STUKA! The very name is synonymous with the screaming sirens and the crump of heavy bombs. For the lightly armed Partisan forces it meant despair, defeat and in a lot of cases, death. For five long years Stuka units in the Balkan theater have come and gone, depending on the Axis war fortunes. They did not have permanent base, as was the case with NSGR. 7 for example, but the bomb loads that the Ju 87 carried and the precision to deliver them, was the wining combination. In all major military operations in Yugoslavia against Tito’s forces, Stuka was an element which was always included in Commander’s plans. In September 1943 it was Stukas who spearheaded the defeat of the Italian forces since German land forces were few in numbers. Until the last day of WW II in Yugoslavia, Stuka was on the first line of fire even against a strong foe such as the Red Army.

The work on the design of future long-range active anti-aircraft and anti-submarine ship – as it was initially determined – was conducted by the Leningrad CKB-17 in close cooperation with OKB-938 led by N.I. Kamov. The author of the ship’s design, which was given the number 1123 and the code “Kondor”, was A.S. Sawiczew, and from 1967 – A.W. Marinich. The main task of the ship was to search and destroy American nuclear submarines carrying “Polaris” ballistic missiles in the Antarctic Ocean and Barents Sea.

Junkers Ju 87 ‘Stuka’, the most famous WW2 German dive bomber. This publication is a visual study of the production variants of the Junkers Ju 87 B. The 20 page, A4 size booklet contains 7 sheets of 1:48 scale drawings, 8 sheets of 1:72 scale drawings with specification of external changes in various versions of the aircraft and colour profiles of 5 planes, all with English and Polish captions.

In the interwar period the battleship "Marat" was considered a symbol of the naval power of the Soviet Union. She was the most-described and filmed ship of the Land of the Soviets. In her 40-year service, rich in events, she survived four wars, but only in one of them - the civil war - she used her main guns in an engagement with enemy warships. Only once in her career. In other conflicts, she served as a monitor rather than a battleship, shelling mainly land targets and carrying out counter-battery fire. At the end, she fell victim of the destructive power of German dive bombers. From that moment, she was a battleship only on paper. Mutilated and devoid of propulsion, she was still biting at the Germans from her remaining guns, and after the war, young pupils of the maritime craft appeared on board. Though it sounds absurd, even her reconstruction as a battleship was considered. This misconceived idea was not fortunately realized and the wreck - because it became one in the final period of service - finally went for scrap.

Following the defeat in the Guadalcanal campaign, at the beginning of 1943, the Navy Technical Department and The High Command of the Imperial Japanese Navy strived to increase the defensive potential of all their warships. Apart from standard refits of the majority of the Imperial Japanese Navy units, a plan was adopted, which called for reconstruction of two “Takao” class heavy cruisers into anti-aircraft units. Through a coincidence only the Maya underwent such conversion. This publication shows the cruiser in her anti-aircraft configuration and briefly describes her career.

The Imperial Naval Staff demanded the development of a destroyer project with owerful weaponry and capable of reaching speed of 40 knots. The project was approved and marked with the symbol "F52", it was included in the financial plan of 1939 "Maru Yon". According to the project, the armament was to consist of three two-barrel 127 mm gun turrets, and two seven-tube torpedo launchers. Due to the heavy weight of the tubes and the inability of emergency manual control of the launchers, this idea was abandoned. In connection with this, a project was prepared and the construction of the Japanese destroyer with the number 125later nam, ed "Shimakaze" commenced.

After the start of the production of the first production version Ju 88 A-1 two subsequent versions, based on the same airframe were developed. The first of them was the Junkers Ju 88 A-2, designated, as its predecessor, as Horizontal- und Sturzbomber (horizontal and dive bomber), powered by new Junkers Jumo G-1 engines, differing from the Junkers Jumo 211 B and D engines in having strengthened block structure. The maximum take-off power of the G-1 version was 1,200 hp at 2,400 RPM. The Ju 88A-2 was the first variant adapted for use of Walter Starthilfe 109-500 A-1 take-off rocket boosters. These boosters were designed in late 1930s to facilitate the take-off of bomber aircraft carrying maximum bomb load. They were liquid-fuel devices rated at maximum thrust of 500 kG and with the burn time of around 30 seconds. The Luftwaffe personnel quickly dubbed it Kraftei (power egg). Indeed the take-off booster resembled an egg, had oval shape flattened in the forward section housing the parachute deploying automatically after the booster’s burnout and jettisoning from underwing mounts. The engine was 1.42 m long and its diameter in the widest place was 0.68 m. The rocketboosters were safe in operation, and assisted more than 3,000 documented take-offs without any serious accidents.

British battleship HMS Royal Oak secured place in the history books as unlikely hero – sunk as a result of one of the most famous naval operations of the World War II. German submarine U-47, commanded by G. Prien, after undetected penetration into the Royal Navy Scapa Flow base, sent her down the bottom of the ocean together with the majority of her crew. This was one of the most painful losses of the British fleet during the war.Royal Oak was one of five class “Revenge” vessels, better known as simple “R”, battleships built throughout the World War I. Amongst her strong sides were very powerful main guns, quite good sailing abilities and interesting, “bulky” profile. “R” battleships have not participated in many of the naval operations of the Great War, as for Royal Oak she took her part in the battle of Jutland. Between the wars HMS Royal Oak was incorporated into the Atlantic Fleet and Home Fleet. She operated on the Mediterranean Sea during the Spanish Civil War.

Since 1699, Hungary had been part of the Austrian Empire, ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. In 1848/49, the Hungarians staged an uprising seeking their independence, and although the attempt was crushed by the Austrians, it resulted in 1867 that Hungary being granted equal status with Austria. The empire became the dual monarchy of Austria and Hungary. It was known as the kaiserliche und königliche (k. und k.) Monarchy. The kaiserliche part referred to the Imperial throne of Austria, while the königliche part referred to the Royal throne of Hungary. At the end of the First World War, Hungary, as a member of the k. und k. Monarchy, ended up on the losing side. Her army disintegrated and her armaments were either taken over or destroyed by the victorious Allied nations. In the autumn of 1919, after the failure of a short-lived Soviet-style republic, a new Hungarian National Army was organised under French supervision. This army was led by a former k. und k. admiral, the highest-ranking native Hungarian military officer, Admiral Miklós Horthy, who was later (in 1920) to become Regent of Hungary, ruling in place of the deposed Habsburgs. Hungary never officially renounced its status as a monarchy, and effectively the nation remained a monarchy without a king until the end of the Second World War. After WWI, Hungary was in a very critical situation. In 1920 the Allied Powers gave the Hungarian delegation their conditions for peace. This agreement, the Treaty of Trianon, was very similar to the one already imposed on Germany at Versailles, and a French General was later to state that the only result was a twenty year long cease-fire, nothing more. The peace conditions for Hungary reduced the area of the country from 282,000 square kilometres to 93,000 square kilometres and the population from 18 million to 9.5 million. Thus 3,263,000 Hungarians became citizens of foreign countries under hostile administrations. The provisions of the Treaty of Trianon reduced Hungary’s 1914 industrial base by about 80%. The Treaty of Trianon was a huge shock for the whole society. The Treaty has left a never ending scar on the Hungarian national consciousness. Everybody was affected, at least emotional by the harsh conditions of the Treaty. Hungary had lost his imperial status and was reduced to a small country surrounded by hostile states.

The world’s first modern tank, a pioneering vehicle whose basic features can be found on today’s modern tanks. FT was an undeniable success. Large number of FTs were provided to most Western front units by 1918, and they were involved in all major offensives, successfully crossing over trenches as intended, but also driving through forests. Renault produced two variants of the FT, The machine-gun model, which was more common, and a short-barreled 37 mm Puteaux SA 18 gun. Those models were defirent by their definitive Omnibus turret, multi-faceted or rounded with bent metal plates. By December 1917 3100 FTs were to be produced with the Omnibus turret, in both types. The FT had some flaws of the first series, including the radiator fan belt and cooling system problems. In 1919 a new redesigned version was proposed by Renault, including a more powerful engine, a long-barreled Puteaux gun and additional cases fitted in their tracks. It was successfully exported throughout the world. Some of them were immediately put into action, like the Finnish and Polish versions against the Soviets.

Henschel Hs 126 was a two-seater all-metal hinged monoplane with fixed landing gear. The first prototype – Hs 126 V-1 (D-UBYN) – had its flight-test in August 1936. It was powered by 12-cylinder liquid-cooled JUMO 210 C engine. By the end of year 1937 ten preproduction Hs 126 A-0 were delivered. Aircrafts were produced at Henschel-Werke plant and also at AGO Flugzeugwerke. Hs 126 had exceptional short landing performances, important for the close army cooperation. Armament consisted of two machine guns cal. 7.92 mm: pilot’s fixed MG-17 in front (with 500 rounds) and defense MG-15 in the observer cockpit (with 975 rounds). For the optional close support missions it was capable to carry bombs on two side racks (2×10 kg or 2×50 kg). It also had radio equipment and after gaining combat experience, some machines were equipped with side armor plates of 8 mm steel. The first combat employment of several Hs 126’s took place in Spain, where they were used as tactical reconnaissance within Ausfklarungsgruppe 35, and where they received the code name “Super Pavo”. Loses in Spanish civil war were minor. Some Henschels were also sold to Greece, Bulgaria and Estonia. At the beginning of world war II (invasion on Poland) the Hs 126’s were the backbone of reconnaissance units of the Luftwaffe. From 29 staffelns this machine was deployed in 23 of them (267 Hs 126’s were in combat units, of which 234 were combat-ready). However, Polish campaign showed that Hs 126 is vulnerable airplane. German lost about 41 of them to a AA fire and Polish fighter actions, and another 40 were seriously damaged. Hs 126 participated in missions over all WW2 fronts: from Africa, Soviet Union, West Europe to the Balkans. On the 1st of June 1941 Hs 126’s were still used by operational combat units as well as flying schools. However, raising loses resulted in withdrawing the type from combat units, but it was still presented in big number. For example, in March 1942 from 35 Aufklärer Staffels on East Front 16 operated Hs 126’s. Just in first day of Operation “Barbarosa” Germany lost 13 Hs 126’s and by the December 1941 they lost even 381 of them. Germans tried to accompany Hs 126’s with fighter escort during missions but this did not help much. For this reason from autumn 1941 the obsolete Henschels were replacing by more modern Fw 189. It is worth noting that Hs 126 played their role on rescuing the Benito Mussolini on 12th of September 1943. It made a reconnaissance mission to spot landing positions for gliders. By the March 1944 only 174 Hs 126’s still remained in the Luftwaffe, some of which were in service with the following combat squadrons on the Eastern Front: 13./NSGr-11 with a base in Estonia, 2./NSGr-12 with a base in Estonia/Lithuania and 2./NSGr-7 with a base in the Balkans. At that time title aircraft were used as night light bombers. Behind the front line the Hs 126 were used as daytime light bombers and scouts to fight the partisans, as well as communication planes in which role they served until the end of the war.Today not much parts of the Hs 126 is preserved and most of them was lost over Soviet Union.