Petrograd. The last British agent left in Russia, Dukes had been infiltrating the Bolshevik government for some time and had made copies of top secret documents. A master of disguise, he was known as "The Man with A Hundred Faces", but his resources had run out by this time. In order to spirit Dukes away, Agar's boats had to cross Bolshevik minefields and pass by a number of forts and ships guarding the entrance to the Bolshevik naval base at Kronstadt and to Petrograd, now St. Petersburg. Also operating in the eastern Baltic Sea was a Royal Navy detachment of light cruisers and destroyers under Admiral Sir Walter Cowan. Though technically not connected, Agar regularly reported to Cowan and received assistance from him. Cowan's mission was to keep the sea lanes open to the newly independent Finland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, which were under threat of being overrun by Soviet Russia. On their missions Agar and his crews dressed in civilian clothes to maintain the fiction that Britain was not involved. They had a uniform on board in case they were in danger of capture. Without the uniform, they could be shot as spies. Agar felt that his small force should be doing more than acting as a shuttle service. The Bolsheviks had seized much of the Russian fleet at Kronstadt, and Agar considered these vessels a menace to British operations and took it upon himself to attack the enemy battleships. He set out with his two boats, HM Coastal Motor Boat 4 and another, on 17 June 1919. One had to turn back before completing its mission, but Agar continued into the bay. The battleships were not in the harbour though. CMB4 penetrated a destroyer screen and was closing on a larger warship further inshore when CMB4, whose hull had been damaged by gunfire, broke down. She had to be taken alongside a breakwater for repairs and for twenty minutes was in full view of the enemy. The attack was then resumed and a Russian cruiser, the 6,645 ton was sunk, after which Agar retired to the safety of the open bay under heavy fire. For this he was awarded the Victoria Cross and was promoted to lieutenant commander on 30 June 1919. Realizing the utility of the CMBs, Cowan ordered more to be