"The history of Polish armored train nr.53 1918-44" Topic

I got this awesome magazine from a fellow gamer which depicts the full history of the Polish armored train nr.53 "Smialy" (the same number and name I used for my own Polish armored train from Battlefron). The magazine was filled with fantastic interwar photos and bits of history telling the story of how the train had been seized by the Polish troops in 1918 and used to fight in the war of independence, then against the Bolsheviks, the interwar upgrades, fighting during September 1939 against the Germans, the capture by the Soviets. Then how the Germans captured the train and used it as late as 1944.

The entire magazine is in Polish – but they had a summary page at the back in English which is attached to the blog post. The magazine also describes the battle of Mokra as told by soldiers taking part in the battle, it also describes how little the Soviet and Germans changed this particular train in terms of new equipment and it also provides a couple of pictures depicting the camo pattern used by Soviet and Germans.

At the bottom of the blog post I also linked to one of my older entries which is also filled with information on armored trains in Polish service during September 1939.

link

I read the article in WI about these, found it quite fascinating.

translate.google.com is an excellent tool for the Polish sections. Windows lets you switch back and forth to a Polish keyboard layout or use Key Caps to select Polish characters. OCR is obviously useful as well.

I think armored trains are about the coolest thing that runs on wheels in the 20th century.

Trains,especially Armored trains, have been a passion for me for many years. Some of my favorite publications have been in regards to them. Most in Polish,Russian and other languages. I highly recommend them. I even started a thread on them a few years ago on another site,
link

This site is on Polish Armoured Trains
derela.republika.pl/armtrain.htm
This site is good too,
wio.ru/rr/ww2sov.htm

There are a few good books in English too.

Armored Trains of the Soviet Union 1917-1945 by Wilfried Kopenhagen. Schiffer Publishing.

Schiffer Military History Vol. 17: German Armored Trains in the World War II. Vol. 1 by Wolfgang Sawodny

Schiffer Military History: German Armored Trains in the World War II. Vol. II by: Wolfgang Sawodny

Osprey New Vanguard 140 Armored Trains by Steven J Zaloga

German Armored Trains on the Russian Front 1941-1944 by Wolfgang Sawodny

Robert

Everybody loves armored trains.

But the big question is:

When will someone come up with a game, or a set of rules were armored trains fight armored trains?

Now if some company would come out with a WWII German armored train in 1/56 scale I would be a happy camper. And yes I know Battlefront is releasing one in the smaller scale but I want one in 1/56 scale.