Walter Koch (10 September 1910 – 23 October 1943) was a highly decorated commander of the Fallschirmjäger during World War II who died in mysterious circumstances after openly criticising Adolf Hitler. Koch, who was the recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross for his actions during the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael in May […]
Historical
Meet the Heroes: German Fallschirmjäger Major – Rudolf Witzig
Rudolf Witzig entered the history books as the heroic captor of Belgium’s supposedly impregnable fortress Eben Emael in May 1940. Witzig was involved in Operation Mercury, the invasion of Crete, but was injured during the fighting. After his recovery, he was sent to Tunisia where he was credited with several successful defensive actions. He ended […]
Meet the Heroes: Grigory Jefimowitsch, Codename: Rasputin
Please meet Russian Partisan Leader Grigori Jefimowitsch, Codename: Rasputin. Grigory is a purely fictional character so he doesn’t really fit the bill for our category historical heroes. He also isn’t inspired by any movie or TV show, so he’s really completely made up and never existed. Well, actually he is a bit inspired by this […]
Meet the Heroes: Lieutenant Colonel Robert G. Cole (Cole’s Charge)
On June 11, 1944 LtCol. Robert Cole with the 101st Airborne Division, had the objective to take Carentan. The young commander called in a smoke barrage right in front of the German positions and ordered his men to fix bayonets and charge. Many Americans were killed as they assaulted, but more than 100 of Cole’s […]
Meet the Heroes: British Army Lt. Col. – John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming “Mad Jack” Churchill
Background: Lieutenant-Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming “Jack” Churchill, DSO & Bar, MC & Bar (16 September 1906 – 8 March 1996) was a British Army officer who fought throughout the Second World War armed with a longbow, bagpipes, and a basket-hilted Scottish broadsword. Nicknamed “Fighting Jack Churchill” and “Mad Jack”, he is known for the […]
Meet the Heroes: British Navy Beach Master & Captain Colin Maud
Captain Colin Douglas Maud DSO & Bar, DSC & Bar (21 January 1903 – 1980) was a Royal Navy officer who during the Second World War commanded the destroyers Somali and Icarus and acted as beach master of Juno beach at the D-day landings. With a heavy black beard, he “possessed the outward appearance of […]
Meet the Heroes: Hogan, Klink & Schultz
Check out our hommage to Hogan’s Heroes. 🙂 For those of you who haven’t heard of Hogan’s Heroes before, I recommend to take a couple of minutes and to check it out on Youtube. I haven’t watched them all I have to admit, but I did watch most of Season 1 (in black and white) […]
Meet the Heroes: German Oberscharführer Fritz Christen – “PAK of Dubrowka”
As I have received quite a few questions about some of the new Stoessi’s Heroes releases, I think it is time for another quick “meet the heroes”. Let’s start with Fritz Christen: During the battle of Luzhno in Russia, Christen’s crew knocked out 6 attacking tanks. The next day their PaK38 (AT gun) took a […]
Stoessi’s Blitzdepesche – Dick Winters & Special Guest Partisan Leader Grigori Jefimowitsch
So, let’s talk about the two “mystery miniatures” from my last workbench-update post. One of them is a test cast of Captain Winters and I think it’s looking quite good actually. A friend of mine pointed out that he looks a bit like the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. So here he is then…. Gerhard […]
Stoessi’s Heroes Medal of Recommendation: The Tightheadprop Painting Studio
Remember that we have this cool version of Mariya Oktyabrskaya coming out? Well, for the second pose I obviously needed a nicely painted T34 tank and while I had the model, I couldn’t find the time to work on it. Very frustrating. 🙁 So to the rescue came…. Carsten Schwejda, or better known as THE […]