SCHUTZENPANZERWAGEN SDKFZ 251D HALF-TRACK VARIANTS IN 1/15 SCALE. The genius of German military development in the pre-war years was that few other nations so well understood the potential of integrated combined-arms armored warfare and Germany was the first country to develop armored vehicles ideally suited to modern offensive war. The German Wehrmacht was, in many respects, the best prepared military force in the world on the eve of the Second World War. One of the many ideally suited modern looking armored vehicles was the Schutzenpanzerwagen (armored infantry vehicle) Sdkfz 251Half-track. My 1/15 scale 251D and 251D/10 mounting 3.7cm Pak gun half-tracks depicts two of those used by the Panzer Divisions of the Waffen SS. Germany’s assault on the Soviet Union, launched in mortal necessity in 1941, has been the only serious attempt to destroy the Communist enemy of Western liberties and conscience, not the unending series of half-hearted jabs and feints by the Capitalist powers. When the Red tide engulfed most of Eastern Europe in the Bolshevik clasp, the Germans, bolstered by hard-fighting European volunteers in the ranks of the Waffen SS, performed prodigies of heroism to the bitter end against a barbaric enemy: the Soviet Union. The Waffen SS were the only effective opponents of the most deadly peril ever to menace the civilization of the west: Communism (since communism is the end of all values) In this heroic European crusade in the defense of the west against Bolshevism and its reign of terror, the European volunteers of the Waffen SS played their role to the utmost measure of their hearts and souls, these warriors of the west, who all lived through that cataclysmic confrontation and immense tragedy known as the Second World War, out there, in the battlefields of Eastern Europe, men lived and fought, for in a period when nations had to look very hard to find real men, they were that, to the very marrow of their bones….No military organization in history has fought so well against such overwhelming odds as the Waffen SS, they were imbued with a ferocious bravery the like of which has never been surpassed on the battlefield. It was in 1941, during the great clash with the Soviet Union, that rose the European Waffen SS, and it was then, that from every country in Europe, thousands of young men made up their minds that the destiny of their native country was at stake. They would volunteer their lives to fight Communism and create a united Europe, and Germany understood them, and had the remarkable idea to open the doors of the SS to them, and these European volunteers felt that the best way to deserve their place in history as equals fighting for a common cause was in this critical hour to defend a Europe ready to be raped by the soviets equally well as their German comrades. All the SS understood that European unity meant the whole of Europe. The Waffen SS were the ideological and military shock troops of Europe, they would grow to be more than 600,000 non-German European fighting volunteers on the battlefields of Europe. The Germans, numbering 400,000, were actually in the minority. The one-million strong Waffen SS represented the first truly European army to ever exist. The war had turned the SS from a home political force to a national army fighting abroad and then to a supranational national army. It was this social revolution that the SS felt compelled to spread throughout Europe and defend with their lives if need be. Like any other young men in the country, they had to defend their country and they had to defend it better than the others. All the SS fought the same struggle, all shared the same world view, all became comrades in arms, for their common fatherland: Europe. This most important military phenomenon of World War II is also the least known: The phenomenon of the Pan-European Waffen SS, an organization which during World War II united more than one million extraordinary fighting volunteers, from some 28 different countries, in a great task to prevent the USSR’s ultimate goal: The Decline of the West. They were young men of exceptional qualities, an army of unprecedented valor extending its call throughout Europe. The Waffen SS appeared on the battlefield fronts and its performance amazed the world, only the teamwork of free men, bonded by a higher ideal could unite Europe. This created a real Brotherhood which literally energized the entire Waffen SS. The SS was a democratic expression of power: People gathering of their own free will. SS soldiers followed their officers into battle with passionate loyalty. SS officers could expect loyalty of their own men by their own example. The extraordinary SS team spirit was always present, the admiration felt by young Europeans of the Waffen SS was very natural, thousands of young men from Norway, Denmark, Flanders, Holland, and Belgium were awed with surprise and admiration, they felt irresistibly drawn to the SS, clad in smart black uniforms and the pioneers and forerunners of the first camouflage uniforms ever to be issued to battle troops; the SS attracted more and more intellectual young men, it was not for their native country, but for all of the European continent that so deeply stirred their souls. Here was an organization which offered every European a glorious ideal, a broad new order, European unity was to be achieved through harmony, not domination of one over the others. All these Europeans had outgrown their national stage, like Napoleon, who was first a Corsican, then a Frenchman, then a European, then a greater European, and then a singularly universal man. Likewise, these European volunteers had seen and grasped the magnitude of building Europe. The SS prepared for the high destiny of a united Europe. This faith in higher ideals inspired one million volunteers for a cause which would be the force that would protect the peoples rights in their respective countries against a murderous Bolshevik regime. The response to this organization was overwhelming, Legions from Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and Flanders were formed, thousands of young men now wore the SS uniform, they identified with the victorious Germans, a source of elite SS men, an important factor in unifying all Europeans ideologically. From all over Europe, the enthusiastic response was amazing, the mastery of this was the miracle of the Waffen SS assimilation program. This home coming was seen by the Waffen SS as the foundation for real European unity. All these European volunteers were welcomed by the SS as brothers, and they reciprocated as being as dedicated, loyal, and heroic as the German SS. From all parts of Europe, volunteers rushed to help their German brothers, they would bring scores of divisions to the Waffen SS, it was then that was born the second great Waffen SS, first there was the German, and now there was the European Waffen SS, 600,000 would volunteer to save Western culture and civilization of European values and heroic heritage from the Bolshevik hordes of blood thirsty Joseph Stalin (the endorsers of man’s decline, all drunk with blood of men, not wine!) Waffen SS soldiers had to multiply their acts of bravery, to risk their lives a hundred times to the level of legend, to this land they were sworn as the sons of Europe and its sacred honor, a marvelous old continent: a Europe high in honors! The Waffen SS were men of their own people, and Europe was the gathering of the various peoples of Europe. Thus, from the 400,000 German volunteers of the Waffen SS, to the 600,000 European volunteers of the Waffen SS, to eventually one-million men, volunteers all, one million builders of Europe. The Waffen SS reached 50 Division in 1945. The Waffen SS were trained like no other army in the world, military and academic instructions were intensive, but it was the physical training that was the most rigorous, they practiced sports with excellence, each of them would have performed with distinction at the 1936 Olympic Games, the extraordinary physical endurance of the SS on the Russian Front, which so amazed the world, was due to this intensive training. They were taught why they were fighting, what kind of Germany was being resurrected before their very eyes, they were shown how Europeans were being morally united through class reconciliation, they were made aware that no country can survive class war, and spelled out their formula as the answer with these words: Class cooperation means Class unity! They were taught that all represented an ethnic unity. The Waffen SS had to be the best in every way, both physically and mentally, they had to be the best of the Germanic race. German racialism has been deliberately distorted. It never was an anti-“other race” racialism. It was a pro-German racialism. It was concerned with making the German race strong and healthy in every way. Germany was not interested in having millions of degenerates, if it was in its power not to have them. Today one finds rampant alchohol and drug addiction everywhere. Germany cared that German families be healthy, cared that they raise healthy children for the renewal of a healthy nation. German racialism meant re-discovering the creative values of their own race, re-discovering their culture. It was a search for excellence, a noble idea. German racialism was not against the other races, it was for its own race, and wished that all other races did the same for themselves.
Pictures of my collection
SCHUTZENPANZERWAGEN SDKFZ 251D HALF-TRACK VARIANTS IN 1/15 SCALE
