Indian National Army

[thedarkmaster]

Me 262 Indian National Army, Air Force, Iraqi front 1947 thru 1949. flown by pilot officer R S Benegal,

Following the defeat and surrender of Japan in July of 1946 the remains of the Indian national Army and it's leader Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose fled Japan and what remained of it's territory overseas by any means possible, a Victorious and vengeful Britain always hot upon their heels.

Few if any of the ordinary infantry soldiers of the movement made it to freedom but officers and cadets stationed in Japan where able with the collusion of the Japanese, to acquire certain long range aircraft with which to fly to German occupied Russia.

Initially numbering less than 1000 men they did however have over 200 pilot cadets that where able to transfer to German flight schools and for Propaganda purposes they were assigned to the front with the most British Indian forces on it, namely the Iraqi front over the Mosul plain where the Panzer Armee Asia battled the British and commonwealth forces for control.

Flying over this neglected front until it's rupture near the wars end in 1949 the me 262's of the Indian national Army achieved little against the RAF and Imperial Indian forces ( Rember George was Emperor of India ) in fact they found thenselves actively hunted by the IIAF ( Imperial Indian Air Force ) where ever they went., leaving the aircraft sadly neglected and in a sorry state, such as this aircraft found on the field at Tabriz, Persia by the 5Th Indian division.







































I have ripped a few ideas for this from a book called the Moscow Option the rest is more or less real.

the pilot R S Benegal was a trained by the INA in WW2, he later became an Indian Air force Air Comadore !!



one of the guys on this picture is him in Tokyo in WW2


the roundel i made up, it has the Indian colours and the INA tiger, as you cannot see it properly in the pics here it is






i have tried to make her look worn and roughly used, tried a few new things, hope it's worked what do you think ?

[pyro-manic]

Superb in every sense! The chipping and weathering is done in a wargames-type fashion, which is very effective indeed and suits your painting style very well.

[Weaver]

That looks great, and I love the backstory - nice one! 

[The Wooksta!]

Model's nice enough but the backstory... Doesn't work. The Germans would NEVER have given the Indians access to Bf 109s let alone 262s - on their racial policy they ranked somewhere between Jews and monkeys.  If the SS are exterminating white Ukrainians by the villageload, why give a bunch of turncoats access to their latest technology?  

And let's not forget the treatment meted out to ethnic members of the RAF who were captured (the actor/singer Cy Town - the voice of Lieutenant Green in the original Captain Scarlet - was an Afro Carribean who served as aircrew on Wellingtons was one such example).  They were used for all sorts of vile racist propaganda.

There's a superb but rather dry book (I suspect it was written in another language but translated into English) on the subject of Axis lease lend and it revealed that the aircraft the Luftwaffe gave to their allies was clapped out junk that was always delivered late.  The ideas that the Germans would share their latest technology are utter bunkum.

[deathjester]

Superb in every sense! The chipping and weathering is done in a wargames-type fashion, which is very effective indeed and suits your painting style very well.

That's what I thought when I first saw it - very reminiscent of the GW style of painting.  Very, very good indeed!!

[deathjester]

Model's nice enough but the backstory... Doesn't work. The Germans would NEVER have given the Indians access to Bf 109s let alone 262s - on their racial policy they ranked somewhere between Jews and monkeys.  If the SS are exterminating white Ukrainians by the villageload, why give a bunch of turncoats access to their latest technology? 

And let's not forget the treatment ethnic members of the RAF who were captured (the actor/singer Cy Town - the voice of Lieutenant Green in the original Captain Scarlet - was an Afro Carribean who served as aircrew on Wellingtons was one such example).  They were used for all sorts of vile racist propaganda.

There's a superb but rather dry book (I suspect it was written in another language but translated into English) on the subject of Axis lease lend and it revealed that the aircraft the Luftwaffe gave to their allies was clapped out junk that was always delivered late.  The ideas that the Germans would share their latest technology are utter bunkum.

It IS clapped out junk - look at the paint job.  Besides, the Nazis regarded the Russians in just the same way - they traded with them right up to the moment of invasion, in fact, the first units over the border passed a supply convoy carrying Russian fuel to Germany!

[Army of One]

I like it......great job with the paint scheme......the roundel is superb......I have trouble thinking of back stories or reasons why I have made a model in certain colours.....well done...

[thedarkmaster]

What were the Nazi racial theories opininions on various races?
Paticularly the non Slav races of European Russia?
-Dutch, Vlaamis(north belgium), Luxemburg
-Baltic people(Finns, Estonians , latvians, Lithuanians)
The Nazi consider them Aryans (because old German settler area)
in a Longtime Program to "germansieren" them (teaches German language and culture)
later Become Part of the "Germania" Nazi Empire

-Caucasian peoples(Tartars, Checynans, Armenians, Georgians, Azerbajis)
strangely there Was a SS order: "do not Attack them and respect them" !

-Turkic people
Hitler was very Clear about them: Exterminate them like the Jew and Slavs!

-Arabs,
Hitler and Himmler regard them as another form of Jews !

-Persians,Afghans and Indians
Consider as Aryans

-Balkans people(Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgars, Balkans Slavs)
Exterminate most of them and Rest are Slave for Nazi

Source:
"Wenn Hitler den Krieg gewonnen hätte" by Ralph Giordano
Isbn 3-462-02944-4 (german Language)

"Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler
I hate that Book but to talk over Nazism, you need to read it

I don't support this stuff but if your from a family with Jewish and Polish ancestry it's best to learn about your enemies

[The Wooksta!]

I've never tried 'Mein Kampff', it's not a book I really want to have under my roof.  Incidentally, who would get the royalties from any purchase?  Is it still in print?  If so, someone is still making a profit on Nazism!

But I have read at least three books by the survivors of Auschwitz, one of whom was used by Mengele to assist in his dissections.  For those interested in modelling Luftwaffe 46, I suggest you read them.  I doubt you'd want to do any more.

[Weaver]

Model's nice enough but the backstory... Doesn't work. The Germans would NEVER have given the Indians access to Bf 109s let alone 262s - on their racial policy they ranked somewhere between Jews and monkeys.  If the SS are exterminating white Ukrainians by the villageload, why give a bunch of turncoats access to their latest technology?  

And let's not forget the treatment meted out to ethnic members of the RAF who were captured (the actor/singer Cy Town - the voice of Lieutenant Green in the original Captain Scarlet - was an Afro Carribean who served as aircrew on Wellingtons was one such example).  They were used for all sorts of vile racist propaganda.

There's a superb but rather dry book (I suspect it was written in another language but translated into English) on the subject of Axis lease lend and it revealed that the aircraft the Luftwaffe gave to their allies was clapped out junk that was always delivered late.  The ideas that the Germans would share their latest technology are utter bunkum.

The Nazis were perfectly willing to overlook their racist ideology when troops were on offer, to the point where there were actually Waffen SS "Foreign Legions" formed from Slavs, Bosnian Muslims, Turks and yes, Indians:  "Indische Freiwilligen-Legion der Waffen-SS", aka "The Tiger Legion". There was even a Britishe Freikorps! (got all of two dozen volunteers, all of whom mysteriously vanished). Don't imagine that these were all conscripts either: Fascism may be seen as the Spawn of Satan today, but a lot of people believed in it outside of Germany in the 1930s, and for people who'd spent 20 years fighting Stalin's Communists or British Colonial Rule, the "enemy of my enemy" argument was persuasive.

The Waffen-SS maintained several "Foreign Legions" of personnel from conquered territories and countries allied to Germany. The majority wore a distinctive national collar patch and preceded their SS rank titles with the prefix Waffen instead of SS. Volunteers from Scandinavian countries filled the ranks of two divisions, the 5th "Wiking" and 11th "Nordland." Belgian Flemings joined Dutchmen to form the "Nederland" Legion,their Walloon compatriots joined the Sturmbrigade "Wallonien". There was also a French volunteer division,(33rd Franzosiche Division), "Charlemagne"

Racial restrictions were relaxed to the extent that Ukrainian Slavs, Albanians from Kosovo, Turkic Tatars, and even Asians from Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)[20] units were recruited. The Ukrainians and the Tatars had both suffered persecution under Joseph Stalin and their motive was a hatred of communism rather than sympathy for National Socialism. The exiled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, used hatred of Serbs and Jews to recruit an entire Waffen-SS division of Bosnian Muslims, the 13th SS Division "Handschar" (Scimitar).[21] The year long Soviet occupation of the Baltic states at the beginning of World War II produced volunteers for Estonian and Latvian Waffen-SS units, though the majority of those units still was formed by forced draft. However, some other occupied countries such as Greece, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Poland never formed formal Waffen-SS legions. With that said, there were some countrymen that were in the service of the Waffen-SS. In Greece, the fascist organisation ESPO tried to create a Greek SS division, but the attempt was abandoned after its leader was assassinated.

The Indische Freiwilligen Infanterie Regiment 950 (also known at various stages as the Indische Freiwilligen-Legion der Waffen-SS, the Legion Freies Indien, and Azad Hind Fauj) was created in August 1942, chiefly from disaffected Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army, captured by the Axis in North Africa. Many, if not most, of the Indian volunteers who switched sides to fight with the German Army and against the British were strongly nationalistic supporters of the exiled, anti-British, former president of the Indian National Congress, Netaji (the Leader) Subhash Chandra Bose. See also the Tiger Legion and the Indian National Army.

From here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzstaffel

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Legion

[rickshaw]

The Nazi racial theories weren't firmly set in stone as many believe.  They were somewhat malleable and as noted, you had various SS "Legions" being created.   The history of German involvement in the Indian Nationalist movement goes back to before WWI.  In WWI, the Germans enacted a policy of Drang nach Ost ("Storm in the East"), where they tried to raise the Muslims of Central Asia against the Russians, the Afghanis and Indians against the British.  This included sending military and political missions to Afghanistan, Tibet, Persia and most of the central Asian countries.

In WWII, that was revived, often by the same players in the "Great Game" involved, still pushing their theories and beliefs about the unpopularity of Bolshivik and British rule in the region.   Hitler authorised the raising of an INA in Germany under Bose.  However it wasn't particularly successful.  Bose went to Japan in 1941 (across Russia, before the German invasion) and got involved there, raising another INA in Burma, where it fought for while with the Japanese before turning against them and fighting with the British in the final stages of the war.

One of the more interesting things which has come to light over the last decade or so about German racial theories is the large numbers of Jews who actually served in the Wehrmacht, often at the same time as their families were being rounded up and sent to the Concentration Camps (I've read one story of several serving Jews returning home on leave to find their families gone and actually turning up at the camp gates demanding to see their families!).    Many German commanders turned a blind eye to the Jewishness of subordinates and shielded them from personal persecution by the Nazi authorities.  Those same authorities in turn, turned a blindeye to the Jewishness of certain members of the various high commanders in the Wehrmacht - Erich von Manstein springs to mind - his mother was half-Jewish which under Nazi racial theories and laws, made him Jewish as well.   However he remained in positions of power until 1944, having been forced to resign in the early thirties because of his Jewishness but late reinstated because of his rank and ability.

[GTX]

Great work !!!

Regards,

Greg

[pyro-manic]

I've never tried 'Mein Kampff', it's not a book I really want to have under my roof.  Incidentally, who would get the royalties from any purchase?  Is it still in print?  If so, someone is still making a profit on Nazism!

Oddly enough, Mein Kampf is very popular in India. It has sold a vast number of copies in recent years. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, back on topic, it's a lovely model, Tim. Well done indeed.

[rickshaw]

I've never tried 'Mein Kampff', it's not a book I really want to have under my roof.  Incidentally, who would get the royalties from any purchase?  Is it still in print?  If so, someone is still making a profit on Nazism!

Oddly enough, Mein Kampf is very popular in India. It has sold a vast number of copies in recent years. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, back on topic, it's a lovely model, Tim. Well done indeed.

Mein Kampf is popular throughout Asia.  Many social theorists put it down to lack of involvement with the Germans in WWII.

Personally, I think everybody whether they have an interest in WWII or not, should read Mein Kampf.  It provides an insight into Hitler's thinking which is impossible to find elsewhere.  The second, lesser known volume is actually more interesting but was never as popular or as well publicised as the first.   Both contain distasteful ideas and concepts but so do loads of other books around, ranging from Lenin, Trostky and Mao's works through to more modern ones, like David Irving's.  Better they are out in the open, unsuppressed IMO than festering in the dark...

[Taiidantomcat]

That emblem is awesome!!! Wonderful model as well  


Also:
Don't need to read any more books to know Nazis were evil. I don't mind luft 46 because as we say around here "Relax, Its just a model" I have also read Gulag by Applebaum (not that I needed any more convincing that the Soviet Union was evil as well) I still build soviet models for the same reason. Evil resides in people not plastic.