Sunday, July 21, 2013

Favourite WWII Pictures?

The first ever history book I was given, my father's copy of Odham's History of the Second World War (1951). I spent many an hour reading it from cover to cover and poring over the photographs and the two below always stood out.

 The caption in Odham reads:
This picture and the one [below] show one of the few occasions when both contestants were photographed at almost the same time. The [above] picture shows a two-piounder anti-tank gun manned by Australian troops on a Malayan road. In the distance a Japanese tank has just got past the road-block formed by a felled tree. The [picture below] is a close up of this tank and the two following, taken shortly after they had been knocked out by the accurate markmanship of the gunners. a dead Japanese lies on the road beside the tank.
 This version of the picture has cropped out part of the scene and the following tanks are barely visible- the smoke in fact comes from the third tank on the column.

The third photo I found on the net focuses on the second and third tanks- I assume there was a series of photos taken. 

Anyway, the whole point of this post? These photos are the main reason to include a 2pr with my troops! Of note also is the Khaki drill uniforms worn by the (Australian?) gunners- another reason to use some plastic Perry's for the War in the Far East 41-42. My Burma Campaign '42 troops will be predominantly  Perry plastics in Khaki drill.

The War in Burma 1942
Here is an interesting IWM video of the Glocesterhire Regiment in Burma in 1942- it silent but some great footage of White Scout Cars (very cool camo!) and Stuart tanks. I assume it was filmed just prior to the British retreat back to India, an epic retreat of 1000 miles in a little over 3 months (the longest retreat in British military history apparently). Makes you wonder how many of those filmed survived the storm that was about to engulf them. The Stuart probably didn't as only one made it back across the Chindwan river, the others being disabled and abandoned.

Craig

3 comments:

  1. Seeing as I just today ordered 2pdrs for my Brits I will take this as divine confirmation I did the right thing.

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  2. The 2 pdr is a nice looking piece of kit- and well worth buying maybe there should be a 2pdr appreciation club.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks author for your nice blog and great article
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