forseti Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 Hi all, I am lucky enough to get a week off in the first half of July. I am hoping to travel around eastern europe for the week. Really would like to visit some battlefield sites and take it all in I guess. I do not have a any preconceptions and would also like to visit any good museums and specifically get photo's of period technology (tanks, planes, etc) if possible. I know we have people from all over on the forums so I would love some advice from locals and people who have travelled to these countries. Any advice appreciated. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 If this is your first trip to the region, then in a week you're not going to get much done, so I would recommend scaling down a bit. Maybe going to Moscow and from there to St.Petersburg or Volgograd. Near Moscow there is the Kubinka tank museum, one of the largest in the world, and in general you should be able to find lots of military and war museums in Russia. Or you could go to Hungary to see the Lake Balaton while tasting the local wines... or one of the thousands of other places of battle in the "Ostfront" (Berlin, Warsaw, Belarus, Kurland...). But Russia might have the most to offer in this. And St.Petersburg is a good place to visit for other reasons as well. But better learn to recognise some cyrillic writing, as there are not always signs in English. While hardly worthy of visiting in that week's time, in Finland there is the Parola armour museum to north of Helsinki. Finnish WW2 battle sites were mostly lost to USSR, but the battlefields of Ilomantsi is partially on Finnish side and Suomussalmi completely. There's other sights and museums, but those are the main things. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der Alte Fritz Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 I did a trip around the region of Krocklau in Poland ( the old capital of Silesia - Breslau) but it covered several eras. You have battlefields of the Mongol invasion in the C13th, the Seven Years War, the Befreiungskreig in 1813 as well as the Soviet invasion in 1945. Also some very good C18th fortresses in the region. Other regions of Poland have battlefields from other eras as well as those from 1944/5. So bear this in mind when planning your trip. A good drive is the main road eastwards out of Berlin to Frankfurt am Oder - gives you a good impression of the final Soviet advance to the city over the Seelow heights. Also remember that national frontiers have changed hugely since 1939. I did a tour around the old kingdom of Prussia and we had to go through 4 (?) countries to get round it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn2002 Posted June 3, 2006 Share Posted June 3, 2006 A fellow-Prussia lover. Sounds like a great trip, Alte Fritz. Poor old Prussia. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forseti Posted June 3, 2006 Author Share Posted June 3, 2006 ok, sounds like poland it is then. As an EU member travelling is easier, no visa required as it hiring a car, etc, after checking this out. I realise that all the old prussian names have changed in the last 60 years as well. I am definately interested in visiting silesia due to its long history and what happened to it at the end of the war. Der alte fritz, do you know of any good sites that cover battlefields in the area and what I could visit? Planning for 9 days out there now... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der Alte Fritz Posted June 4, 2006 Share Posted June 4, 2006 I do not know of any sites I am afraid. I did two tours with Dr Chris Duffy from Sandhurst around Prussia and Saxony about 10 years ago and here are my notes from the trip. The Poland trip was 8 days and we did a tour from Berlin (include Potsdam in any tour as the heart and soul of the German army)down the main road to Frankfurt am Oder. That gives you the assault on Berlin (read Chris Diffys book on this it is excellent) Cross the Oder and to your north you have Kundersdorf (1759)and Zorndorf (1758). Head south alond the Oder and you can swing east to include Posen (1939). Follwing the Oder you come to Breslau. This was a Festung in 1945 and you can explore all the incidents of the 1945 invasion. Loads of Soviet cemeteries in this area each with its own T-34 memorial. Using Breslau Wroclawas your base you can see Mollwitz (1740) Reichenbach (1762) Leuthen (1757 of glorious memory) Leignitz, Hohenfriedberg (1745), the fortress of Sweidnitiz now Swidnica, Burkersdorf (1762), Landeshut (1760), fortress of Glatz (1760) now called Klodzko(excellent - you can walk around the countermine system underneath the fortifications) Neisse and Koniggratz over the border. In Breslau 1241 you have the Mongol siege and the battle of Legnica where Henry the Pious and King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia with an army including the French Knights Templar was destroyed. Seven Years War I have listed above. Napoleonic Wars you have Bautzen within reach and Bluchers triumph over MacDonald at Katzbach. The main event in the area after that is Feb-May 1945 and the seige of Festung Breslau which destroyed about 70% of the town. In the town you can see the Hala Ludowa ( commemorates Batle of Leipzig in 1813) Panorama Raclawicka (Polands victory over the Russians in 1794) the Arsenal. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der Alte Fritz Posted June 4, 2006 Share Posted June 4, 2006 Found this site about polish military museums http://free.polbox.pl/l/leszekch/. In Western Poland (ie Pomerania to Silesia) you have Kolobrzeg (Colburg) a fortress in 1945 and in 1806 Bytow for a Teutonic knights castle, Gdansk (Danzig) for 1939 a monument to the start of WW2, Malbork big medeival castle and site of Stalag XX, Poznan has a military museum and the battlefield of Bzura 1939, Miedzyrzecz has a line of German fortifciations from 1935 In the east there is Warsaw which has a military museum and you can visit the extermination camps from here Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz and Birkenau on your way to Krakow. This has the Polish Home Army Museum and the Aviation musuem. At Kutno you have another museum about the battle of Bzura, there is the Vistula river and the battlefield of Grunwald 1410 Poles destroy the Teutonic knights. That is what I know and you obviously have some more research to do. I found that visiting these countries for military history is problematic as the majority of the populations would rather forget about the war and what is remembered is highly political. When I was there the Poles were actively destroying monuments to the Seven Years War because this part of Poland used to be German and these were German victories. So you to do your research before you travel and you do need to prepare carefully. Enjoy your trip! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forseti Posted June 7, 2006 Author Share Posted June 7, 2006 der alte, thankyou for your advice! It is really appreciated. I will also remember to be aware of the local's sensitivity to WW2 topics. Today was a good day though. I played golf out at Moor Park, the clubhouse of which is Moor Park Mansion which I am told is the mansion where the allied commanders did most of the planning for the d-day landings. You can certainly image that when you walk inside! Nice to finally see not all of England has changed in the last 25 years. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bardosy Posted June 8, 2006 Share Posted June 8, 2006 If you will visit Budapest (Hungary), you can examine the real WWII bullet-holes on the building near the Castle area... I'm not kidding. You can walk in the streets and squers where the 42000 germans wanted break trough from the surrounded Castle and almost all of them died after a few steps. Only 4-700 could survive. And in the Castle there is a Military Museum with guns, rifles, uniforms, sometimes (temporaly) AFVs (Did you playing in CMBB with Nimrod unit?) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forseti Posted June 8, 2006 Author Share Posted June 8, 2006 bardosy - sounds like a good possibility. Do you have any good links to details about this? And is hungary an EU member? ie visa's to get or anything like that? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted June 8, 2006 Share Posted June 8, 2006 EU member, yes. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bardosy Posted June 9, 2006 Share Posted June 9, 2006 It's shame, but I couldn't find any detailed webpage about Military Museum in English. Here it is a general tourist info about Budapest: Budapest Info This a page of mine, some photos from the living exibition of Military Museum: Reenact If you will visit Budapest, you must see that Buda Castle, Vérmező (next to Castle) this was the last emergency airport for the Germans, Alagút (Tunnel) above the Castle (the Russian HQ use this tunnel for bunker) Széna tér - Ostrom utca (next to Castle): you can see the bullet-holes in the walls of building Margit sziget (island on Danube) - There was a Russian landing operation. And there is a AFV museum not far from Budapest, but I don't know exactly. I'll search for it on the web and later I post you. (Sergei, you know that?) By the way: If you want prepare for this tour with some CMBB missions, I advice you the Hungarian Mission Pack in this forum 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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