Vladimir
Peniakoff, or “Popski”, certainly was a character. A Belgian national already
in his early forties at the outbreak of war, he was initially rejected by the
Royal Navy and the RAF before finally being accepted into the British Army. After
arriving in Cairo as a 2nd Lieutenant, Popski was initially assigned
to mundane garrison duties but quickly plotted his “escape” and formed the
Libyan Arab Force Commando (LAFC); a small group of British and Libyan soldiers
who went on to operate behind enemy lines in the Eastern coastal region of
Libya.
After
harassing axis forces for several months Popski returned to Cairo in mid-1942
only to discover that his LAFC had been disbanded while he was away; even the Army
paymasters had forgotten about them. Justifiably annoyed, Popski did not
receive the sympathy he expected but received critical remarks about
disappearing into the blue to run a private war with his private army and then
expecting to be paid for his fun. Although obviously an insult the new name
stuck and later the official designation for Popski’s outfit was changed to No.1 Demolition Sqdn., P.P.A. (Popski’s
Private Army); at the time the smallest independent unit in the British
Army numbering just 23 personnel.
Sometimes
working closely with other Special Forces units; the LRDG, SAS, and others; the
PPA was given great autonomy in their operations. Utilising heavily armed jeeps
(mounting at least one .50 cal and one .30 cal Browning machine gun each) the
firepower of this jeep patrol would have been formidable. This, added to their
mobility and the fact they generally had the advantage of surprise, accounted
for several successful engagements against forces many times their number.
Up until the
summer of 1943 the unit was mainly engaging enemy units throughout Libya and
Tunisia, however the withdrawl of Axis forces from North Africa moved more
quickly than expected and the unit began preparations to fight in Italy where
it operated for the duration of the war.
Popski’s
Private Army finished the war with a flourish, sailing some of their jeeps on landing
craft to St. Mark’s Square in Venice where they drove round and round the
square “just for the hell of it” - the
only wheeled vehicles to have ever been there.
For anyone
interested in a more in-depth account of the history and exploits of this unit
I highly recommend taking a look at www.popski.org and the “Friends of Popski’s
Private Army” facebook group.
The Model
I must admit,
before taking on this project I had
never even heard of Popski’s Private Army, but the more I looked into the unit
and read of their exploits the more I became interested in building one of these
armed jeeps.
From a
modelling perspective it seems that the SAS and LRDG definitely get all the
glory and although the obvious parallels are there with regard to heavily armed
jeeps, this detail/conversion set from Resicast makes a welcome change from the
norm. The set is designed around the excellent Tamiya jeep and although there are
a few components to replace the kit parts, the majority of this set is based on
the unique stowage and armament arrangements.
Packed in
their trademark sturdy cardboard box this set is brim-full with parts, sadly
many of which will be left-over at the end of this project. Initially I thought
there were enough parts in this set for two vehicles but there are a couple of
key components where only one piece is supplied. However, anyone with minimal
scratch-building skills and a decent spares box shouldn’t have any problems
duplicating the required parts should you want to make a two-vehicle patrol
from this set.
The photo of
the kit contents gives you some idea of the sheer number of parts in this set
and all are extremely well cast and free of any moulding flaws. There was the
inevitable clean-up on some parts but this is to be expected with resin kits
and certainly nothing to cause any concern. A nice touch is the inclusion of
two decals representing the astrolabe emblem for the front grille badge.
The
instruction booklet is a comprehensive series of photographs showing where
parts are fitted and there is also a helpful breakdown describing what each
part is; sounds obvious but it makes a lot of sense to know what something is
when you are deciding where to glue it. Most of the major stowage parts are
pretty specific as to where they go but there are a couple of things that are provided
as options, depending on your preference.
There are two
alternative stowage pieces provided for the bonnet, either of which look great,
along with a choice of armament placement. All vehicles carried both a .30 cal
and a .50 cal but these could be interchanged between the front and rear mounts.
Popski’s own jeep mounted two .50 cals, and there is evidence of at least one
jeep mounting twin .30 cal guns at the front. The Resicast set provides all the
parts necessary to build any one of these options and still have guns left over.
There are a
couple of things that immediately distinguish a PPA jeep from say, an SAS or
LRDG vehicle, one of which was a unique jerry can mounting on the front bumper.
This set thoughtfully provides those but also the empty racks as separate
pieces should you wish to show one or both of the jerry cans removed, as I did
to show the astrolabe emblem more clearly.
The
other thing that sets these vehicles apart is the mounting of (usually) two
spare wheels at the rear but on the left of the vehicle, the other side from
the normal mounting position. Rumour has it that this was done because jeeps
were often “acquired” by dubious means; if another unit decided to “acquire” it
back the PPA jeep would be immediately recognisable from a distance because the
spare wheel was on the wrong side !
There is very
little surgery required to the Tamiya base kit for this conversion, a few holes
to fill for the unused passenger seat is one such procedure. Some of these
jeeps moved the single bench seat from the rear to the front in its’ place,
mainly to allow for stowage in the rear but also sometimes a patrol would carry
a local guide, hence the need for an additional seat up front. There was also
an adjustable frame fitted just behind the seats to mount a canvas cover over
the rear section of the jeep, although this frame comes as part of the detail
set, it is very fragile so used it as a template and remade mine with brass
rod.
The only
other area of modification that will require some care is the fitting of the
front pedestal MG mount. This requires you to drill a hole in the Tamiya
dash/bonnet panel (part A35). The Resicast instructions are incorrect here, they
suggest drilling an 18mm dia. hole 6mm in from the side, this is obviously a
typo. You will see that this has to line up with the support
plate below so just ensure everything is straight and vertical.
