Hanna Dmyterko

Dmyterko was born in Senechiv in western Ukraine in 1893.

In 1914 Dmyterko was among 2,000 Ukrainians who made up the newly created Ukrainian Sich Riflemen.[1] The Great War was starting and she saw this combat as an opportunity to create a Ukrainian country.[2][3] 28,000 Ukrainians had volunteered to join the new force but the Austrian authorities limited the size of the force to ensure that they did not become a Ukrainian army. They were armed with muskets that dated from before she was born.[1] The volunteer riflemen included about 34 women including Dmyterko,[4] Iryna Kus, Sofia Halechko, Dmyterko's friend Olena Stepaniv and Olha Basarab.[5] They, like many of the chosen recruits, were former university students. The new force was limited to 60 officers.[1]

Three riflemen: Dmytrerko, Sofia Halechko, and Olha Basarab in Vienna in 1917

Dmyterko left her family in the village of Pidberizka with only the support of her father as her mother and grandmother disapproved of her fighting.[3] Unusually she and the new unit was fighting nearby as generally the 100,000 Galician volunteers, who wanted to fight, were assigned to battles in Italy.[1]

The new force was fighting in September 1914 as part of the 55th Austrian division.[1] A myth emerged that women were serving under assumed male names but there is no evidence for this. When Dmyterko was awarded a medal for her service then her full name can be seen in the military records. Dmyterko and fellow women soldiers' exploits were reported in, mainly foreign, newspapers.[4]

During her six years of service she had prepared food for the riflemen, cared for them as a nurse, before she was assigned to the command headquarters where she was a clerk.[6] She became a Sergeant and she met fellow soldier Vasyl Ratych. They married in 1919 and they lived in Rohatyn. They had four sons and in time they emigrated to North America.[4]

L to r Olena Stepaniv, Vasyl Ratych, Hanna Dmyterko and standing the sons of the Ratyches

Dmyterko has known in her lifetime as a Ukrainian hero together with Sofia Galechko, Olena Stepaniv, and Olga Pidvysotska.[4] One of her sons, Volodar Ratych, died in World War Two, but Rostislav, Lubomyr and Bohdan survived.[6]

In 1978 Dmyterko was invited (as Mrs Ratych) to the Fourth conference of Ukrainian seniors, at the Ukrainian centre near New York known as Soyuzivka, where she was honored at a veteran's lunch. She was then living in Edison, New Jersey with her son Rostislav.[6] She died in Montreal in 1981. Her memoirs[7] are second only to those of Olena Stepaniv as a source for those studying Ukrainian women's experiences in the First World War.[4]