(source: SITA)
MORE than 100 historical and modern military vehicles and numerous military history enthusiasts from Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Belarus, Norway, Sweden, Spain and Russia gathered in the Záhorie region in western Slovakia on August 16 to re-enact World War II events.
In the complex of the Military Technical and Testing Institute (VTSÚ) in Záhorie, the 12th year of the meeting of military vehicles and military history clubs, called Sahara 2014, offered “demonstrations of battles from 70 years ago,” Igor Ballo of the Sahara organisational team told the TASR newswire.
“The Battle of Normandy and Battles at the Eastern Front in 1944 will be on the schedule, all involving a big number of soldiers, armoured vehicles, airplanes and pyrotechnic effects,” he added.
Replicas of period military camps and shows by the Criminalist and Expertise Institute of the Slovak Police Corps, as well as a presentation of the Slovak armed forces, rounded out the day’s events. Apart from the re-enactments of combat operations, dozens of various types of historical and modern military vehicles were paraded through the area.
“The public will first get to see the original German Hetzer tank and the US Sherman tank,” Balloo said. “It took a lot of effort to get the originals of these tanks to our event, but we are convinced that audiences at Sahara can appreciate this. The Hetzer was nicknamed by German soldiers, and it was Adolf Hitler who decided to have it serially produced. These tanks were deployed, for example, against the Slovak National Uprising within the Schill group,” he summed up.
The Záhorie military space is used by military units to test and research military technology. During WWII, this locality was used by the German Wehrmacht to train soldiers and test military technology in preparation for their African campaign. The area’s dry, sandy soil and the fact that it was a seabed in primeval times made Záhorie and suitable environment.
