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Help with identifying the military uniform in this photo.

Nativgod

I have this photo of my great grandfather from my paternal side. I was told that he was in the Ukraine military and lived in the area of West Galicia border of Poland and Ukraine. 

This photo is all my grandmother had of her parents taken from her burning home before bein taken to a German work camp and never seeing her parents again. She was only 14 years old.

I believe he may have been in the Ukraine Galician Army. 

Thank you

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  • 0 in reply to Sabine G.

    Unfortunately, I don't have anything else. As I stated, my grandmother, then 14, ran into the burning home and grabbled the picture I shared here. That is all she had of her parents and never seen them again.

    As far as name goes I believe his name was Filip Straczek. They lived somewhere near Lviv Ukraine or possibly Lukawiec Poland.

    I attached a zoomed in photo of the buckle and collar. It's blurry and there doesn't seem to be anything on the collar that I can see.

    I realize this may not be of any help. 

    Thank you,

  • 0 in reply to Nativgod

    There are some old photos out there where the uniform (the pockets, the collar, how the belt sits) really points to the Ukrainian Galician Army it.

    Like here the left officer on the photo https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmytro_Vitovsky

    or here https://euromaidanpress.com/2018/12/30/100-years-ago-the-decline-of-the-austro-hungarian-empire-birth-of-the-west-ukrainian-national-republic/.

    But when you compare the uniforms to the Austrian-Hungarian Army you see that these uniforms looked nearly the same https://www.pinterest.ca/daveolinyk/ww1-austro-hungarian-army-uniforms/, which is plausible too since the Ukrainian Army was formed out of units of the Austrian-Hungarian Army.

    I also searched then for the belt buckles. I know that this might be far fetched now but to me the belt buckle from the Austrian-Hungarian Army might be a possible one when you compare it like the shadows on your photo show up. There is the coat of arms in the middle, the crown on top with two dots in between (in the photo with the crosses), under the coat of arms the two dots which are the legs of the eagle and then on the lower right side the shadow that looks like the sphere (the sphere with the cross). Maybe your great grandfather was at the time when the photo was taken in the Austrian-Hungarian-Army, so around 1918 or before. Maybe there would be a chance to find out more when you would know the right name and also the place where they lived. I would guess that at the moment it is not easy to get information from the Ukrainian Archives but from Poland might be possible.

    After reading a little there was also information that people where arrested not just by the Germans but also by the Red Army when it took over.

    I hope it helps a little.

    Sabine

    P.S. This is a belt buckle from the Austrian-Hungarian-Army.

    https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205284154 soldier on the left side of the photo

  • 0 in reply to Sabine G.

    Thank you Sabine. Sorry for the late reply, I was not notified via email of any replies and I got sidetracked on other things and forgot to check back. Thank you so much for taking the time to research this and replying with the great references. I believe you are correct, it really does point to the Austrian-Hungary Army Buckle and Uniform. I know where they lived was once part of the Galician empire so it really does make sense. I never knew when that photo was taken, just that my grandmother ran into the burning home to grab it.