Historic Replicas

Looking back now, so many decades after the fact, it’s easy to find irony in President Woodrow Wilson’s claim that World War I would be “the war to end all wars.” At the time, the major participants called it the Great War. They never imagined that another conflict would come along just 35 years later and that the casualties and consequences would be even greater.

By the end of World War II, the world had been virtually rid – however temporarily – of a great fascist threat. It didn’t take long for movies to romanticize the conflict to the point of obscuring many of the facts. There’s no denying that World War II was one of the bloodiest, hardest-fought in all of history. WWII guns represented physical proof of just how far military technology had advanced during the 20th century.

Relive the World War II era with World War II memorabilia replicas. WWII replicas are great items to collect. These things are also ideal for decorating a room with a war motif look. WWII replicas can be used to decorate a restaurant and convert it into a mess hall type bistro.WWII replicas are made using exact specifications from the original items. A Nazi German helmet, for instance, is made from real 18 gauge steel with slugs repro liner, just like the original helmet. Similarly, the German Broomhandle Mouser Pistol replica would be hard to distinguish from the original. The only difference is that the sliding action cannot be disassembled.

Things were looking good for the Allie Powers when Market Garden began. In Southern Holland, the 101st Airborne Division had captured four of five bridges (the German army blew up the fifth one at Son), and on the ground, the 30th Corps was on its way.  Within hours, however, the tide began to turn. While Nazi forces in Holland were fractured and disorganized, they were unexpectedly reinforced by over 65,000 troops from the retreating 15th Army, and by the arrival of the 2nd Panzer Corps, an elite tank force that proved to be the deciding factor of the battle.  Allied aerial reconnaissance had shown evidence of the tanks, but was dismissed by the high command.  Wilhelm Bittrich, the shrewd leader of the Panzer Corps, had ordered his troops to maintain strong defensive positions on the roads leading to Arnhem, and the lightly armed British 1st Airborne Division was completely unprepared to fight against tanks. 

Operation Market Garden began as scheduled on September 17th, 1944.  The airborne force consisted of the American 82nd and 101st airborne divisions and the British 1st airborne division, and was later supplemented by the Polish 1st Parachute Brigade.  Thousands of troops dropped into the sky over Holland and hurried towards their targets.  The Americans had to secure a series of bridges along highway 69, clearing the way for the British 30th Corps on the ground to proceed to the Dutch city of Arnhem on the Rhine River.  Arnhem was on the border with Germany and considered an ideal staging area for the final Allied advance into Germany.  The British paratroopers had the extremely dangerous task of eliminating the WWII German helmet troops in Arnhem and holding out against a siege, WWII guns blazing, until the ground forces could arrive.   The plan was risky; success depended on the ground forces’ ability to make their way swiftly through Holland and relieve the valiant airborne troops.  American Field Marshall Montgomery claimed he could reach Arnhem by land in two days, and British General Browning famously replied that while his paratroopers could hold out four, he believed they might have gone “a bridge too far.”   As it turned out, he was all too right.  In a classic intelligence blunder, the Allies had drastically underestimated the number of German troops in the area, and Operation Market Garden would ultimately prove impossible.