“A Christmas Truce – British and Germans Fraternise, December 1914 Soldiers of the rival armies exchanged sweets, cigars and cigarettes, and sang carols and sung in unison”
An ink drawing from the front page of ‘The Sphere‘ illustrated newspaper dated the 9th of January 1915. (Colourised by Royston Leonard from the UK)
Over the years I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. My personal preference was for Lux, but I found Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor – heady, but with just a touch of mellow smoothness. Life Buoy, on the other hand…
That’s it, no more posts today. Keep your mouth clean tomorrow, and be safe!
Here at LSOZI, we will take off every Wednesday to look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2014, Remembering that Cold Winter in the Valley
U.S. Navy – Official U.S. Navy photo USN 1043094 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command
Here we see the “long-hulled” Essex-class anti-submarine aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge (CVS-45) as she appeared in 1959 as the centerpiece and flagship of U.S. Navy Task Group ALFA with Secretary of the Navy William B. Franke embarked. Ships include Valley Forge in the center, two submarines, and seven destroyers. Identifiable among the latter are USS Eaton (DDE-510) at left front, USS Beale (DDE-471) following Eaton, USS Waller (DDE-466) in the center foreground, and USS Conway (DDE-507) at right front. Aircraft overhead includes two four-plane formations of S2F “Trackers” and three HSS-1 “Seabat” helicopters from the Valley Forge air group, plus one shore-based P2V “Neptune.”
Valley Forge was one of 24 Essex-class fleet carriers started during World War II that were actually completed. Another eight sister-ships never were. We have covered the Essex class before, with the Mighty Oriskany last year, but hey, these were some great ships, and the “Happy Valley” is fitting for its namesake and today’s date.
As you remember from the history books and 3rd grade, Valley Forge (now a National Historical Park) is the site of the third winter encampment of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, taking place from December 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778.
Valley Forge by military artist N.C. Wyeth
While no battles were fought there, it was the turning point of the war as the unorganized and defeated Army that Washington led to camp that winter emerged as a hardened force, ready to do combat after being buoyed by news of an alliance with the French and turned into a mature outfit through the strict winter drills of German mercenary Baron von Steuben.
While the Essex-class carried the war from Guadalcanal to Tokyo and in large part helped win it, Valley Forge would come too late. Laid down fittingly at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, near the location of her namesake, on 14 September 1943.
Also, in an ode to old-school patriotism, the Navy did not have to cough up a dime for her as War Bonds collected from the Eastern Pennsylvania area paid for the carrier. Further, Valley Forge received, according to reports, “the finest State Silver Service ever presented to the Navy.” The service was designed and made by Philadelphia silversmiths in 1904 and was originally placed aboard the old armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania by the Commonwealth. Carried by the battleship of the same name until it was transferred ashore for safekeeping in WWII (after all, the Pennsylvania BB-38 was almost lost at Pearl Harbor), it was entrusted to Valley Forge.
Work slowed on her after her July 1945 launch, and she wasn’t completed until 3 November 1946– some 14 months and one day after the end of World War II. Unlike other Essex boats, she would not be extensively modified in the 1950s to accommodate modern jet fighters, which rather made her a time capsule of WWII carrier technology.
View of the carrier’s island, with members of the American Ordnance Association visiting on board, while the ship was operating near Long Beach, California, 27 April 1949. An F8F-2 “Bearcat” fighter is parked alongside the island. Note large SX radar antenna atop the tripod mast, and many onlookers standing on the island walkways. Photo #: 80-G-K-9904 (Color)
Nevertheless, Happy Valley didn’t let that get in her way. Afloat in Hong Kong when word the balloon went up at the 38th Parallel came down, she rushed to Korean waters.
On 3 July 1950, planes from her carrier air group conducted the first naval air strike of the war. Her 96-plane Air Group 5 was a hybrid of old and new aircraft that included the Grumman F9F-2 Panther jet fighter, Douglas Skyraiders, and the classic F4U Corsair, which was enjoying its swan song over Korea.
F4U approaching USS Valley Forge CV-45 Painted by Stan Stokes
Valley Forge Fly-By by Ivan Berryman
The first Soviet-made Yak-9 ever downed by U.S. planes was splashed that day by Lt (JG) Leo Plog as he flew is F9F-3 Panther of Fighter Squadron (VF) 51 from Valley Forge that day. In another first, Lt (JG) W. Boyd Muncie on 19 July 1950, became the first Naval Aviator to be shot down by North Korean anti-aircraft fire. He spent two and a half hours in the water before being returned to the carrier by helicopter, another first.
Valley Forge departs San Diego on 6 Dec 1950, headed back to Korea. Note that most of her WWII AAA guns have been stripped by this point.
During Korea, the brand-new ship earned no less than 8 battle-stars as her aircraft held the line at Pusan, generating more than 5,000 sorties in just five months in 1950, then returning in 1951 to generate another 2500, then returning time and time again to drop it like it was hot through 1953. She went on to be the scourge of the North Korean railway system, with her pilots severing the lines in over 5,346 places.
USS Valley Forge (CV-45) Crewmen use flight deck tractors with power brooms to sweep snow from the carrier’s flight deck, during operations off Korea, circa early 1951. The plane parked in the foreground is an F4U-4 “Corsair” fighter. Those on the forward flight deck are an AD “Skyraider” attack plane and an HO3S helicopter. Photo #: 80-G-428267. Note the 5-inch mounts to the right of the image.
She covered the landings at Inchon, and the UN counter-offensive all the way to the Yalu and back, making daily visits when needed along Hungnam, Chungjin, Kojo, and the Chosin Reservoir. She was so busy, in fact, that just seven years after her commissioning, Commander C.V. Johnson made the carrier’s 50,000th landing when he touched his Skyraider down on her deck in May 1953.
USS Valley Forge (CVA-45) Approaches the Pedro Miguel Lock while transiting the Panama Canal, circa 18 August 1953. Her deck load includes several TBM, F4U, and F2H aircraft and many automobiles Photo #: NH 96943
There she was converted in January 1954 into an anti-submarine warfare carrier (CVS-45) and tasked with carrying sub-buster planes as her Corsairs were being put out to pasture. This led to the Task Force picture at the beginning of this post.
Interestingly, during her operations as an ASW carrier in 1959, she had a large part of her flight deck destroyed by fierce waves in the Atlantic. This led her to have the affected area cut away and the forward port portion of the flight deck of the old USS Franklin (CVS-13) fitted in her place.
USS Valley Forge (CVS-45) underway in January 1959. Visible is the damage to the ship’s port forward flight deck, caused by heavy seas in the Atlantic. The damaged part was replaced with the identical part of the flight deck from the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV-13)
USS Valley Forge (CVS-45) Arrives at Halifax, Nova Scotia, with crewmen in formation spelling out “HELLO HALIFAX” on her flight deck, 10 July 1959. Valley Forge, flying the flag of Rear Admiral John S. Thach (creator of the Thatch Weave) and commanded by Captain William M. McCormick, was accompanied by the rest of Task Force ALFA, including seven destroyers and two submarines. Altogether, about 4000 U.S. Navy sailors were in Halifax for the six-day visit. At this point she has the deck of the Franklin installed. Photo #: NH 96939 She still carries no less than eight 5-inch guns.
At about the same time, Valley Forge participated in the Balloon Wars, launching at least one GENETRIX spy balloon that carried a gondola of two 600-pound reconnaissance cameras. These were largely released from NATO ally land sites in Norway and Turkey, but a few of the 516 giant balloons came from the decks of naval ships such as the VF.
Ten-million cubic foot 400-foot high “Winzen” research balloon on the carrier’s flight deck just before launching, during Operation “Skyhook,” Refly “B,” 30 January 1960. The balloon carried scientific devices to measure and record primary cosmic rays at 18-to-22 22-mile altitude. Photo #: NH 96948
Her life as a sub-buster was short-lived, however, and soon things started turning real green for Valley Forge. She was reclassified as LPH-8 on 1 July 1961 and made an amphibious landing helicopter carrier. In this capacity, she could carry up to a battalion of Marines as well as a force of some 30 choppers and put them all ashore using a concept known as vertical envelopment, which meant for the first time Uncle’s Devil Dogs could get where they needed to go without getting their feet wet.
Underway in the Pacific Ocean, circa 1962-63, before her “FRAM II” overhaul. She has fifteen UH-34 helicopters spotted in mass take-off positions on her flight deck. Photo #: NH 96946. Even with a jump like this, the collection of early choppers as seen here could just lift a company-sized force about 75 miles away.
1962 saw her landing Marines in Laos, and she stuck around for the next great conflict in the area, being involved in Vietnam continuously from 1965-69, winning another nine battle-stars that included Tet 68 and Tet 69.
The Happy Valley. Image from the USS Valley Forge Foundation
She shuttled Marines back and forth from Okinawa to Vietnam, participated in Operations Blue Marlin, Dagger Thrust, Fortress Ridge, Harvest Moon, Badger Tooth, Badger Catch, Swift Saber, Defiant Measure, and Double Eagle as a floating base of operations from which her choppers ran men and material all along the coast as something of a fire brigade– rushing from one hot zone to another, putting out fires. She also served as a “Hero Haven” evacuation point, which allowed choppers from bases ashore that were too hot to bug out to her safer decks.
As part of the drawdown from Vietnam, she left Southeast Asia, with her choppers and Marines disembarked, and arrived back in California in September 1969. With the new Iwo Jima-class purpose-built LPHs coming online that could do the same job she did for the Marines, and her flight deck frozen in 1946, keeping her from operating fast-moving jets, there really wasn’t a need for the old Valley Forge anymore.
31 August 1965. A U.S. Marine Corps McDonnell F-4B-11-MC Phantom II (BuNo 149453) of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron Three One Four (VMFA-314) “Black Knights” is loaded aboard the Essex-class amphibious assault ship USS Valley Forge (LPH-8, ex CV-45) at Naval Air Station North Island, California. This was for one of two round-trip voyages Valley Forge made to Okinawa, carrying Marines and aircraft before commencing a WestPac deployment in the South China Sea in the fall of 1965. U.S. Navy photo from Valley Forge’s 1965-’66 cruise book
She was never operational again, and on 15 January 1970, she was decommissioned and struck from the Navy List. Plans to keep her around as a museum on the West Coast fell through, but she did have a final shot at living on forever.
While on red lead row in Long Beach, she was leased to a Universal for two weeks in 1971 and her interiors were used for the wide shots of a sci-fi movie, Silent Running, starring a young Bruce Dern and a group of tiny robot drones (manned by little person actors) living out their lives on a lonely starship by the name of the (wait for it) Valley Forge.
The producers of that classic film later went on to challenge the Star Wars franchise copied several items from the earlier movie.
Regardless of who copied whom, the Maritime Administration sold the USS Valley Forge on 29 October 1971 to the Nicolai Joffre Corporation of Beverly Hills, California, for her value in scrap. She was only 25 years old but was born in one World War and fought through two terrible conflicts in her short but hard life. Rather like the Continental Army in the winter of 1777-78.
Her memory is kept alive by a very active reunion club, while a number of her sisterships to include the USS Lexington, Intrepid, Yorktown, and Hornet, are preserved as museum ships.
And that beautiful 1904 silver service? When Valley Forge was decommissioned, the Navy handed it back to the Keystone State for safekeeping once more, and they still have it, on display at the State Museum of Pennsylvania. The Museum is about 80 miles from Valley Forge, PA, but if you go there, bundle up.
It gets cold there this time of year.
Specs:
Displacement: As-built:
27,100 tons standard
Length: As-built:
888 feet (271 m) overall
Beam: As-built:
93 feet (28 m) waterline
Draft: As-built:
28 feet 7 inches (8.71 m) light
Propulsion: As designed:
8 × boilers
4 × Westinghouse geared steam turbines
4 × shafts
150,000 shp (110 MW)
Speed: 33 knots (61 km/h)
Complement: 3448 officers and enlisted
Armament: As-built:
4 × twin 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns
4 × single 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns
8 × quadruple Bofors 40 mm guns
46 × single Oerlikon 20 mm cannons
Armor: As-built:
4 inch (100 mm) belt
2.5 inch (60 mm) hangar deck
1.5-inch (40 mm) protective decks
1.5 inch (40 mm) conning tower
Aircraft carried: As-built:
90–100 aircraft
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International
They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find http://www.warship.org/
The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.
Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.
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(Note- This article pulled from an article of mine over at Guns.com)
Things got a little more out of hand than what this historic painting of the event depicts. In fact, there was a good bit of both swordplay and gunfire from the rowdy cadets.
You wouldn’t know it by visiting the campus today, but in 1826, the United States Military Academy at West Point was the scene of an all-out holiday riot — over eggnog.
The U.S. Army of the time was much different from the force we know currently. Besides numbering just 6,000 regulars spread across coastal defense and frontier forts in the 24 states of the Union, a staple of the day was a regular alcohol ration for soldier and officer. This even extended to the Military Academy at West Point, that was, until 1817 when Colonel Sylvanus Thayer took over the facility.
Thayer banned the possession of booze but made an allowance for the regular Christmas eggnog, which, in a tradition that heralded back to the Revolutionary War, was liberally spiked with whiskey. However as the holiday approached in 1826, Thayer likewise ordered that the coming bash would feature unadulterated ‘nog sans the alcohol.
This didn’t sit too well with a number of the 260 cadets, many of whom would soon leave the following spring for hard service on the frontier and were eagerly awaiting the upcoming festivities. Several left campus and traveled to nearby taverns to obtain a few gallons of whiskey and at least one of rum, which they snuck back to the Academy with the help of an enlisted guard.
By Christmas Eve night, cadets were found wandering the grounds, singing, making merry, and sleeping in odd places. This degenerated into an ever-growing campaign that eventually involved as many as 90 cadets by morning to include Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and possibly Robert E. Lee, who went on respectively to become the only President of the Confederate States and future commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
When regular Army officers assigned as instructors to the school attempted to restore order, they were met with resistance, broken windows, and even a few assaults on the more disliked of the school staff — one of whom was hit with a log. At least one fake reveille was sounded and cadets attempted to sign out a number of other musical instruments. A good bit swordplay also ensued, which, luckily, caused no fatalities.
When the smoke cleared, a large part of the barracks used by the cadets was in ruins and 19 students as well as the enlisted man who allowed the whiskey past his guard post in the first place were brought up on charges. In the end, 11 cadets were dismissed from the service for their part in the riot and the soldier was given one month at hard labor.
The cadets involved were mainly from the South and included at least two future Confederate Army generals: Brig. Gen Benjamin G. Humphreys from Mississippi (expelled, readmitted, graduated class of ’28 and later led “Humphreys’ Brigade” from Antietam to Appomattox) as well as Brig. Gen Hugh W. Mercer from Virginia (expelled over the riot, readmitted, graduated 3 of 33 in the class of ’28, and led “Mercer’s Brigade” at Kennesaw Mountain and the Battle of Atlanta).
President John Quincy Adams later commuted many of the sentences passed by the courts marshal on Thayer’s recommendation. Those implicated but not punished included future U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Archibald Campbell (who later went on to be Jeff Davis’s Asst Sect’y of War) and overall, the academy has distanced itself from the event over the past two centuries.
“Years have passed since the cadets overindulged on eggnog, but the moral of their story is still applicable,” wrote Carol S. Funck of the U. S. Army’s Heritage and Education Center’s page on the Eggnog Riot. “Too much of the ‘good stuff’ can lead to serious consequences. So remember this story as the holiday parties approach; let’s not let one night of fun alter our future as nineteen West Point cadets had.”
Col. Thayer’s statue.
As for Thayer, he left the Academy in 1833 over a disagreement with President Andrew Jackson. Nevertheless, he returned for good after his death and is interned on campus where a statue has long been placed to remember the strict Colonel.
There is no word on if cadets from time to time leave eggnog for him.
Happy holidays.
http://www.guns.com/2014/12/23/188-years-ago-this-week-west-point-torn-apart-by-the-eggnog-riot/
Basic skills training with your Springer is more than just working on paper targets. To help train shoot/ no-shoot, magazine exchanges, target transition and other tasks to shooters, I like to run a series of drills with a series of five freestanding steel plates.
Paper targets have the place but I have a special part of my soul that loves the sound that lead makes on steel when flying in excess of 800fps. That auditory ‘ting’ of a good, solid hit on metal can be heard even through the best of earpro, giving instant feedback to both the shooter and those observing. The plates we use at the range are homemade with I-stand bases that extend up to a single post with an 8.5×11-inch flat, set to a slight forward angle to help break up rounds and negate ricochet chances. These plates are painted white with a rattle can every few range days to help observe hits and wobble just a bit when hit but do not fall down.
I like to stagger the plates as seen above in groups of two singles and three musketeers, but this can be changed up into any grouping you prefer.
If you are good with metal, you can make your own on the cheap with some angle iron, metal sheeting, and some rods. If you aren’t, you can always modify this to use cardboard stapled to 2x2s set in some quickcrete inside a pickle bucket. You don’t get the ‘ting’ but you still can set up a string of easy targets on the quick and cheap.
For safety, stay at least 7 yards (21 feet) outboard of the target and of course wear your eye and earpro as well as any ballistic vest if you have one (especially if you typically wear one anyway such as in LE or security) to help ensure protection against ricochets.
For the drills to go with the plates, checkout my column at X D Forum.
First flown in 1937, the Grumman F4F Wildcat was arguably one of the best carrier-borne fighter aircraft of its day, only marginally outclassed by the faster and more nimble Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero. However the Wildcat was tough, able to take punishment that the Japanese planes just couldn’t.
As Japanese ace Saburo Sakai described the Wildcat’s capacity to absorb damage:
“I had full confidence in my ability to destroy the Grumman and decided to finish off the enemy fighter with only my 7.7 mm machine guns. I turned the 20 mm cannon switch to the “off” position, and closed in. For some strange reason, even after I had poured about five or six hundred rounds of ammunition directly into the Grumman, the airplane did not fall, but kept on flying. I thought this very odd—it had never happened before—and closed the distance between the two airplanes until I could almost reach out and touch the Grumman. To my surprise, the Grumman’s rudder and tail were torn to shreds, looking like an old torn piece of rag. With his plane in such condition, no wonder the pilot was unable to continue fighting! A Zero which had taken that many bullets would have been a ball of fire by now.”
Grumman F4F WildCats in Formation, circa mid-1943
In all the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm (who flew hundreds of Wildcats as the Martlet), the U.S. Navy and the Marines took possession of 7,860 of these planes, which formed the backbone of those forces in the first half of World War II. However they were very soon replaced by later F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs.
By 1945 they were withdrawn, having a service life of just eight years.
Nevertheless, had they not been at the Coral Sea, Midway, and other pivotal battles, the war may have had a much different ending.
With the commissioning of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise, the world’s largest and fastest super-carrier, able to remain at sea as long as she had food for her crew and jet fuel for her birds, the U.S. Navy needed a group of fast escorts able to keep up with this ship and the follow-on 1970s era Nimitz class of CVNs.
In 1961, to match the Enterprise, the Navy had exactly one nuclear-powered cruiser, the huge 721-foot long, 15,500-ton USS Long Beach (CGN-9) and one nuclear-powered destroyer, the 9100-ton USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25). These three ships formed the all-nuclear-powered Task Force 1 and in 1964 circumnavigated the globe without refueling– going around the world in sixty-five days as part of Operation Sea Orbit.
Operation Sea Orbit: On 31 July 1964, USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) (bottom), USS Long Beach (CGN-9) (center) and USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) (top) formed “Task Force One,” the first nuclear-powered task force, and sailed 26,540 nmi (49,190 km) around the world in 65 days. Accomplished without a single refueling or replenishment, “Operation Sea Orbit” demonstrated the capability of nuclear-powered surface ships.
Well in the meantime one more nuclear destroyer, the 8500-ton (the smallest U.S. Naval nuclear powered surface combatant ever built) USS Truxtun (DLGN-35) commissioned in 1967 and two follow-on nuclear cruisers USS California (CGN-36) and USS South Carolina (CGN-37) were birthed out in the 70s.
This led to one final class of cruisers, the magnificent 11,600-ton Virginias (Virgina, Texas and Missississpi) who were completed by 1980. This, along with the re-designation of Bainbridge and Truxton to cruisers, gave the Navy a grand total of 9 nuclear-powered guided missile cruisers, or one per each nuclear powered carrier in the Navy by December 1995 when their 9th atomic flattop, USS John C Stennis (CVN-74), was commissioned.
The entire Virginia and California classes CGN
The entire Virginia and California classes CGN, part duex. So cool I had to give it to you from two angles.
However, as soon as this parity was achieved, it was gone. Truxton, in fact, had struck on Sept 11, 1995, even before Stennis commissioned, while Long Beach had likewise done so on May Day of that year. Bainbridge lasted a minute longer, being struck and decommissioned on 13 September 1996. The four Virginias, newest of the fleet, were all decommissioned by 1998– tragically less than twenty years old at the time and among the most effective anti-air ships in the world. California and South Carolina went hand in hand down the tunnel in 1999 as sister-ships should, the end of an era.
All were disposed of through recycling although some parts, such as the main mast from the Mississippi, are preserved. I visited the “Big Miss” on her last port call, in Pascagoula, just before she was deactivated in 1996 and her crew were somber. After all, its not often that you scrap an 18-year old battlecruiser.
So I saw this instantly classic image from among hundreds circulating from the ‘I Will Not Comply‘ rally of gun-rights supporters in Olympia, Washington after the narrow passage of ballot initiative I-594 which expands background checks to include most firearms transfers.
While I have to admit I dig the swagger of the two gentlemen here, something else besides the PacNorthWest attitude caught my eye.
Look at the bolts of their rifles.
They are both SKS’s.
Heavily modified SKS’s including one with a bullpup stock (and EoTech!), but Simonovs none the less.
For reference…
Today’s modern man from time to time can benefit from having a little protection of the centerfire variety nearby. After all, some days can be more trying than others can and it’s in those moments that a concealed firearm can prove the difference between simply a bad day and a horrible one. I generally try to wear suits as little as possible but still wind up having to don them from time to time for business meetings, church services, weddings and funerals. This leaves me with often having to change my carry option to better adhere to the cut of my slacks and jacket.
With that in mind, we look at some of the best carry handguns on the market with an eye to an autoloading gun that goes well with a suit or otherwise office casual.
Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sunday, I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produce them.
Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Paul Rizhenko
Born in 1970 in the Northwestern Russian city of Kaluga, Pavel Viktorovich Ryzhenko grew up as a normal kid in the Soviet Union. He served in the Soviet then later Russian military 1988-1990, as part of an elite guards airborne unit then at age 20 entered the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture for a six-year course of study that left him a professor of art. Starting in 1997 he taught at the academy focusing on architecture, restoration, and composition.
However, he soon took to painting historical military scenes, typically Russian in origin.
“Wounded,” by Pavel Viktorovich Ryzhenko, depicting the last Tsar on an inspection of a military hospital near the front in World War I. Note the starstruck expression of the patient to the left and Nicholas’s sorrowful expression. This is one of the last paintings completed by the artist.
“Alexander Nevsky” 2008, by Pavel Ryzhenko.
“Athos” by Pavel Ryzhenko. Depicts a Russian Orthodox pilgrim staring up at the monastery of Mt.Athos in Greece, one of the holiest spots in that religion.
Moscow 1941
“Palace grenadiers” by Pavel Viktorovich Ryzhenko. This unit was the most elite of the Imperial Guard, made up of 100 retired Senior NCOs drawn from the whole army. They were the Winter Palace Guard and wore bearskin caps picked up during the retreat of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard in 1812.
While he painted hundreds of these over the next two decades, the most striking was from the 1914-20 time period encompassing the World War I-Russian Revolution-Civil War era.
“Stokhid. The Last Battle of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment 1916.” By Ryzhenko, Pavel Viktorovich. The Guard held the line along the Stokhid River during the Battle of Kovel. It was considered the battle that broke the back of the Tsarist Army.
“Farewell to the shoulder straps”, 2008, by Ryzhenko depicting a deeply monarchist officer of the White Guards Army (note the Kornilov Death’s Head patch on his sleeve) burying his Imperial Epaulettes. You see the White Army, while being anti-Bolshevik, was anything but pro-monarchist, and those who were kept the fact largely to themselves. The significance of the blue flowering sapling is that the color blue is, in Russia, a powerful symbol of good luck and change in the future. The bluebird was a traditional omen of hope in Russian fairy tales and legend. Anton Denikin, Kornilov’s second-in-command, later recalled of the forced Ice March during winter 1917/18 campaign, “We went from the dark night of spiritual slavery to unknown wandering-in search of the bluebird.”
“Umbrella” showing a psychologically fractured daughter of an Imperial Guards colonel and wife who was just executed by Red Sailors from the battleship Gangut against the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress in Petrograd 1919. This was regarded by many to be one of Ryzhenko’s most controversial pieces.
“Abdication” by Pavel Ryzhenko, portraying Colonel Alexander Pavlovich Kutepov, the last commander of the Preobrazhensky Regiment of Foot Guards and the man who held the Winter Palace during the March Revolution removing his shoulder straps after hearing of the 304-year Romanov reign coming to an end. Kutepov would later become an important leader of the Whites during the Civil War. Note the decorations on the Sgt Majors chest to include 3 awards of the St. George’s Cross for bravery.
“Repentance” by Pavel Viktorovich Ryzhenko. The imagery of the Red Guard, complete with Trotsky cap and fallen banner, when awed by the church bells is powerful. Note the Maxim machine gun crew ready to stitch up the street below.
This included his haunting “Triptych: The Russian Century” series of images of the last Imperial Family.
“Picture as a souvenir,” by the artist, 2007. Depicting a posed photo of the Tsar, his family, and suite in the summer of 1914 in Poland just weeks before the War and Revolution would sweep them all away. The Life Guards Cossack NCO with the eyepatch is about as scary looking as you can get.
“Confinement in Tsarskoe Selo. Alexander Palace,, 1917” 2004, by Pavel Ryzhenko. Depicting the Tsar, Tsarina, and Heir while under house arrest at their former palace. Note the Mosin-Nagant rifle. The heir in 1909 had one presented to him by the Tula factory that was a scaled-down working 100% correct replica of the standard M91
‘The Last Inspection” depicting Tsar Nicholas II inspecting the cossacks of the convoy at Pskov on March 15, 1917, after he abdicated. The men of the unit in many cases had been with the sovereign for decades and at that moment, was the last loyal force in the country.
“Ipatiev house after the regicide,” 2004 by Pavel Ryzhenko. Depicts the last residence of the Tsar and his family. Note the Colonel’s shoulder straps cut off on the floor. They were given to Nicholas II by his father Tsar Alexander (hence the “A”). The Tsar and his entire family were shot in the basement of the Ipatiev house on the night of July 17/18, 1918, and their bodies were buried in shallow graves.
“The Heir,” speculating as to the ultimate fate of Tsarvietch Alexei, whose body was not found until 2007, and, according to some sources, escaped execution by chance and lived on in Siberia well into the 1940s
His medium was oil on canvas, and his style one of striking realism, using direct and haunting stares from the subjects to encapsulate the moment. In many ways, he emulated the famous Russian war artist Vasili Verestchagin, who he even depicted in his last moments.
“Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland 1905 Forgotten War” by Pavel Viktorovich Ryzhenko showing Russian military artist Vasili Verestchagin aboard battleship Petropavlovsk with Admiral Makarov just before it sank. I love the sailors in the background.
The artist, however, goofed by using a well-known photo of the battleship Andrei Pervozvannyi for his warship model in the image, a vessel that didn’t reach the Russian fleet until 1911.
Russian battleship Andrei Pervozvannyi
In poor health at just age 44, he donated all of his paintings to the Russian government before he died of a stroke in the summer of 2014. He is criticized by some as being a revisionist of the Monarchist era history of the Old Russian Empire, and some of the depictions he put on canvas may never have happened, but you have to admit, he knew his way around a brush.
Ryzhenko in his studio in 2013 with “Wounded” behind him. Note that the Tsar’s face is different in the finished piece.
Ryzhenko at work on a mural. He completed several huge ones including the painting at the Minsk military park.
Currently, his paintings hang in the Russia Museum of the Armed Forces, the Russian Duma, the State Historical Museum, and the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. For more information, his gallery is still online although functionality may not be what it once was following his untimely death.
