COBI B-24 Liberator Mk.III - Limited Edition Set 5738

COBI's B-24 Liberator Mk. III Limited Edition is a 1:48 model built from 1,570 blocks, 45 cm long with a 68.5 cm wingspan, in the markings of 1586 Special Duties Flight of the Polish Air Force in Britain. The propellers and ailerons move and the bomb bay doors open. Three figures exclusive to this edition are included: two RAF aircrew and an elite Polish paratrooper. A brick printed with the parachute badge, a display stand, a numbered engraved plate and a numbered certificate signed by hand by COBI's chief executive complete the set. No stickers.

The paratrooper figure is a Cichociemny

Cichociemni means the Silent Unseen, and there were 316 of them in the whole war.

They were Polish soldiers who had escaped to Britain, volunteered for something they were not told about, and then went through some of the hardest training any Allied force ran: parachuting, sabotage, demolitions, silent killing, radio operation, forgery, and — crucially — months of relearning how to behave like a civilian in a country they had left years earlier, because a wrong reflex on a tram would get them shot.

Around 2,600 volunteered. 606 completed the course. 316 were dropped into occupied Poland, flown in from Britain and later Italy in aircraft like this one, usually at night, often with no reception committee confirmed.

103 of them were killed — in the drop, in the fighting, or in Gestapo custody. Nine more were executed after the war by the Polish communist authorities, for having been loyal to the government in London.

1586 Flight

The unit flew supply drops to occupied Europe and to Poland — a round trip of some 2,000 kilometres from Italy across the Alps and the Balkans, at night, at low level, to a field marked by three torches.

During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944 the flight flew to Warsaw repeatedly with weapons and ammunition for the insurgents, in the full knowledge that Soviet forces across the river were not permitting Allied aircraft to land and refuel. Losses were ruinous. The squadron was effectively destroyed doing it, and most of what was dropped fell into German-held districts.

The Liberator in these markings, GR-U, was shot down over Yugoslavia.

In the COBI range

Set 5739 is the standard B-24 Liberator at this scale. Set 2057 is the Warsaw Uprising figure set — the people these aircraft were flying to.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,570 · Figures: 3, all exclusive to this edition · Scale: 1:48 · Numbered plate and signed certificate · No stickers
Model dimensions: 45 × 68.5 × 13 cm (17.7 × 27.0 × 5.1 in)