Looking very shark-like, the Shchuka is wonderfully streamlined. This is Shch-402 of the Northern Fleet 2nd Division 1937. The background is my own artistic creation! It is supposed to depict somewhere in the far frozen North of Russia or off the Norwegian coast where this submarine operated during WW2.
This is a very rare venture for me into the world of nautical modelling but when I saw this recent release by Zvezda, I knew straightaway I wanted to make it! Besides, it makes for a refreshing change from the usual aircraft and tanks and a chance to try out a different style of weathering. Overall, I was very impressed with the fine detail and quality of this offering by Zvezda.
According to Zvezda:’ The Shch-402 was part of the most numerous class of medium sized Soviet X-type submarines during WW2 called ‘Schuka’ (‘Pike’ the name of the fish in Russian). With a length of 57m, it featured improved underwater streaming and increased surface speed. Built in Leningrad, after crossing the White-Sea Baltic canal in 1937, it joined the submarine division of the Northern Fleet. During WW2 it participated in 16 raids, commanded by the captains N.G. Stolbov and A.M. Kautsky. In 1942 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle, and in 1943 the rank of Guards. Shch 402 disappeared without trace in a military campaign, presumably sunk in a minefield off the coast of Norway at the end of September 1944′.
However, according to one Russian source I came across on the net, it is believed she was sunk by one of their own Soviet aircraft!
The build was quite straightforward with very little in the way of interior detail apart from some bulkheads. However, there were quite a lot of tiny parts on the exterior which required a lot of concentration and patience to affix. I noticed that the submarine depicted on the box top has certain details lacking in the model such as hand rails and a railing around the forward gun. I decided to add these details myself using ultra fine photo-etch wire and thin elastic thread. The kit comes with a long piece of ‘string’ to make the rigging but its well out of scale and not much use so into the spares box it goes!
The tiny parts under the deck of the conning towerAs this is a full hull model, it wouldn’t really be possible to set it in a seascape. Besides, I have her with the periscopes in the raised position which a sub on the surface would be unlikely to do! However, see below for my ‘artistic’ effects!
There are four attractive schemes for this sub and I have to be honest I was rather torn between all of them! The Black Sea boat with green hull looked very appealing but in the end I opted for the red hull instead.
The version below is for the 2nd Division Northern Fleet 1940 Top: Shch-209-3rd Division, Ist Submarine Brigade Black Sea Fleet, 1936. Below: Shch-209-3rd Division, 1st Submarine Brigade, Black Sea Fleet, 1940
In its naval aspects, Stalin’s Five-year plans during the 1920s and 1930s laid the foundations for a modern shipbuilding industry and also envisioned a new navy, to be created as rapidly as the expanding industrial base would permit:
‘By far the greatest attention was given to submarines. As late as 1933 League of Nations sources credited the Red Navy with no more than 16 submarines. This number may have been too small. It is certain that thereafter the undersea fleet increased in numbers very rapidly, to the point where the Red Navy with an estimated 175 submarines in 1940 was regarded as numerically the strongest in the world.
As to quality of construction, the Soviet Union could make no such impressive claims to progress. The first new submarines were coastal-defence craft of about 215 tons, with very limited cruising radius and offensive capability. Further, they failed to give good service within these limitations. The next group of boats, built from 1934 to 1940 and intended for somewhat wider activities, were of the Shch class-about 500 tons with six 21-inch torpedo tubes and 13 knots surface speed. There was also a larger (800 to 1000-ton) class which resembled British submarines of the same size, in addition to World War 1 vintage boats ranging from 350 to 650 tons and a few of miscellaneous types. The latter included a small number of 1,200 boats of the Pravda class, and some of the 650-ton Nelim class, laid down in 1937′.
From: ‘A History of Russian and Soviet sea power’ by Donald W. Mitchell 1974.
During the war, the Soviet subs sustained very heavy losses, especially to mines.
The naval campaign was very closely related to the one on land and the Soviets conducted a very active war of attrition both in the Baltic and Black seas (the Pacific region was relatively quiescent due to the treaty with Japan).
The first half of 1916 had led to the development of the Fokker Eindecker (‘monoplane’)and during the second half of 1916, it became the dominant factor in aerial warfare. This was the time of the ‘Fokker Scourge’ as the propagandists on both sides called it.
Although this is a tiny model (just 5 1/2 inches across), it represents one of the most famous and influential aircraft of all time, the Fokker Eindecker (‘monoplane’) of the First World War.
Only my second venture into First World War aircraft in about thirty years of modelling and if you know anything about rigging model aircraft, you’ll understand why! It is a very fiddly and time-consuming operation but I believe worth the effort. I used a stretchy clear nylon thread (which looks like metal) and fine wire attached with superglue to represent the bracing wires. The major attraction in my opinion of the Great War aircraft are all the wonderful and exotic colour schemes, especially on the German side, the most famous of course being the all-red scheme of Baron von Richthofen’s Fokker Tri-plane.
This is a new tooling by Airfix and I have to say they have done a very good job. Everything fit well and despite its fragility, the model is quite sturdy when everything is glued in place.
Flown by the famous ace Ernst Udet, Kampfeinsitzerkommando, Habsheim, France, March 1916. The pilot figure appears to be wearing a standard blue uniform. The choice of flying clothing was conditioned by time of year and the altitude at which the pilot expected to fly. In winter or at height the cold is intense, and privately purchased fur lined clothing was warmer. The period of the ‘Fokker Scourge’ lasted six months during the winter of 1915/1916 when an inferior pre-war, underpowered aircraft, the Fokker Monoplane, dominated the skies over the Western Front solely because it was armed with the most famous of German ‘secret weapons’-a machine gun (7.92mm LMG 08/15 ‘Spandau’) synchronised to fire between the blades of a revolving (wooden) propeller. However, the interrupter gear gave perpetual trouble and instances of pilots shooting away their own airscrews were very frequent. Remember also pilots didn’t wear parachutes in those times!
The original Fokker E1, 80hp monoplane underwent several changes. With clipped wings and a 100-hp Oberursel it was known as the EII; redesigned with 31′ 2 3/4″ wings this became the most famous Eindekker of all, the Fokker E.III.
The yellowish area just aft of the engine represents leaking oil! The usual Fokker method of attack was in a dive; it is uncertain whether the famous ‘Immelmann turn’ (see below), in which the pilot pulls up into the first half of a loop to gain height then stall turns to face his adversary again, was Immelmann’s own invention or that of the Bristol Scout pilot Gordon Bell.The ‘Immelmann Turn’
The introduction of this new weapon naturally led to counter tactics on the part of the Allies. These were the beginnings of the ‘dogfighting’ techniques and its protagonists, the ‘aces’. Meanwhile the less glamourous but basically more important tasks of spotting for the artillery and reconnaissance were developing rapidly, as were the embryonic bombing forces of the belligerent powers.
Until January 1916 air warfare was a very personal matter, not only in the dropping of messages over the lines but in some of the quirky and colourful incidents: Guynemer, the famous French ace, one Sunday morning after shooting down a German over Compiègne , where he lived, spotted his father coming out of church, landed beside the road and asked Papa to ‘please find my Boche’!
The lovely box artPainting guide on rearClassic account really gives you an idea of what it was like to fly and fight in the Great War
The ‘Hurrie’ ready for take off from Sidi Barani, Egypt, 1941.
The Hurricane was getting towards obsolescence by the start of WW2, but this tough, partly fabric covered aircraft played a crucial role in the early part of the war and went with the BEF to France in early 1940. We all remember the scene of them getting shot up at the start of the movie ‘Battle of Britain‘, shown elsewhere on my site.
Quite a bit of work went into the construction of this kit although most of it you can’t see as it’s inside the fuselage! Airfix have taken to adding a lot of interior details to their models of late, no bad thing in my opinion.
There were one or two oddities with this kit, one of which was having to cut out a sizeable piece of plastic under the nose.
I used my modelling saw to hack out the indicated pieceThe removed piece. Why didn’t they just mould it that way!?Some of the interior frames. There was an option to expose the breeches of the Browning machine guns, which is a nice touch, but having already done that on a previous Mk.I Hurricane, I elected to leave them covered. The paint scheme was going to be tricky enough!Masking off the wings before spraying the aluminium leading edgeAnd underneath…The Hurricane always looks like she means the business from head on. Overshadowed by the Supermarine Spitfire of course but still a lovely looking kite in my opinion and the vital work horse of the Battle of Britain. They were more numerous than the Spitfires, and being slower, were mainly tasked with attacking the Luftwaffe bombers.Despite its fiddly nature, this scheme was irresistible. Flown by Sergeant Pilot F.H.Dean, No. 274 Squadron.A fair bit of weathering-the trick is knowing when to stop!BoxI read this short memoir by Roald Dahl during lockdown, which partly inspired me to make this model. As I recall, he joined the RAF in Kenya and trained in a Tiger Moth, then progressed to a Gladiator in Iraq and finally flew combat missions in the Western Desert and Greece. He crashed in Libya and for a time lost his sight. After recovering, he was sent on the futile mission to Greece where he took part in dog fights. He was forced to give up the service from a black out he suffered during an aerial duel if I remember correctly, probably as a result of his crash in the desert. It’s a great story.In GreeceLater sent to Palestine
This is a 1:48 Hasegawa kit which I made many years ago. This small twin-engine ground attack aircraft has always been one of my favourites and deserves a place on any aircraft modeller’s bench. Besides, my Luftwaffe collection needs building up! I wanted to make it look more weather beaten and worn than it was when I originally made it. I am not 100% sure but I believe this is the B-2 version. The aircraft has the most unusual triangular shape, rather like a Toblerone bar! I believe the technical term is ‘trapezoidal’. This was to help deflect shells or bullets but it made for a very restricted space inside the aircraft and there was hardly room for the pilot’s instrument panel some of which was located outside the cockpit! Even the gunsight is mounted outside on the nose. The cockpit was encased in a heavily armoured ‘bathtub’ to protect from ground attack fire.
The aircraft was progressively upgraded to mount heavier ordnance including a cannon under the belly. Although it was not a very successful design with poor performance it was used to great effect as a tank buster on the eastern front.
North African front30mm MK 101 cannon I believeThis is what I want to own one day. The Zoukei-Mura Henschel Hs 129 B-2 in 1/32. The ultimate in injection moulded scale modelling. A snip at 22, 472 yen or £150 sterling. One can but dream!
Doing what it did best as a ‘Panzerknacker’ destroying Soviet tanks. 1 minute and 29 seconds of pure joy this video!
Another one of my ventures into classic British post-war jets, this time the famous Blackburn Buccaneer which entered RN service in 1962 ‘to counter the significant threat of a massive Soviet naval expansion programme’ (Airfix).
This was quite a challenging kit as most jet models are and needed a bit of forethought before actual construction. There is an option for folded wings as it is a carrier aircraft but I decided to keep mine down as I like the lines of this aircraft so much. As you can see, I have also deployed the airbrake at the back of the aircraft although initially I had left it closed which required a bit of delicate surgery to remove it!
The model has been primed with grey primer. The pilots came with the kit. A lot of modellers leave the pilots out which I think is a pity as it adds a bit of interest. Besides, I like to get my money’s worth! A little filler was needed round the nose cone and engine air intakes but nothing too drastic!The markings underneath had to be applied before the underwing stores and fuel tanks were added. Some careful masking was needed as well, as can be seen. The jet pipes can be seen in the undercarriage bays which I gave a burnished look to replicate heat. Have no idea if its realistic but it looks nice! The key to these modern complicated aircraft is patience!The funny looking airbrake assemblyThe fuel tanks and Matra rocket pods had to be assembled and painted separatelyAnd here she is in all her glory sitting on the deck of HMS Eagle. The other option was an Ark Royal aircraft. The slight sheen of the satin dark sea grey comes through but not too much as I wanted an aircraft that looked slightly weather beaten and faded, perhaps having seen a few Atlantic gales!I enhanced the panel lines slightly using a black wash and airbrushed Tamiya ‘smoke’, which is ideal for this type of weathering. It is very subtle and you can add or subtract with thinner as much as you like according to taste. There are a few stains towards the rear of the jet where the exhaust fumes would have exited. The Buccaneer was a very rugged design for obvious reasons and has a curious ‘coke bottle’ shape which apparently enhances the aerodynamics, but don’t ask me why!I left off quite a few of the tiny stencils underneath as I could barely see them and they were just too fiddly for this old dog to bother with! Unfortunately the code letters ‘silvered’ slightly, probably due to lack of gloss so good thing they are underneath and out of sight! One tiny detail was missing from sprue D, part D15, which I believe is an air intake device? I refashioned another one from scrap and am quite proud of the result. It is the elongated thing to the right of the starboard intake, which is the left one in the pic, oh heck, you know what I mean!I went to a lot of trouble to get the canopy to close and then later decided to leave it open dohhh. Incidentally, I had to hand paint the desert yellow lines on the canopy frame, not the most pleasurable of jobs but had to be done as masking would have been virtually impossible in this scale. Overall I am pleased with the look and I shall never say grey jets are boring ever again!The box cover depicting the Ark Royal version. Both are attractive schemes.
History
Just a note about the Buccaneer from James Hamilton-Paterson’s book ‘Empire of the Clouds’. Apparently, the Navy had been against the TSR.2 (the eventually aborted ‘Tactical Strike Reconnaissance’ aircraft ed. )because they had been promised a carrier-borne strike aircraft for their own use, the Blackburn Buccaneer, and they worried that the TSR.2 project would consume all available funds before the Buccaneer became airborne. The RAF wanted an aircraft which was to be supersonic, which the Buccaneer unfortunately was not, and after the Lightning anything else was considered a retrograde step. As he puts it, ‘Additional heat was supplied to this argument by the ancient inter-service rivalry in which the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm each pretended the other hardly existed, let alone was competent to fly an aeroplane’ (!).
In the end, Blackburn came up with a proposal for the P.150 supersonic version of the Buccaneer.
Airfix states:
‘British thinking at the time was to use their new strike jet to destroy the Soviet ships with a combination of conventional and nuclear weapons. Capable of extremely high speeds at low level, the Buccaneer proved to be ideal even though the performance of the first Buccaneers to enter service was affected by a lack of power from their two de Havilland Gyron junior engines. Addressing most of the issues which prevented the early aircraft from realizing their full potential, the Buccaneer S.2 was a much improved platform, boasting a modified wing, increased fuel capacity and a pair of powerful Rolls Royce Spey engines. This new variant provided the Fleet Air Arm with a truly exceptional strike aircraft, which excelled in the low-level environment. As the Royal Navy retired their larger carriers in 1978, their much-loved Buccaneers were transferred to the care of the Royal Air Force (along with their pilots I might add), who were already admirers of the many qualities possessed by the aircraft and grateful for this increase in their inventory. At its peak strength in the early 1970s, the Buccaneer equipped no fewer than six Royal Air Force squadrons.’
Specifications:
Max speed: 667 mph
Armament: various combinations of unguided bombs, laser-guided bombs and the Red Beard tactical nuclear bombs. 4 Matra rocket pods, 2 x AIM-9 sidewinder or 2 x AS-37 Martel missiles, or 4 x Sea Eagle missiles.
An interesting video showing how the Buccaneer used a feature called ‘boundary layer control’ to be able to fly at extremely low level. The Desert Storm version is one I hope to make one day!
I live in Exeter and this is about the most exciting thing to happen here since World War 2!! It certainly put the city on the map from all the publicity. Who knows, maybe they will find some more!? It was thought to be an SC 1,000 (Sprengbombe Cylindrisch 1000) or 1,000kg ‘Hermann bomb’ and was found on a waste site near the University campus. Exeter was badly damaged during the so-called Baedeker raids in April-May 1942. I live about a mile or so from the site and the boom was very loud but luckily no damage done to the house! When my parents first came to Exeter in the early 1950s, the whole of the city centre was practically in ruins. There used to be a common saying here that what the Luftwaffe started the City Council finished off when it redeveloped the city in the post-war period!
One of the most famous and easily recognizable aircraft of World War II, the Stuka needs no introduction. I made this model a few years back and decided it definitely needed a place on my site! It was a fairly straightforward build as I recall with not too many parts. I decided to liven it up a bit with a yellow-nose version and this 6./St.G 77 sports a RLM 04 yellow cowling and spinner cap.
By the time of the Battle of Britain in 1940, tactical coloured markings accompanied the revised sizes of Balkenkreuz to make aircraft recognition easier in the busy skies of the Channel and South coast of England.
The famous gull-winged Stuka was the main weapon which Göring turned against the RAF fighter bases. But the easy victories of the past campaigns had been won in the absence of adequate fighter opposition, and RAF pilots found the Stuka an easy prey (see clip at end from Battle of Britain movie). Severe losses in operations throughout August destroyed its reputation as the all-conquering weapon of the Luftwaffe, and the Ju-87 was withdrawn from the spearhead of the attack.
The ‘Trumpet of Jericho’ sirens are clearly visible on this particular aircraft, usually they were not installed or capped off to reduce drag by about 20mph. The aircraft is in the standard RLM 70/71 over 65.
Well Manfred, how about another bombing mission on Exeter!?Box art
She is quite a beast even in 1:72 scale! No. 92 Squadron, Royal Air Force Germany, RAF Gütersloh, 1974. Lightnings were used as all-weather interceptors to interdict Soviet bombers in case of nuclear attack. This was known as QRA ‘Quick Reaction Alert’ and they were on standby 24/7, 365 days a year, ready to scramble in seconds.
Despite this being a relatively new tooling by Airfix, it had a number of issues. I found it impossible to get the fuselage halves to join near the nose without major surgery inside to the jet intake, fortunately none of which can be seen when complete. It also needed liberal amounts of superglue. Even then I still had to sand the sides to get the canopy to fit better but still not 100%. The missiles were a nightmare to attach and I should have done that at the start and not at the end when the model was already painted! Still, as an experienced modeller, you get used to these problems and overall I am fairly pleased with the final result. This was only my second Lightning model. I built the Frog/Novo version many years ago which I painted all silver from a spray can! Needless to say, I have come a long way since those days!
The iconic Lightning has to rank as one of my all-time favourite jets and I should imagine every young boy who saw one flying dreamed of being a Lightning pilot. I remember seeing one at Exeter airport air display as a child. It was deafeningly noisy at low level and after streaking past the crowd just above the runway it went straight up like a rocket almost vertically and disappeared into the blue in seconds. Unforgettable!
Armament: 2 x Firestreak or Red Top AAM and 2 x 30mm cannonThe large belly for fuel. The Lightning was a gas guzzler with limited range unless it could be re-fueled mid-air. It is said pilots would have to check their fuel gauges about every 3 seconds!Capturing the sleek lines. The Lightning was built for speed and could achieve Mach 2+, the only UK-designed-and-built fighter ever to do so. It also had a phenomenal rate of climb and could reach a ceiling of 60,000ft! I used Vallejo Duralumin acrylic metallic paint for the bare metal finish. I lifted some after masking as it is so thin so needed a bit of touch up. A quirk of the Lightning was the fact that its nose wheel retracted forwards into the undercarriage bay instead of backwards. As the take-off was so fast, if a pilot didn’t retract it in time, the wheel would be impossible to raise due to the power of the air flow. Scary!A unique feature of the Lightning was the engines within the fuselage, one on top of the other. These were Rolls-Royce Avon turbojets, which could use afterburner or reheat especially on take off. From the front it’s hard to tell if it’s a Lightning or Soviet Mig-21! Note the cambered wing.
The Lightning was an incredibly complicated piece of engineering and it took about 1,000 hours of maintenance for each hour of flight. This fact together with its ‘short legs’ or restricted range, meant that it was not a great export success although some were bought by the Kuwaiti and Saudi air forces. It was later developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and equipped 9 squadrons which were the backbone of British air defence for a quarter of a century. The Lightning was eventually superseded by the Tornado, a far more boring plane in comparison in my opinion!
Box. This was a gift set and came with the basic colours in the usual pots, which were pretty much useless! I used Vallejo Green Olive instead for the main camouflage colour.
Flown by Flight Leader Charles H. Older, Third Squadron. A very colourful bird as you can see, which is what attracted me to this build.
This is my rendition of the Curtiss Hawk by Airfix. I have displayed a 1:48 Warhawk on my site elsewhere so wont go into too much detail here.
However, this is the information that came with the kit from Airfix:
The P-40B, in its various incarnations, served the United States Army Air Force throughout the Second World War, fighting in Europe, across Asia and in the deserts of North Africa. The first model to see active service, the P-40B proved to be an effective and tough low level fighter. While not as manoeuvrable as the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero, or as fast as the German Messerschmitt Bf109, the P-40B still proved to be a tough opponent. Pilots liked the fact it could often get them home after sustaining heavy damage, as well as being able to inflict it with its armament of six machine guns. The P-40B became synonymous with the shark mouth motif, due to both its use with 112 Squadron and the American Volunteer Group i China. Today the P-40B continues to fly in the UK as well as its homeland of the United States of America.
Speed: 350mph
Armament: 4x.30 cal Browning machine guns, 2 x .50 cal Browning machine guns: range 730 miles
For this scheme, I used Vallejo acrylics: Tan Earth, US Dark Green and Gull Grey. I highlighted a few of the panel lines and rivets to show all the fine detail of this superlative kit.Box art
Irresistible artwork. Looks a typical Ukrainian scene, which is what initially inspired me!
As soon as I saw that box art, I knew this was going to be one of those ‘must have’ kits! I am always drawn to the exotic or unusual, at least as far as model kits are concerned, and this project certainly filled the bill! There is a bit of a personal connection as well, however, as I will show below. It was quite a challenge but a definite labour of love at the same time. In a way, I suppose it is another tribute to my Father, Anton. By the way, MiniArt are a Ukrainian model manufacturer based in Kiev.
Austin armoured cars were exported to Russia and also manufactured there. They were used by various sides in all the civil and military conflicts in the aftermath of the First World War.
There are several interesting marking options for this model, including Georgian and Polish, but I was immediately drawn to the one on the box top with the name ‘Petlura’ in Ukrainian on the turret sides.
Army of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. Would have loved to have made this version just for the beautiful Georgian script alone! The only word I know in Georgian is ‘Gamarjoba‘-‘Hello’, which also means ‘Victory’! The language is unique and not related to any other. The Democratic Republic of Georgia was crushed by the Red Army in 1921.Very drawn to the Polish Republic version as well with the Polish coat of arms on the side of a white eagle. Maybe for another day, then I can have a duel with my Ukrainian one!The kit has full interior with engine and chassis detail. When I first looked at the instruction sheet, I thought I might have taken on more than I could chew! Unbelievably, there were even tiny photo-etch parts for the cylinder heads, which might have been spark-plugs. They kept getting stuck to my tweezers with the super glue and so in the end I had to leave those out, my eyes, patience and tweezers couldn’t take the strain!To undertake a model like this, you have to be either mad, dedicated or both! Lots of tiny delicate parts including photo-etch. The last of 74 stages in total-agggghhh!!Starting to take shape with the chassis finished and engine installed. That probably took 2 weeks alone! Note there is also a rear-facing driving station, not quite sure how that was supposed to work! Quite clever for its time, I think. There are gear/brake levers and even foot pedals. I used steel wire for some of the longer pieces as the plastic snapped very easily-MiniArt please take note!Floor on and the positions for the turret bins. To the left is the photo-etch fret. I was starting to feel a sense of achievement by this stage, but it was still like only being half way up Everest!Commencing on the upper hull…Example of the photo-etch. It’s a bit wonky but never mind it’s those Ukrainian blacksmiths again! Wait till you see my ‘secret weapon’ below!More photo-etch! The white little blobs on the side of the hull were extra rivets I made from modelling putty. The instructions suggest you carve off tiny pieces of plastic from the sprue and stick them on instead! Absolutely impossible!!! Mine are a bit uneven but hey, extra realism I say!The engine frames were very delicate and later caused a certain amount of difficulty!Interior rear facing with clear window ports. I think by now you are getting the picture this is a complicated model!My ‘secret weapon’! A handy device I saw someone make on Youtube. It’s just a door hinge screwed to a piece of wood for bending photo-etch parts! It actually works but a pity I only came across this about half way through construction!The moment of truth! I managed to get the hull onto the chassis without too much trouble. I knew that was going to be the most difficult step but we got there. Note the photo-etch on the back wheel arches. Attaching those arches to the hull was extremely tricky with only the tiniest of guide points. Unfortunately, I inevitably broke the tiny photo-etch clasps on the bonnet and had to make substitutes from scrap plastic card.One of the Maxim guns, at least I presume it’s a Maxim. Unfortunately, the instructions came with no reference material about the vehicle itself.The photo-etch side supportsIncredibly starting to look like a vehicle!Finally, the finished article. Phew!Left the front panel off to display the engine
Polish-Ukrainian War 1919. Diorama.
The personal connection I alluded to earlier is the fact that my Grandfather’s brother, Anton, had served in the Sitch Rifles and was killed fighting the Poles during the war in Eastern Galicia in 1919. My Father refers to him in his story, God Save Me From My Friends:
‘Father had two brother called Michael and Anton. Anton had volunteered for the Ukrainski Sitchovi Striltsi (Ukrainian Sitch Riflemen), the Ukrainian corps that fought on the Austrian side in World War I and later tried to join up with Petlura in the East in the fight against the Bolsheviks. In my childhood at home, we kept photos of some of these men still in their Austro-Hungarian Army uniforms.
My grandmother told me that Anton had died in 1919 during the Polish-Ukrainian war in eastern Galicia. The Ukrainians could not withstand the stronger Poles, whose Army under General Józef Haller had received equipment and support from France. The Ukrainian Galician Army had to retreat to the East, and the Poles killed Anton in a skirmish in the village of Saranchuk, about three villages from Kryve. He had been shot in the head just above the eyebrow.
Anton became a hero to the Ukrainians. My grandparents fetched his body from Saranchuk and buried him in a large mogila (grave) in the centre of our village cemetery. Usually the dead were interred in family plots, marked with just small white, wooden crosses.
Every year during our holidays, such as the spring holiday or the third day of Easter, a special service was held in honour of Anton. The priest would always lead the procession to sing and pray at the grave of Anton first, as he had lost his life for Ukraine.
In the church, there was a plaque commemorating all those from Kryve who had died in that war for Ukrainian independence. They probably christened me after Uncle Anton, and my relatives in Kryve today still go to visit his grave.
Grandmother told me that in the war with the Poles the Ukrainians were not very disciplined, the officers sometimes went off to brothels and left their men without orders. The soldiers were mostly peasants, who were more concerned with tilling the land and putting in the crops than fighting. They would try to sneak home from the front to visit their families and to do their washing (as they were so lice-infested) or carry on farming.
Of course, the people then were not so nationally conscious and still called themselves ‘Rusyni’ (‘Ruthenians’) and not Ukrainians. I heard that the village priests had mobilized the young men. The Greek Catholic clergy was the most educated class of the population in that backward period, acting as the political leadership to the Ukrainian peasantry. In Kryve, our priest had organised the Sitch Riflemen and taken them to Berezhany.
Symon Petlura did a deal with the Polish leader Józef Piłsudski, ‘trading’ Galicia in exchange for support to liberate the rest of Ukraine from the Bolsheviks. Piłsudski’s Polish-Ukrainian Army did advance as far as the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, though the Red Army soon drove it out. After the Polish-Soviet war, eastern Galicia became part of Poland and was officially renamed Małopolska Wschodnia (Eastern Little Poland), although we regarded it as west Ukraine. Although at first we enjoyed some autonomy under Poland, the Ukrainians called Petlura a traitor in my youth for abandoning us to the Poles after 1919.’
In Ukrainian:
‘У батька було два брати, яких звали Михайло та Антон.
Антон пішов добровольцем в Українські Січові Стрільці – український корпус, який воював на австрійському боці в Першій Cвітовій Bійні,а пізніше намагався приєднатися до Петлюри на Сході в боротьбі проти більшовиків.
У моєму дитинстві вдома ми зберігали фотографії деяких з цих чоловіків, які все ще були у формі австро-угорської армії.
Бабуся розповідала, що Антон загинув у 1919 році під час польсько-української війни на сході Галичини.Українці не могли протистояти сильнішим полякам, чия армія за генерала Галлера отримувала техніку та підтримку з Франції.
Українській Галицькій армії довелося відступити на Схід, і поляки вбили Антона в сутичці в селі Саранчук, яке знаходиться приблизно в трьох селах від Кривого. Антон загинув від пострілу в голову безпосередньо над бровою.
Антон став героєм для українців.
Бабуся і дідусь забрали його тіло у Саранчука і поховали у великій могилі в центрі нашого сільського кладовища.
Зазвичай поховання померлих відбувалося на сімейніх ділянках, позначені маленькими білими дерев’яними хрестиками. Щороку під час наших свят, таких як свято весни чи третій день Великодня, на честь Антона проводилася спеціальна служба.
Священик завжди керував процесією, відспівував і і молився спочатку на могилі Антона, оскільки він втратив життя за Україну.У церкві була встановлена табличка пам’яті всіх кривчан, які загинули у війні за незалежність України.Можливо, вони охрестили мене на ім’я дядька Антона, і мої родичі в Кривому сьогодні ще їдуть відвідати його могилу.
Бабуся сказала мені, що у війні з поляками українці були не дуже дисципліновані, офіцери іноді ходили в публічні будинки і залишали своїх солдатів без нагляду.Солдати в основному були селянами, котрі більше турбувались обробкою землі та посівом врожаю, ніж боротьбою.
Вони намагалися втекти додому з фронту, щоб відвідати сім’ї та помитись, оскільки вони були так заражені вошами, або продовжувати землеробство.
Звичайно, люди тоді не були такими національно свідомими і все ще називали себе “русинами”, а не українцями.
Я чув, що сільські священики мобілізували юнаків. Греко-католицьке духовенство було найосвіченішим класом у той відсталий період, виступаючи політичним керівництвом українського селянства.
У Кривому наш священик організував стрілецький загін і відвіз їх до Бережан.Саймон Петлюра уклав угоду з польським лідером Йозефом Пілсудським, «торгуючи» Галичиною в обмін на підтримку звільнення решти України від більшовиків. Польсько-українська армія Пілсудського просунулась аж до української столиці Києва, хоча Червона Армія незабаром її вигнала.
Після польсько-радянської війни Східна Галичина стала частиною Польщі та офіційно перейменована на Східну Малу Польщу, хоча ми розглядали її як Західну Україну.
Хоча спочатку ми все ще користувалися деякою автономією під Польщею, українці називали Петлюрoю зрадником у моїй молодості за те, що нас покинули поляками після 1919 року.’
My Father’s home village of Kryve! The sign reads: Kryve village, Berezhany district, Ternopil region, Western Ukraine in 1919 during the Polish-Ukrainian war.The little boy waiting for his milk is wearing a Soviet-style tall peaked ‘Tatarska’ cap with a red star badge. Perhaps he is an early Bolshevik, the traitor!All figures and accessories by MiniArt apart from the apple tree and cottage or ‘khata‘, which I made myself. Ataman Symon Petliura 1879-1926. He headed the ‘Directory’ or Ukrainian government from February 1919. Over the next few years he battled the Bolsheviks, the Poles, Denikin’s Whites and Makhno’s anarchist groups in the hope of achieving Ukrainian independence. Kiev changed hands 16 times in the course of the war!! In the final stages of the Russo-Polish war, he allied himself with the Poles whose price for supporting hm was Ukrainian recognition of Polish rule in Eastern Galicia, which had long been a bastion of Ukrainian nationalism.
Józef Piłsudski. Chief of State 1918-22 and Marshal of Poland from 1920. Son of an impoverished Polish-Lithuanian nobleman from Vilnius (Polish Wilno). He wanted to restore the ‘Greater Poland’ of the 18th century by including Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic States in a Polish federation to act as a buffer against the Bolshevik menace which he saw as the greater threat than Germany. But instead of an alliance, Poland found itself in bitter border conflicts with her neighbours between 1918-21, fighting Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians to the east, Lithuanians to the north, Germans to the west and Czechs to the south.Polish forces entering Kiev. They occupied the Ukrainian capital by 6th May 1920 but were driven out after five weeks by the Red Army. Note how well-equipped they appear and the French-style helmets.Following the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, its subject peoples all tried to gain their independence. A Ukrainian government or Rada was set up in November 1918 and formed the ZUNR (Zahikdno Ukrainska Narodnia Respublika-Western Ukrainian People’s Republic). The ZUNR’s army was known as the Ukrainska Halytska Armiia (UHA), and it immediately began fighting the Poles in the region who wanted Galicia for themselves. The core of the UHA was provided by the legionaries of the Ukrainian Sitch Rifles. The figure on he right is an NCO of the Sitch Rifles 1917. The early UHA wore a mixture of Austro-Hungarian uniforms and civilian dress with Austro-Hungarian equipment. The cap is called a Mazypynka. My Father, Anton, at the end of his life, under a blossoming tree, which symbolizes regeneration, hope and life. The little figure under the apple tree in the diorama reminded me of him.
