ygmodeler4

Great looking builds.

I read a pretty good book about Polish forces during WWII..."No Greater Ally" by Koskodan. I recommend it to anybody interested in the subject. It's more big picture than a biography of an individual soldier, but still good.

Cool, thanks for the heads up on the book.  I am always in the market for new reading material.

Brian

Great looking builds.

I read a pretty good book about Polish forces during WWII..."No Greater Ally" by Koskodan. I recommend it to anybody interested in the subject. It's more big picture than a biography of an individual soldier, but still good.

And Sosabowski wasn't the only one - many Polish soldiers who decided to stay had problems adopting to the post war reality in the West. The ones who decided to come back didn't have it easy, neither - often tortured in prisons by the secret police. Some of them were cleared of the charges and released after Stalin's death, but still, that's a shame.

Oh well - this part of the world between Russia and Germany sure has a twisted history!

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Paweł

Amazon has Sosabowski's biography that I hope to pick up at some point.  What is most sad is that after the war he was employed in an electronics assembly plant in Acton, England, and his coworkers knew almost nothing about him and his war exploits until after his death. 

Another sad casualty of the post war Soviet regime was Czech Air Marshal Karel Janousek, who helped for the post WW1 Czech army, learned to fly, escaped to Britain when the Germans invaded, formed the Czech branch of the RAF (for which they made him air marshal) only to die in captivity under the Soviets.

Thanks for the heads up about Mich. Toy company.  I have shopped through them before, so I will head over and check out what they have to offer.

Brian

Brian - no need to be! What would those forums be, if not for some quality rambling?

That was really sad with those soldiers who fought to free Poland, then had no option to return (because of the soviets) and had to support themselves as bartenders and warehouse workers despite commanding big military units before - UK didn't see a point in paying soldiers of foreign armies any retirement bonuses.

Thanks for your comment and have a nice day

Paweł

PS. I read that a company called Michigan Toy Soldiers have the "First to Fight" models in stock

Pawel

Brian - that's true, often I get the feeling many people forget the WWII didn't start with BoB, and not in 1941 neither. The Polish army in '39 didn't have a chance, yet it fought as a tough oponent. In my history book it's written, that the speed at which the frontline moved was slower on Polish plains, that were just perfect for the tanks to roll, than in the mountains of Greece.

Absolutely!  Poland was doomed no matter what, simply because it was going to be impossible, no matter how good they were, to resist the crush of Germany on one side, and then Russia on the other.  But they sure did their best under the circumstances.

Sadly, all too often, the general history books overlook what contributions the other "allies" other than America, Russians and the Brits contributed to the war.  It seems like the Germans were made to be superhumans that buzzsawed through Europe like a fired bullet, and the Americans and Brits came along to crush them in turn.  But the truth is the Germans were just normal soldiers like the rest of the worlds soldiers, and we (the Allied armies) really couldn't have won without the other participants.

 I guess by my nature I inclined to always seek out and acknowledge those who deserve it when most don't get it.  The Poles at Wizna, the 40 Bataillon de Chasseurs Ardennais soldiers who held off the Germans for, I believe 18 days, when the Germans came rolling into Belgium, the Australians in North Africa and the south Pacific, and all the pilots who flew for the RAF during the Battle of Britain...Aussies, Poles, Czechs, Canadians and so on.  Heck, one man I admire very much from WW2 who I think had a grave injustice done to him, was yet another Pole.  Stanislaw Sosabowski, of Operation Market Garden fame, was a true soldier, and what he was reduced to in his later life saddens me greatly.

Anyway, I have taken to rambling.  Sorry.

Brian

Hello!

Gamera - the gear they had back in '39 is really something else, at times strongly reminding of WWI

Brian - that's true, often I get the feeling many people forget the WWII didn't start with BoB, and not in 1941 neither. The Polish army in '39 didn't have a chance, yet it fought as a tough oponent. In my history book it's written, that the speed at which the frontline moved was slower on Polish plains, that were just perfect for the tanks to roll, than in the mountains of Greece.

Thanks for your comments and have a nice day

Paweł

Those are pretty cool Pawel!  You know, seems to me Poland (and Czechoslovakia too) always got a bum wrap in the history books.  But any serious historian only has to look at things like the Battle of Wizna to see they gave as good as they got....which makes me like them all the much more.   I might just have to get myself one or two of these to show a little Polish love.

Brian

Ah ok, still at seven bucks a model not bad at all! Nice to see something from the beginning of the war, I like late war subjects too but it's a nice change of pace.

Hello Gamera!

Thanks a lot for your comment. That's a negative on the box content - they come one in a box, just they had an earlier and a later variant, so I decided to do both of them. Each one has cost me under 7 dollars, so that's not too bad. I'm pleased with the detailing of those kits. First thing to fix would probably be to make the fenders from something thinner.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Cool, very nice work. I love the camo.

I assume they come two in the box? I've bought a couple of these wargaming kits from Italeri as simple builds for the nephews. They seemed pretty well detailed for the equivalent of a 'snap-kit'.