Saturday 28 March 2015

Czechoslovak Inscriptions for World of Tanks

Author: Silentstalker

Hello everyone,

here's a quick glimpse at the historical inscriptions that might (in some cases likely will) be used for the Czechoslovak branch of World of Tanks. These are just examples of course - just so we have an idea.

First example is the "Žižka" T-34. There were in fact two Žižka tanks (one was destroyed by the Germans), named after Jan Žižka z Trocnova, legendary Czech 15th century leader, who is said never to have lost a battle. This name first appeared on the T-34/76 tank on 30.9.1943 in Novokhopersk. All first 10 tanks of the Czechoslovak unit were named. The tank took part in the liberation of Kiev, where it (along with local partisans) destroyed one halftrack and one StuG. In December 1943, its commander, J.Buršík, was awarded with the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union award. In January 1944 it took part in the fights around Korsun, then it was assigned for training, it took part of in the battle of Dukla pass, where it was destroyed by a Panzerfaust hit. The crew - although wounded - managed to escape. Second "Žižka" was a T-34/85, named so on 5.5.1945.




"Lidice" was one of the most famous Czechoslovak tanks as well. It was named after one of the most notorious nazi atrocities, the burning of the Lidice village - retaliation for the death of the infamous Reinhardt Heydrich (the village was levelled, men and women were shot or sent to concentration camps and children were either killed or sent to German families for "re-education"). It was a T-34/76E and it served throughout the war during the same operations as Žižka. It was hit several times, one time it burned out, but they always managed to repair it and it survived the war. Currently it is located in the military museum in Lešany.



Here, we can see the T-34/85's  "Lidice", "Žižka" and "Jánošík" on 9.5.1970, Prague victory parade. "Jánošík" is named after one of the Slovak folk heroes, a "bandit" stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.



One of the more famous events of the Prague Uprising in 1945 was the battle for the radio building. During the final days of Third Reich, Waffen SS troops stormed the rebel outpost and were thrown back numerous times. The citizens of Prague captured several German vehicles from the local repair plant, including more than one unfinished Jagdpanzer 38t "Hetzer" - these vehicles were generally missing their guns and the rebels used only the pintle-mounted machineguns to fight - or installed machineguns in ad-hoc plates, covering the gun pit. This is how one of the vehicles looked. It's covered with Czech flags, a Czech national crest (two-tailed lion) and the names of the fallen citizens, who died fighting the nazi occupants.It's covered with Czech flags, a Czech national crest (two-tailed lion) and the names of the fallen citizens, who died fighting the nazi occupants.






Another two captured Jagdpanzer 38t's looked like this:





The inscriptions read:

"Za naše padlé" - For our fallen
"Smrt německým vrahům" - Death to German murderers
"Strašnice" - a name of a district of Prague
"1X Měř 2X Řež" - Aim once, cut twice (on the gun shield)
"Pravda Vítězí" - Truth Wins

Series of inscriptions were covered by a well-known Czech modder Armstrong - I don't have the electronic version of the photos here, so I will use his pictures to demonstrate how the inscriptions look:

SU-100 of the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Brigade "Praha"



SU-85 "Kapitán Otakar Jaroš", named after the hero of the battle of Sokolovo



Crusader "Scrap" (1st Czechoslovak Armored Brigade, training grounds in Scotland)



Cromwell "Rusalka" (1st Czechoslovak Armored Brigade, Dunkerque)



M5 Stuart "Šotek" ("Gremlin")



1st CSOB Stuarts - the color was olive drab. The first one is called "Chachar", which is a slang Czech word for a resident of the city of Ostrava (or northern Moravia in general)



Now... I kinda miss one inscription I know existed - "Smrt SS!" ("Death to SS!"), which I would love to have for obvious reasons :) I know I saw a photo of that, but I really can't find it, so if you ever run into it on the web or in any books, let me know :)

18 comments:

  1. "Smrt SS!" ("Death to SS!")
    .....very funny.

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    Replies
    1. You know, in this context SS is the "Schutzstaffel" which was some kind of elite force founded by Hitler to take care of domestic affairs like for example obliteration of the Czechoslovak resistance.

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    2. I think RG means SS as SilentStalker ;-)
      Good Joke, RG :-D

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    3. "Author: Silentstalker"....

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  2. These I'd actually want on a tank!

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  3. Jánošík! Slovak national hero, I sure will paint that on my tank :)

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  4. Yes cos Czechs and Slovaks were stronk, mighty warriors... dont make me laugh... A italian branch - ok, a Sweedish branch- cool, hungarian - why not... but Czsk??? Please, only reason we are talking about it is cos of SS who is Czech if im not mistaken. Give me a break, all the Czechs did in ww2 is surender and give the germans their tanks... so gg.. :P

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    Replies
    1. That's the silliest thing I heard for today. Never go full retard.

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    2. ...u idiot, all western Allies were too coward to fight against Hitler (in 1938) so they left CSR alone and torn it apart (Vienna Arbitration, which took place at Vienna's Belvedere Palace on November 2, 1938) and almost all our great fortifications fell into Hitler hands without a fight! F* Chamberlain... So learn history 1st, before u write something stupid...

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    3. And Italian did what? Fight againts germany? No they were friends from the start...

      Czech have no choice but to cooperate because your mighty heroes (UK/France for example) basically sold us to germany.

      I dont like this but ffs read at least wiki before you vomit this.

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    4. No m8, Cz/sk surrendered, Yugoslavia, for example, never did, it fought against the axis with no help whatsoever. It lost quickly, but it tried.... put that in your pipe and smoke it. A nation that basically did nothing during the war is being blown up to be a heroic nation? Give me a break, read about Yugoslav partisans, they fought and bled for freedom. So SS and Rita pls when are we going to see Yugoslav tanks in WOT?

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    5. Ok. I appreciate stronk Yugoslavian nationalism (so stronk they were able to kill their national brothers 50 years later) and i confess that Czechoslovaks never fought in WW2 (except for, say 310, 311, 313 and 68 RAF squadron, assasinating no 3 of Third Reich in 1942 to show thr allies on their request that they actually care after being left to their fate with unfinished strongholds by Mr Chamberlein and Daladier in 1938. But all historical connotations aside, this is game. Siemkas are no. 2 on EU server as far as the number of players are concerned and Czechs are no 3. We have SS (thanks to him), poles dont. We get our branch and Poles should have theirs as well, not just Rudy. You dont have to grind it (i dont grind the Chinese branch too) but thanks to WG for letting me to. Howgh

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    6. I would not mind a siemka branch tbh, but all this czech stuff is getting out of hand. Sure, i own a pz 38t in my wot garage (i try to collect all the historical tanks), I would buy and keep an ltvz, an ltp, and so on and so on, but reading every day about czech tanks, even more then italian tanks (which sucked, but its freaking italy) or any other branch is getting real old real fast... How about romanian tanks for a change? How about hungary? How about an yugoslav t34 heavy tank prototype, or even a Croatian pz4 as an Premium? There are many many countries in Europe, which should get their spot under the sun, and all we get is ss and his chzechs...

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    7. Well why don't you write it yourself and sent it do Rita? I am sure that if there would be someone willing to write about other tanks she would publish it. I hope that you realize that this is actually quite bit of hard work. We could only be glad that someone like SS actually put his effort into making this.

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  5. Treba da stave srpske tenkove. :D
    Translate it from Serbian.

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    Replies
    1. Budimo realni najbolji tenkovi koje imate (m84) su iz Hrvatske :D

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    2. Mislis one srpske tenkove sto su se u Bosni pravili ?

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