Regular readers of MMI may recognize the name of Mike Stevenson.  Mike is a  good, prolific builder whose work is featured quite regularly on the pages of this magazine.  Behind the scenes Mike and David Grummitt (MMI editor) maintain a robust email conversation as  they discuss upcoming projects.  As a courtesy, there are times that I am included by email copy and invited to join into the conversations.  During one recent exchange Mike casually mentioned that he would be building a model for David to paint.   Hey, wait a minute!  Mike builds and David paints?   That sounded like a pretty sweet deal to me.  Seeing an opportunity to skip directly to the “fun” part of modeling I joined the conversation and asked how I might snag one of these painting gigs.  As it turns out, Mike was just putting the finishing touches on the Bronco Bishop and graciously offered it to me for the painting.   A couple of weeks later the model arrived at my doorstep.

As the Bishop’s primary area of service was in North Africa and Italy it quickly became apparent that my painting choices might be somewhat limited; bronze green or desert tan were pretty much the only games in town.   But wait!   As fate would have it during a search though the Imperial War Museum archives I happened across a photo showing a Bishop serving in Italy with hastily applied “mud camo”.   Perfect!  Well, not really.  The problem is that mud camouflage is an incredibly tough finish to pull off convincingly.  Balancing the rough and hasty nature of the applied mud versus the real modeling requirements for a cohesive and athletically pleasing presentation seems to be at permanently odds.  Never mind the fact that I had long ago promised myself that I would never even attempt this type of finish because of the inherent difficulties.  But as is generally the case one thing led to another; I shared the photo with Mike, he sent me a few additional photos from his collection, David was brought into the conversation and then before I knew it I was going to be attempting a mud camo finish.  How did that happen?   I guess there’s no turning back now.  

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Modeling, specifically military modeling is generally content on building all of the various machines and weapons of war.  We take great care in our quest to build accurate, small scale representations of the tools of the trade and in some cases we combine these with figures to create small scenes.   These vignettes and dioramas often portray a certain historical event – a roadside meeting or front line engagement.  However, if we are honest with ourselves we must come to the realization that even our most accurate depictions of the tools of war only tell a limited part of a greater story that is warfare.  Rarely do we touch upon scenes which depict the horror, tragedy and loss that war causes on the human level.

Is there a reason for this?  Probably, but this is not the time or place for such a conversation.  Rather, I am simply a modeler who has chosen as his subject the portrayal of a human tragedy of epic proportions.

The genesis of this idea took hold while visiting the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.  This was my second visit to the museum, but the first time that I had taken advantage of the full tour.  My tour began by being personally shown some of the museum artifacts by a Holocaust Survivor, his narrative intertwined with the descriptions of the museum pieces.  His Story – Their Story; had a profound impact. 

Among the symbols of the associated with the Holocaust, the German Rail Transport car, G-10, came to symbolize the forced "relocation" of millions of people during the Nazi reign.  Until recently, 1/35th scale rail stock has been nearly non-existent.  Fortunately a new entry into the model community, L.Z.Models, has filled this void with absolutely stunning rail car kits.  The kit contains superbly cast resin parts, along with 180 photo etched bits and an extensive decal sheet. 

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Croatia gained autonomy in 1939 and in 1941 Croatia joined World War II on the side of the Axis Powers and staged a military coup that made Ustashe leader Ante Pavelic leader of Croatia. This left Croatia as essentially a Nazi puppet state that allowed Germany to invade Yugoslavia. As part of Nazi efforts to re-draw the borders, Bosnia and Herzegovina were awarded to Croatia. With the Ustashe in control, atrocities occurred on a massive scale as thousands of Serbs were killed in concentration camps.

The Nazis withdrew from the area in October 1944 and Croatia was reconstituted as part of the new Yugoslavia, now a socialist republic under Tito's leadership. Croatia became one of the six constituent republics of Yugoslavia (the others being Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Serbia). During Tito's reign nationalist sentiments were repressed, especially among the Croats. A decentralization program went into effect in 1970 but it did little to pacify Croats. With Tito's death in 1980, Croat demands for independence only increased but it was not until the fall of the Berlin Wall that things began to come apart.

The fall of communism brought uncertainty to Yugoslavia in 1990. It encouraged nationalist sentiments in all of its republics. In Croatia, the elections produced a massive victory for Franjo Tudjman and his nationalist Croatian Democratic Union party. This group had proclaimed its aversion to both the ethnic Serbs living in Croatia and those living in Serbia. The move was spurred largely by the election of Serb nationalist Slobodan Milosevic as Serbian Communist Party leader. Milosevic's rhetoric and repression of the Albanian population in Kosovo frightened the other republics.

The nationalist fervor in Croatia led to great tension among Croats and Serb ethnic groups, who still held centuries-old prejudices against each other despite living together under communism. Ethnic Croatian Serbs, in particular, feared the reincarnation of a pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia. Similarly, Tudjman and other Croats believed that the Serbs held designs on incorporating Croatian territory, particularly the region of Krajina, into a "Greater Serbia."

The tension and bickering between the two republics eventually led to sporadic fighting in Croatia. In 1991, Serbian separatists in Croatia began a series of attacks on Croatian police units, killing more than 20 by in the first four months. That May, Serbia upped the ante by blocking the installation of Stipe Mesic, a Croat scheduled to be the chairman of the rotating presidency in Yugoslavia. This maneuver technically left the Yugoslavia without a leader. In June 1991, Croatia struck back declaring their independence from Yugoslavia.

Full-scale fighting between Croats and Serbs occurred almost immediately, with Yugoslavia's mostly ethnic Serb military backing the Serbian separatists that were fighting in Krajina. Serbian expansion came quickly, as Yugoslav planes strafed and rocketed Croatian villages while insurgents overtook Kostajnica. By the end of 1991, the Serbs had gained control of nearly one-third of the country.

In January 1992, the United Nations was able to administer a truce between the two sides and sent in a peacekeeping force, UNPROFOR. At the time the agreement went into place, the Serbs held roughly 30% of the former Yugoslav Republic of Croatia, and the UN agreement froze this status quo, which also left many Croatians as refugees from their homes in the Republic of Serbian Krajina as part of Serbian ethnic cleansing. There were reports of homes being looted and burned, as well as other atrocities committed against Croat civilians. Ancillary to the agreement the United Nations and European Community recognized Croatia as an independent state in January of 1992. United Nations peacekeepers, had difficulty disarming combatants inside the internationally protected areas set up under the agreement.

As tensions continued to smolder in Croatia in mid-1992, an all-out war broke out in neighboring Bosnia between the republic's ethnic Serbs, Muslims and Croats. The Bosnian conflict drew in participants from all sides, including Croatia, which backed the Bosnian Croats in their fight mainly with Bosnian Serbs but also in sporadic conflicts with its supposed ally, the Bosnian Muslims. In late 1992, Croatian army forces began attacking Bosnian Serb communities in southeastern Bosnia Herzegovina, unraveling a Bosnian-declared cease-fire. Croatian army forces would later break Croatia's one-year-old cease-fire as well in January 1993, crossing a U.N. dividing line and attacking Serb-occupied territory in Krajina.

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Raupenschlepper Ost, literally "Caterpillar Tractor East", is more commonly abbreviated to RSO. This fully tracked, lightweight vehicle was conceived in response to the poor performance of wheeled and half-tracked vehicles in the mud and snow during the Wehrmacht's first winter on the Soviet Front.  Steyr responded by proposing a small fully-tracked vehicle based upon its 1.5 tonne truck (Steyr 1500A light truck) already in use in the army. The vehicle was introduced in 1942 as the Raupenschlepper Ost (RSO). It was initially designed as a prime mover and artillery supply vehicle but eventually served in a wide variety of roles.  By 1943, the complaints of the infantry anti-tank units at the front that it was almost impossible to move their guns using trucks at daylight under enemy fire, leading to enormous losses of equipment when an emergency relocation (at the time more of a euphemism for withdrawal) was necessary found their way to the top. This led OKW to consider an older proposition to fit the 7.5 cm PaK 40/1 anti-tank gun -by then the standard Pak- on top of a RSO chassis and Hitler after seeing the blueprints ordered a limited production run for combat testing even before the test vehicles were completed. 

The result was a lightweight, cheap to produce and highly mobile infantry anti-tank weapon though more exposed compared to the conventional panzerjagers. Despite that the vehicle was intended to be used by the infantry anti-tank units, all pre-production vehicles were issued to armored units (Panzer Jager Abteilungen 743 and 744, and 18th Panzergrenadier Division) due to the urgent need for replacements   The vehicle gave a good accounting of itself in action with Army Group South and plans were made for large scale production.   In the end, however, no production order was ever issued with only 60 of the pre-production vehicles ever seeing action.

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TD Battalions were organized separate from armored and infantry divisions.  They would then be assigned to divisions as dictated by Army or Crop Commanders. The original battalions were equipped and organized with armored personnel carriers mounted with flat trajectory artillery guns.  From inception to stand-down, the TD doctrine evolved and changed along with its primary weapon, the tank destroyer. The central concept remained the same however. TDs were lighter and faster while their guns were larger than the main battle guns on contemporary American tanks.  The mission:  Defeat  enemy armor with weapons specifically designed for long-range encounters.  While a TD could knock out the enemy, it lacked protection against accurate return fire from anything other than small arms fire.  For example to minimize weight, the TD turret lacked a top, exposing the crew to mortar fire and even a lobbed grenade.  Tree bursts were a constant threat to the exposed crew.  Stealth, by using the terrain, as well as its mobility was its protection.

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Generally considered to be the better supplied and equipped branch of the German fighting units it is not surprising to discover that upon Himmler’s directives the SS had a program to develop weapons intended for the exclusive use by their own formations.  One such weapon was the 8cm Raketensprenggranate (8cm RSprgr.) or 8cm rocket developed from a projectile originally intended for aircraft use. The fin-stabilized rockets were cheaper and easier to manufacture than the existing spin-stabilized designs and used cheap launch rails.  The delivery system itself bore a striking resemblance to the Russian ‘Katyusha’ rockets using a rail launching system which could fire up to 48 rockets in one salvo.  Maximum range of the 8 cm rocket was 5796 yards (5300 m) with a velocity of 950 f/sec. A smoke carrying version was also used.  Separate production lines were created for the production of these rockets under Party control as the army refused to convert any of its existing factories to the production.  Although effective, it appears that actual production was very limited.

After being destroyed in North Africa, the 21^st Panzer was reformed in June of 1943 in France. It remained stationed in France for the next year, being deemed unfit for service on the Eastern Front.  During this time the division was refit and equipped, primarily using captured French equipment.  Information is unclear on how or why the 21^st Panzer Division received them, but photographic evidence indicates that the 21^st converted as many as sixteen of their Somua MCL halftracks into these mobile rocket launchers using the 8cm rocket system.  The 21.Panzer was still in France when the Allies launched their invasion of Normandy in June of 1944, and the division was thrown into action against the Allied positions as the only Panzer unit to do so on the 1st day of the attack, June 6th.  

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In 1916, two of Germany’s premier aircraft companies merged, and the new company was renamed Bavarian Motor Works, or more commonly referred to as BMW. Their logo was meant to resemble a white airplane propeller against a blue sky. However, the new company would soon be grounded with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Although deeply committed to aircraft engineering, Max Fritz reluctantly looked to motorcycle productions to help cure the company’s economic woes. Within just four short weeks this engineering skill had produced the blueprints of what would become the “flat-twin” or Boxer engine, first produced in 1921.

Improvements over the next two years included a drive shaft an the characteristic transversely mounted engine. This was a design that gave greater airflow over the cooling fins, not to mention that it had a lower center of gravity. Finally, released in 1923, the R32 became the foundation for nearly all future BMW motorcycle designs.

During this era, BMW also began to excel in racing, winning its first national championship after only one year in the racing business. In 1928, BMW’s Ernst Henne began a streak of world-renowned record-breaking sessions, hitting 134 mph in 1929. In the short span of eight more years, Henne would again break the land-speed record with the astounding speed of 173 mph! Finally, by 1941 the company began to meet the demands of Germany’s military effort by creating the R75, the quintessential WWII motorcycle. This bike traveled on small wheels and knobby tires, and could even pull a sidecar at 60 mph! These motorcycles were found to be able to navigate hastily built corduroy roads in Russia. In the vanguard of the Blitzkrieg, such cycles roared ahead of Panzer columns and motorized infantry outfits to check out roads, locate enemy troop dispositions and relay the information back to the main units. Before Rommel went to Africa, his motorcycle troops practiced with their bikes in Poland on arid sandy roads.
However, they found Africa’s terrain to be much tougher to drive in. BMW R/75’s were also paired to sidecars on which was usually mounted a machine gun.

By 1945, the war had turned against Germany. Max Fitz left BMW and due to post-war manufacturing restrictions the company was forced to survive by repairing Allied Army vehicles. However, by 1948 BMW was back in the motorcycle business. During the next few decades, BMW made significant technical strides in the production of motorcycles. This included new suspensions, more fuel efficient engines, and using rubber engine mounts in order to cut down vibrations.

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The flamethrower, which brought terror to French and British soldiers when used by the German army in the early phases of the First World War in 1914 and 1915 (and which was quickly adopted by both) was by no means a particularly innovative weapon.

The basic idea of a flamethrower is to spread fire by launching burning fuel.  The earliest flamethrowers date as far back as the 5th century B.C.  These took the form of lengthy tubes filled with burning solids (such as coal or sulphur), and which were used in the same way as blow-guns: by blowing into one end of the tube the solid material inside would be propelled towards the operator's enemies.

The flamethrower was inevitably refined over the intervening centuries, although the models seen in the early days of World War One were developed at the turn of the 20th century.  It was put to initial wartime use against the French in the south-eastern sector of the Western Front from October 1914, although its use was sporadic and went largely unreported.

The first notable use of the Flammenwerfer came in a surprise attack launched by the Germans upon the British at Hooge in Flanders. With the success of the Hooge attack, at least so far as the Flammenwerfer was concerned, the German army adopted the device on a widespread basis across all fronts of battle. 

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In the 3-ton (or medium) category the major and most successful design was the Opel Blitz. This was a 1938 design from Opel (the German subsidiary then, as now, of General Motors) and was quite conventional in layout. The Opel Model S3.6-36, to give its maker’s designation, was a 4×2 vehicle with pressed steel cab and bonnet. Suspension was by conventional leaf springs.

During its war production run, there were many special purpose variants produced; over 100 different types were recorded. Most important of these featured a house-type body (Einheitskofferansbau) which could be fitted as a workshop, laundry, laboratory, command caravan, radio van, cipher office, ambulance, or for dozens of other purposes. The box-like house body was made of wood and compressed card, partly for ease of production and to save metal. Late in the Blitz’s production life it was similarly fitted with the famous ‘ersatz’ cab, a wood and pressed card structure know as the ‘einheitsfahrerhaus’, again as a major economy measure when steel became short.

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BT is the abbreviation of the Russian term for “fast tank”, with the BT-7 being the last in a line of Soviet fast tanks designed during the 1930’s.  Each tank in the series incorporated the Christie type suspension – as designed by J. Walter Christie. 

During the Spanish Civil war the BT-5 tanks proved successful against the opposing light German and Italian armor used by the Nationalist.  In 1939 the BT-5 and BT-7 tanks proved their combat success in border skirmishes with Japan, again outclassing the lighter Japanese tanks. At the outset of World War II the BT-7 was employed with success during against Polish forces during the Soviet invasion of Poland, but by the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 – Operation Barbarossa – the BT-7 was critically obsolete.  As a result, large numbers of the vehicles where either lost in battle or abandoned by their crews during the first year of the campaign with very few surviving service beyond 1942.  

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