{"id":1578916,"date":"2019-08-27T16:09:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T14:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/armahobbynews.pl\/?p=1578916"},"modified":"2024-07-10T12:00:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T10:00:34","slug":"hugos-lucky-thirteen-70027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armahobbynews.pl\/en\/blog\/2019\/08\/27\/hugos-lucky-thirteen-70027\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugo\u2019s Lucky \u201eThirteen\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without any doubt, you can say that Polish People\u2019s Army Air Force is not as attractive for modellers as Polish Air Force in the West. Its combat history is relatively short \u2013 only nine months of fighting with Germans and the number of aircraft types used was limited to only a few. On the eastern front aircraft did not have any interesting pin-ups, paintings, inscriptions or other types of decorations. That is why the choice of painting scheme for a Yak-1b model is quite obvious \u2013 it is a Yak -1b \u201c13\u201d (s\/n 13163) used by the 1st<\/sup> Fighter Aviation Regiment \u201cWarszawa\u201d, which had a foundation inscription written in Polish and Russian. This aircraft is widely known as \u201cWolf Messing\u2019s Yak\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A pilot who flew this Yak most often was W\/O II\u00a0 Hugo O\u2019Brien de Lacy (promoted Warrant Officer at the end of the war). He was also a quite interesting character. This article describes this duo.<\/p>\n

\"Jak-1b<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo of the “first Yak” bought by Wolf Messing for Polish fighter from 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment.\u00a0 Dark shade paint before the fuselage’s Red Star is a probable mark of the overpainted founding slogan. Photo from authors archive.<\/em><\/p>\n

The First \u201cMessing\u2019s Yak\u201d<\/h2>\n

Between December 1943 and February 1944 the 1st<\/sup> Fighter Aviation Regiment received a Yak-1b \u201c48\u201d (s\/n 48184). It was founded by Wolf Messing, a Polish Jew who found himself in the Soviet Union after the war had broken.<\/p>\n

\"Wolf<\/a>Wolf Messing<\/strong>\u00a0 was born in 1899 in G\u00f3ra Kalwaria as\u00a0Srul Wolek Messing. Between the wars, he managed to become famous as a person with such supernatural abilities like telepathy, mind-reading, or hypnotising. In the Soviet Union, he continued his career, and Soviet authorities showed favour to him because he was very useful for them. He also earned a lot of money during shows for workers. To gain more fame and money, he was diffusing different rumours about his life. According to them, his father was a tzadik, that he knew such famous people as Einstein, Gandhi or Freud. He also told to be called a professor, although he did not pass A-level exams.<\/p>\n

Photo: Wolf Messing in 1930s, wikipedia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Since 1941 he lived in Novosibirsk where authorities used him for propaganda. Very often he took parts in meetings with civilians and soldiers where he predicted Germany\u2019s defeat. Novosibirsk was a home of the Factory No 153 where Yakovlev\u2019s fighters were built. Messing joined the action of collecting founds for defence, and in 1943 he founded his first aircraft \u2013 Yak-7b. Later Wanda Wasilewska, a prominent Polish communist and the leader of, so-called, “Union of Polish Patriots”, convinced him to found another Yak, this time for Polish fighter regiment.<\/p>\n

According to her idea, the fighter with the tactical number \u201c48\u201d was going to be given to \u201cthe oldest Polish fighter pilot\u201d of the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment. Originally it was a personal mount of Maj. Tadeusz Wicherkiewicz, the CO of the 3rd Flight, but very soon, no sooner than in February 1944, it was assigned to Cpt. Medard Konieczny, a CO deputy. That decision was made by the CO, Ltn. Col. Ivan Taldikin. Although Wicherkiewicz was older, Konieczny was more experienced pilot (the former got his wings in 1943 in the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment, the latter before the war).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment \u201cWarszawa\u201d 1943-45<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n