COBI PZL.23 Karaś Set 5751

COBI's PZL.23 Karaś is a 1:32 model built from 586 blocks, 28.5 cm long with a 43 cm wingspan. A new brick was made for the long glazed canopy, which holds three crew figures — pilot, observer and gunner — in leather flying suits printed front and back. Underwing bombs and machine guns are fitted, the whole underside is in a new light blue brick colour, and the model sits on wheels or on a display base with transparent supports. A printed brick map of Poland in 1939 and a nameplate with the Polish chequerboard are included.

The first bombs on German soil

On 2 September 1939, the second day of the war, a flight of Karaś bombers crossed the border and attacked a factory at Ohlau in Silesia — today Oława in Poland. It was the first Allied bombing of German territory in the Second World War, and it was carried out by an aircraft that was already obsolete when it did it.

The Karaś was a light bomber built for the Polish air force from 1936: fixed undercarriage, fabric-covered rear fuselage, a top speed of around 320 km/h. Against the Luftwaffe in 1939 it was hopelessly outclassed.

It was flown anyway, mostly at low level against German columns advancing on Warsaw, and the crews were destroyed doing it. Of roughly 120 Karaś that went into action, about 110 were lost in three weeks. There was no replacement, no reserve and nowhere to withdraw to.

In the COBI range

Set 5742 is the PZL P.11c, the Polish fighter of the same campaign, at the same scale.

Specifications

Pieces: 586 · Figures: 3 · Scale: 1:32 · Brick map of Poland included
Model dimensions: 28.5 × 43 × 14.5 cm (11.2 × 16.9 × 5.7 in)