 In 1919 Horrocks was posted to Russia as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War . After landing at Vladivostok on 19 April , he was briefed at British headquarters . The White Army under Admiral Kolchak , with the help of released Czechoslovak Legion prisoners , had driven the Red Army out of Siberia . However , Kolchak 's Czech troops were returning home , and the British military contingent was urgently trying to replace them with Russians . To accomplish this , the British had just two infantry battalions and two small administrative missions , one charged with training and arming the Russians with British war @-@ surplus equipment , and the other with improving the White Army 's communications . 
