COBI De Gaulle's Horch830BL Set 2261

COBI's De Gaulle's Horch 830 BL is a 1:35 model built from 244 blocks, with figures of Charles de Gaulle and his driver. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

The car changed sides

This particular Horch belonged to General Dietrich von Choltitz, the German military governor of Paris. In August 1944 Hitler ordered the city destroyed — bridges, monuments, the lot — and asked repeatedly whether it was burning. Von Choltitz did not carry out the order. He surrendered Paris intact.

The car passed to the Allies, and Charles de Gaulle took it as his own. The leader of the Free French spent the following years being driven around a liberated France in the staff car of the German commander who had refused to raze its capital.

Horch built it in Zwickau in 1936. The company had made its name on engineering quality in the 1920s, and the 830 BL was the long-wheelbase version of a luxury saloon that the army requisitioned in numbers. The car survives today in the military history museum in Dresden, restored, flying a French pennant with the Cross of Lorraine.

In the COBI range

Part of the 1:35 historical vehicle series, which shares its scale with the Blitz trucks, the Citroën Traction (2263) and the Sd.Kfz 10 tractor (2273).

Specifications

Pieces: 244 · Figures: 2, de Gaulle and driver · Scale: 1:35
Model dimensions: 16 × 6 cm (6.3 × 2.4 in)