Toy soldiers and real battles

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Tin soldiers in the Vienna Arsenal Museum Shop 🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹⚔️⚔️⚔️

The Vienna Arsenal Museum (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum) shop is filled with an assortment of tin soldiers.

Lineol Bilderbuch 1937/38 Catalog 📖 📖 📖

Download the Lineol pdf catalog (21 pages, 7Mb ) using the following link:

🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Panzerhalle: Composition of Austrian Infantry Company in 80s

The historic building of Object 13 in the Vienna Arsenal (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Panzerhalle) was built in 1936 as a garage for military vehicles. Since 2017, it has served as a display of the history of armoured troops, containing more than 30 armoured vehicles.

In the 1980s an Austrian Bundesheer infantry company was generally composed of a company headquarters (HQ) with a HQ squad and a supply squad, three infantry platoons of equal composition and a heavy weapons platoon. Usually commanded by a First Lieutenant or Captain, on infantry company had a total strength of 212 soldiers with two motorcycles, 8 light trucks and 13 trucks. The squads and teams directly subordinated to company HQ served for immediate command and control in combat, supplying the soldiers with food and ammunition as well as servicing weapons and vehicles. The company's actual fighting power comes from the three rifle platoons, trained and armed for close combat and equipped with machine guns for high firepower. The combat support platoon fielded two medium mortars Type 82 (81 mm) as well as six light anti-tank weapons 66/79 "Carl Gustav” (84 mm), to deliver supporting or anti-tank defense fire at the point of main effort.

Flak towers in Augarten Park, Vienna 🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹🌩️🌩️🌩️🌪️🌪️🌪️

Two of Vienna’s Flak Towers are located in Augarten Park, approximately 2.5 kilometers north of the city’s historic center. These are the G-Tower (Gefechtsturm – Gun Tower) and the L-Tower (Leitturm – Fire-Control Tower), both constructed between July 1944 and January 1945 following the third-generation Flak Tower design. They were the final towers of their kind built by the Third Reich. Standing at 55 meters, the Gun Tower is the tallest Flak Tower ever constructed. The G-Tower measures 43 by 43 meters at the base and reaches a height of 55 meters, typically equipped with eight (four twin) 128 mm guns and thirty-two (eight quadruple) 20 mm guns. The Gun Tower and the Fire-Control Tower are located about 400 meters apart.

April 2025 Wien Museum - "Controlled Freedom": The allied forces in Vienna 🚩🇺🇸🇬🇧🇫🇷🇦🇹

Following Vienna’s liberation in April 1945 by Red Army, the city faced destruction, homelessness, hunger, and cold. Yet cultural life quickly returned—arts events resumed on April 27 under Soviet orders, soon joined by efforts from France, the UK, and the US. This marked an unprecedented influx of international culture. These initiatives supported Austria’s political and economic recovery and helped lay the emotional groundwork for a national identity distinct from Germany. The exhibition Controlled Freedom highlights how postwar cultural activity shaped the emergence of a democratic Austria—an influence that endures today. Toy jeep with Allied military policemen from 50s (From the private collection of Prof.Mag.Rolf M. Urrisk-Obertyński (Wien Museum).