Axis
The Liberation of Prague and Czechoslovakia
Soviet and Czech Armour 1945 The Nazi puppet state in Slovakia sent small ground and air units to fight against the Soviet Union. Formerly a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after World War I Slovakia shared the twists and turns of the history of the Czech state. But during World War II the two provinces were split when a Nazi…
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Rommel arrives to Africa I
Panzer IIF Panzer IIIJ It is a military truism that supply services must be established, lines of communication laid out, and depots set up before combat operations can begin, for without these fundamentals a fighting force is restricted either to that which it can carry or to being forced to…
Rommel arrives to Africa II
Meanwhile the divisional commander’s column was still struggling towards Mechili. It had been delayed by adverse conditions – bad going, sand storms, and seas of shifting sand – and did not reach the objective until the morning of the 5 April. Mechili was a trigh cross-roads settlement in which 8th…
“Brandenburg” Commandos: June 1941 Army Group North
Conquest: The bridge over the Daugava river in Daugavpils, Lithuania, is seen from the river bank with the city in the background on fire. The city, called DĂĽnaburg by the Germans, was captured and secured at dawn on June 26, 1941 in a camouflage operation by the half-company Knaak, of…
The Pursuit of the Afrika Korps
The battle of El Alamein had been comprehensively won. The pursuit was bungled, at least in the vital few days after the break-out. This was not the fault of the staff. For some time Freddie , Montgomery’s chief of staff, had been thinking about how to cut off the retreating…
Croatian Air Force WWII Part I
Of the several Frankenstein monsters created by the mad political scientists of Versailles after World War I, Yugoslavia was among the most horrific. A hopeless mishmash of ethnically, culturally, spiritually, even linguistically disparate populations, they agonized under a facade of “the self-determination of peoples:” By its 10th anniversary, Yugoslavia had…
Croatian Air Force WWII Part II
Messerschmitt Bf.109G-14 Unit: 2. Lovacko Jato, 1. Zrakoplovna Skupina Zagreb-Lucko, April 1945. On 16th April 1945 Josip Cekovic defected to Falconara region (Italy) 12 kilometers westward of Ancona. This airplane was captured by Americans. Dornier Do.17Z-2 Unit: 19. Bombardersko Jato, 1. Zrakoplovna Skupina Zagreb, spring 1945. Breguet Br.19-8 Unit: 6…