Battle in Romanovka. Far East, Suchansky mines, 1919.

[Mike Blake]

Brilliant as always Cuprum! Looks like I may need US infantry in greatcoats too! Many thanks  - have access/downloaded/printed  - now to relax with a good read!

[carlos marighela]

It's funny that this battle on Wikipedia is represented by the victory of the Americans, the number of partisans killed is overestimated four times.

They were practicing for multiple entries on the Vietnam War. 

Seriously though, massive overestimates of guerilla casualties has been a staple of the US military probably since the days of the Seminole Wars. It reached its height in Vietnam, where the use of enemy casualty metrics was the benchmark of success and therefore career advancement. As but one example in the oft feted Ia Drang Campaign (the one they made a film about with Mel Gibson) the US claimed to have inflicted casualties on a PAVN battalion that represented over 200% of its strength. They not only killed the whole lot once, they did it twice for good measure.

Of course overestimates are not always deliberate lies, confusion in such circumstances often abounds. That said,  it's ironic in the case of the RCW as the Soviet and apparently the Russian model of not letting the bad news interfere with one's career prospects. Vranyo (враньё) mirrors the US experience in many ways.

[carlos marighela]

By the by, it strikes me that with the photos of US troops in campaign hats and shirtsleeves, one could use miniatures for the Pershing Campaign in Mexico for this theatre. Brigade games do them in 28mm as an example.

Christ, you can almost hear the mosquitos.

[Cholmondely Percival IV]

That same Lt Eichelberger went on to be become General Eichelberger who headed up the US Eighth Army in the Philippines in 1945. He disliked McArthur which automatically raises him in the estimation of any Australian.

He was a Lieutenant Colonel at the time and Assistant Chief of Staff to the AEFS (whose commander was called Graves, not the name given here, which I can’t type without it being autocorrected to ’Greg’s’).

In view of his later career, it’s interesting to see (on Wikipedia) that Eichelberger received the Japanese Imperial Order of Meiji, among others, as a result of his actions in Siberia. I’d imagine his later supremo was rather jealous.

[cuprum]

I continue to answer your questions, Mike.

Here is a map of events that I made based on a much later map of this region. Many names of settlements have since changed, and many have simply disappeared.
In general, the partisans attacked the railway along its entire length, as well as the villages adjacent to the railway, where the garrisons of the interventionists were located (so that they could not advance to help other attacked).



The white star indicates Vladivostok, the blue star - Suchan (the location of the coal mines), the red star - Romanovka (the place of attack on the American garrison), yellow, green and purple stars - other attacked garrisons.

The photos that I have given above are directly related to the events described. They clearly show the uniform that was used by the Americans. I don't know what else to add to this.



The guerrillas used a mixture of civilian and military clothing. The population had a lot of military clothes in use: former soldiers returned in such clothes from the front, such clothes were easy to get, they were relatively cheap. And of course the guerrillas strove to maintain a military look as much as possible.
Hunting weapons were widely used. These were alterations of the old Berdan army rifles. Siberia and the Far East are a place of continuous taiga forests. Here, weapons were in almost every house, and even women knew how to use them. Hunting for the inhabitants of these places is a habitual trade.

The partisans had various flags - from primitive banners with slogans to almost works of art. It all depended on what craftsmen were available to them to create the banner. I have two banners of the Far Eastern partisans in my store:

http://siberia-miniatures.ru/index.php?cPath=62_218_63_195

[Mike Blake]

many thanks.tried to buy the flags but PayPal isn't cooperating - will try again later.

Best

Mike

[cuprum]

PayPal does not work with Russia at the moment. Now my British colleague accepts PayPal payments for me. I will send you all the necessary information in a personal.

[Mike Blake]

Sorted

[juergen c. olk]

Great article and photos.