Hello everybody!
On the 29th of September, 2012 the Officer School in Poznan, also called CWSL - Centrum Szkolenia Wojsk Lądowych - That’s Polish for Army Training Center - opened its gates to the general public. Thay have some cool stuff there, I took some photos if you are interested.
First, they started with a demonstration - it was a bit like “children, what have we learned in Afghanistan?”. They showed a marching column, encountering an ambush and breaking through. Of course there were lots of simplifications, so as to keep it safe for the spectators, but the public was impressed anyhow:
Just as it was over, the children went on to pick up the spent brass:
Then they went on with a parade. They have a very nice collection of preserved vehicles, and they got two new ones - an M48 and an M60 - both ex-Greek Army. They are very popular in the west, but rare in the east. But there were also other vehicles:
A very rare Bussing-NAG Sd.Kfz.6 in a running condition
A Half track (I believe it was the M2)
A Soviet VIP car
A Sherman Firefly in a running condition.
A replica of Polish wz.34 armoured car
They also have an armour museum in Poznań, where they have some really rare stuff:
A StuG IV in a running condition
A Josif Stalin 2 tank, also in a running condition
A T-70 light tank, very rare.
Here’s some stuff for Mike and Gino:
Those are the 2S7 Pion 203mm howitzer (on the left) and 2S1 Gvozdika 122mm howitzer. counterparts to the M110 and M109 SP howitzers.
Also lots of the T-34s:
Nice cutout piece, it was also used to film the series “Czterej Pancerni i pies” (Look it up on youtube, if you’re interested in soviet armor)
This is an ARV based on the T-34 tank
There were also some vehicles currently in use by the Polish army:
Rosomak (“Volverine”), well liked by the troops in Afghanistan
Żbik (“Wildcat”) - an IVECO powered variant of the BRDM-2, it also has a suite of acoustic sensors to pin down the exact location of bad guys firing at you. Cool “nose art”, too:
A BMP-1. called BWP in Poland (Bojowy Wóz Piechoty - infantry fighting vehicle)
A PT-91 “Twardy” (Hard) - a modification of the T-72 with reactive armor and new optics and fire control gear - also exported to Malaysia.
There is also on display some curious stuf like this rocket launcher:
Or the remains of this german vehicle:
If you need, I have more photos - just write me. Hope you liked it - thanks for reading, have a nice day
Paweł
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