in his career. Coastal motor boats Agar served in the Coastal Motor Boats (CMBs) in home waters during the latter part of the war. These small vessels displaced just 5 tons, compared to the 1,110 tons of a First World War era destroyer. Their main offensive weapon was a torpedo. They were of shallow draught and could operate close inshore. The CMBs carried one or two torpedoes, depending on whether they were "forty footers" or "fifty-five footers". Mines could be substituted for torpedoes and they also carried depth charges and Lewis guns. It was planned that they be either towed or carried into battle on the German controlled coast by the light cruisers and destroyers of Commodore Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt's Harwich Force. With their shallow draught they could skim over the mines and attack the German patrol craft around Heligoland. As 1918 wore on a more ambitious scheme matured to send the CMBs in over the shallow coastal waters to attack the German fleet at its anchorage. However, the Armistice occurred on 11 November 1918 before these plans could be put into effect. It was as a torpedo and mining officer that Augustus Agar was selected for this service. He participated in the famous raid on Zeebrugge led by Commodore Roger Keyes, CMBs being used to lay smoke screens outside the mole to cover the escape of the crews of the blockships. During the summer of 1918, he was stationed at Dover and at Dunkirk, where the CMBs attacked German patrol craft along the Belgian coast. Russian Civil War The end of the war found him at the CMB base at Osea Island in Essex, England. He was asked in late 1918 by Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, head of the foreign section of the British Secret Intelligence Service, to volunteer for a mission in the Baltic Sea, where CMBs were to be used to ferry British agents back and forth from Bolshevik Russia. The shallow draught and high speed of the CMB made it ideal for landing on enemy occupied shores and making a quick getaway. Agar and his two boats were technically under the command of the Foreign Office (specifically Captain Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming head of MI6). Agar set up a small base at Terijoki, just inside Finland and close to the Soviet frontier. From here he undertook a top secret and dangerous mission to retrieve Paul Dukes, a man