Armoured trains in the army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (november 1918 – november 1920)

Abstract

The years 1919–1920 were among the most dramatic periods in the modern history of Ukraine. The uprising against the Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi at the end of 1918 led to the fall of the monarchy and the restoration of a republican form of government in the Directorate of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. The new government was immediately forced to fight against external enemies, the most dangerous of which were Russian Bolsheviks. 

The war in Ukraine between 1919–1920 was a war of manoeuvre. In such conditions the role of armoured trains was significant. These weapons appeared in the Army of the Directorate during the uprising against the Hetman. Initially, the trains were quite primitive, improvised constructions, but in the Spring of 1919 the Army of the Directorate took delivery of more advanced armoured trains, which were better armed and protected. Some of them were trophies captured from the Bolsheviks. The trains gradually became the main means of conducting armed conflict. At a specific moment they numbered in the tens. Up until the final days of armed operations by regular units of the Directorate Army (to November 1920), armoured trains were actively involved in operations. The article presents the main episodes in which armoured trains were used by the Directorate Army and a description of the unit organisation of this type of weapon.