COBI De Gaulle's Horch830BL - Limited Edition Set 2260

COBI's De Gaulle's Horch 830 BL Limited Edition is a 1:35 model built from 315 blocks, 16 cm long. Three figures are included — Charles de Gaulle, an exclusive figure of Philippe Leclerc, and a third — with additional prints and a flag. A numbered plaque with the vehicle name and a paper certificate of authenticity complete the set.

The leader of Free France drove a captured German car

The Horch 830 BL was built in Zwickau for the German market, and in the 1930s the long-wheelbase version was exactly what high-ranking officials were driven in. This particular car spent the war doing that.

In August 1944 it fell into Allied hands during the liberation of France, and it became Charles de Gaulle's preferred car. He used it repeatedly — the man who had refused to accept the armistice, broadcast from London and spent four years insisting France had never surrendered, riding around liberated Paris in a German staff car.

He clearly did not mind. A good car was a good car, and there is an argument that being driven in it made a point of its own.

It was sold in the early 1950s. It survives, and it is in the Militärhistorisches Museum in Dresden — back in the country that built it.

Leclerc

Philippe Leclerc commanded the 2nd Armoured Division, the Free French formation that entered Paris on 24 August 1944 and took the German surrender of the city. His division had fought from Chad across the Sahara to join the Allies, and he had sworn not to rest until the French flag flew over Strasbourg — which it did, in November 1944. He was killed in an air crash in 1947, at 45.

In the COBI range

Set 2261 is the same car in the standard edition, and 2271 the shortened Horch 830 BK cabriolet.

Specifications

Pieces: 315 · Figures: 3, including an exclusive Leclerc · Scale: 1:35 · Numbered plaque and certificate
Model dimensions: 16 × 6 cm (6.3 × 2.4 in)