Nevertheless, there were still difficulties and towards midday the torpedoboat S50 became stuck fast in the Serro Channel. Generally speaking the increase in traffic in the narrow channel caused more accidents and now four vessels had grounded. Therefore the chief of the S-Flotilla, Fregattenkapitän von Rosenberg, ordered better marker indications to be laid out and appointed an officer to oversee management of the Söelo Sound.
Meanwhile, the advance progressed rapidly so that by 1700hrs von Rosenberg could report to the Special Unit that after a successful battle the bridgehead was secure and that the Russian forces had begun to retreat towards Heltermaa. The commander of the defences, Colonel Veselago, reported: ‘The military parts, under the influence of panic, retreated to the piers at Heltermaa and Kertel’. Colonel Veselago requested that barges be sent to Heltermaa and Lekhtme to evacuate the troops. There was astonishing confusion about the situation and Starchi Leitenant Elachich wrote:
The garrison state was characteristic; stupid people, and nobody would reveal their unit, platoon, or company, and did not want to know the where or why, nor listen to speeches. The officers and the Chief of the Island Defence himself seemed to fear the soldiers, and yes in truth, these people were able, during the night, to break into the stores and steal from the local inhabitants: flour, butter, and sugar by the cart full, and generally everything that was in the stores, which the Chief of the Island Defence had ordered demolished, was taken. Nobody knew what was happening abroad, and chaos ranged over everything.
During the evening, the Russian Colonel Veselago received a telephone message from Kontre Admiral Razvozov ordering him to demolish the 12-inch gun battery, No 39, at Tachkona. Thereon the battery was prepared with explosives. However, the moral effect of destroying the battery was taken into consideration and the Fleet Commander revised his orders, saying they should only be destroyed in the case of necessity.
At dawn on 18 October, the V Cyclist Battalion, 255R Regt, and 138 Regt (without its II Battalion) started across the stone dam to Moon Island, after the 3rd Company, 27th Pioneers, had prepared the dam for movement by wheeled vehicles. The Russians were not encountered and the column continued uninterrupted.
The V Cyclists pushed ahead and near Kuiwast they encountered a large Russian force. They surrendered without a fight. However, the main Russian forces departed in a northern and northeasterly direction. The 138th Infantry Regiment was given the task of taking the north of Moon Island. Soon a hussar patrol reported a Russian battery and troops near Tupenurm. A little later, some Russian officers and delegates from the Soldiers’ Committee appeared to parley with the 138 Regt. It soon became apparent that they were willing to surrender on any terms, however, the delegates of the Death Battalion demanded that they be allowed to retreat to the continent. The Germans were in no mood to negotiate and demanded: ‘Surrender! Otherwise we attack at 1300hrs’.
As no answer was received by the appointed time, the 138 Regt began an advance on a wide front. The attack of the regiment’s 3rd Company bypassed Tupenurm to the northwest and proceeded towards Kallast, where strong Russian forces were reported. As they approached the town they were taken under heavy enemy fire. The regiment now swung the main thrust of their attack to the Russians flank and it was only after the Russians had been outflanked that they were finally forced to lower their weapons.
Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Bakhirev had ordered the chief of the I Division Minesweeper-launches, Captain 2nd Rank Chetverukhin, to begin evacuating the garrison of Moon Island with his shallow-draught minesweepers. The minelayer Pripyat and torpedoboats of the XI Division Torpedoboat-Destroyers would give close support for the operation, supported in the rear by the torpedoboats General Kondratenko and Pogranitsnik .
As the torpedoboat-destroyers Izyaslav and Avtroil had been damaged during the morning, they had been detached to Helsingfors, leaving III Division Torpedoboat-Destroyers with just one boat, Gavriil. Therefore, Captain 1st Rank Shevelev was assigned command of the gunboats and at 12.35hrs he hoist his broad pennant on Chivinetz. The gunboats then moved to support the evacuation operation by taking up positions near the entrance to the Moon Sound channel.
During the afternoon, Captain 2nd Rank Chetverukhin approached the northern shore of Moon near Kallast and his launches began transferring troops from the pier to the larger minesweepers Gruz, Minrep, Udarnik and Kapsyul. During this evacuation the pier was kept free by the embattled Death Battalion, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Shishko, who held the encircling German 138 Regt back. About 20 officers and 400 men were successfully taken aboard the boats, but Captain Shishko refused to depart, claiming that his battalion would be the last to quit the island. He continued to fight and was wounded and taken captive. From those evacuated from Moon Island, Vice Admiral Bakhirev learned that General Martynov had surrendered and that only the Death Battalion had offered resistance.
Of the garrison of Moon Island the following were taken into captivity: two battalions from the 470th and 471st Infantry Regiments, the 1st Estonian Regiment and some men from the Death Battalion, in total some 6,000 men. A significant number of vehicles and guns were also captured. Von Tschischwitz wrote later:
A large number of guns, the coastal batteries, provisions, large quantities of ammunition and war appliances fell into our hands. Everywhere lay gun parts, vehicles, crates of ammunition and provisions and it formed such a picture of destruction that only those in the eastern theatre could experience.
If the operations ashore on Moon and Dago were progressing comfortably for the Germans, then the advance into the southern Moon Sound was progressing only with difficulty. The morning had brought a freshening wind from the south-southeast at strength 4 to 6 so that the motorboats of the III Minesweeper Division were unable to continue their minesweeping work. Therefore the 8th Minesweeper Half Flotilla began advancing into the southern Kleinen Sound, whilst Kontreadmiral Hopman’s cruisers and torpedoboats remained anchored.
By 0830hrs the minesweepers had worked forward to a point about one nautical mile south of Paternoster lighthouse, sounding and laying buoys as they went, when the lead boat sighted the buoys of the Russian net barrier to the north. As the leader boat, A62, manoeuvred to investigate the barrier, the other boats, owing to a misunderstanding of orders, turned to the south at low speed. Kapitänleutnant Doflein therefore dispatched the boat that had been laying the marker buoys, T66, to fetch them back. Soon afterwards a heavy detonation occurred as T66 ran onto the western wing of one of the U-boat mine barriers. T66 immediately sank by the stern with the loss of seventeen men, only the commander and six men being saved. Astoundingly the positions of the known mine barriers were marked on the charts of the leader boats, but not, however, on the charts of the other boats! Towards 0940hrs Kontreadmiral Hopman’s cruisers anchored to the south of the buoyed channel.
Gruppe Behncke had quit their anchorage southwest of the trapezoidal minefield at about 0800hrs and proceeded to steer for the eastern swept channel behind the 3rd Minesweeper Half Flotilla. However, because of the heavy swell the motorboats of the Minesweeper Division could not be utilized. The heavy ships retraced their course of the previous day, travelling south of the minefield and then northwards between Awanasewa and Larina Banks, following Kapitänleutnant von der Marwitz’s minesweepers which had their sweeper gear set and took continuous soundings. Shortly after 1000hrs Vizeadmiral Behncke decided to concentrate his push forward on the eastern flank and therefore ordered Kontreadmiral Hopman to dispatch Strassburg and the 8 MSHF to the III Battle Squadron, whilst Kolberg, the torpedoboats and barrier-breakers would remain to the west to cover the troops ashore.