Czech built Praga TH
I had a little trawl across the net and found a few things out about the Turkish armed forces from the 1920s to the end of WW2, mainly concerned with the vehicles used by the army. The first tanks used by the Turks was the famous Renault FT17 during the late 1920s. They later made use of the French R35 in 1940 but between times gained numbers of Vickers Light Tank Vlb and the Russian T26. The Russian also supplied some BT2, T27, T28 (only two of these) and some armoured cars - BA3s and BA6s.
The T26s were taken out of service in 1942 and were replaced in 1943 with 56 German 50mm L60 armed Panzer lll at Hitler's request. They then received some Panzer lV as well - the idea being that Hitler was trying to convince Turkey that attacking the Russians would be a good idea.
From a transport perspective I assume that an assortment of lorries from various sources would be used but also the Turks made much use of a rather interesting Czech built vehicle - the CKD Praga TH. Turkey also made use of the Praga TH6 and 7 (in fact they acquired the entire production run of these two vehicles - just over a 100 of them) and the Praga T9 (also used by the Germans).
Czech built Praga TH6/7 - a poor photo but you can make out a rather fetching camouflage scheme
Czech built Praga TH7/8 - again, a poor photo but you can (just about) make out a rather fetching camouflage scheme
Czech built Praga T9 - the last of the group (and the largest)
I have absolutely no idea if anybody makes these in any scale at all so they would be a challenge and no mistake. Having said that, finding a suitable tracked chassis and adding a truck body should be fairly easy to undertake should I need to.
Not for a while though....;-)
I 'lashed up' something similar when I wanted some full-tracked artillery tractors for my WW2 Soviet Army. I used ROCO Minitank Pzkpfw IV tracks, plasticard, cabs from old Airfix trucks, and some imagination. The results can be seen here.
ReplyDeleteAn evening's work and the results are not too bad.
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteThey certainly don't look like 'lash ups'! Very nice indeed. When I eventually get to the 1930s I will certainly keep these in mind although I do not expect to need very many of them so the conversion work will be minimal (and manageable).
All the best,
DC
Hi there, you may be interested I've built a 15mm WW2 Turkish army, well still building it, but the 1943-44 variant has started seeing action:
ReplyDeletehttps://picasaweb.google.com/106592630440979980158/19431944TurkishArmy15mm?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Mark Bevis
Hi mark,
ReplyDeleteMany, many thanks for this! Could you email me on roguejedi@btinternet.com as I have a heap of questions to ask you about this collection.
The pictures look fine and dandy and I loved the P40s.
All the best,
DC