Commanders!
For this year’s celebrations of the Polish Independence Day, we’ve prepared a somewhat different type of content because our skins are not always entirely historical – sometimes they are based on stories. And we have a couple of those for you today – stories from the Polish military that you probably haven’t heard of before, as re-told by one of our experienced staff members who has witnessed some and heard others. So let’s get to it.
The Half-restored T-72M2 Wilk skin is tied to an event that happened more than a decade ago, in 2013, in a military museum in Warsaw. Back then the money was scarce and the military (to which the museum belonged) just didn’t have enough to keep the vehicle pool in good condition. And then a disaster struck – the Minister of Defense himself was coming for an inspection!
But where there’s will, there’s a way and the soldiers found one. The minister was kindly asked to not stray off the designated path and the troops painted and cleaned only the front half of all vehicles. The rear half was left in the original state. The result looked ridiculous and it was perhaps for the best the inspection was called off at the very last moment. The skin pays a tribute to this event.
The second story is by far the most famous of those here. The 15 year old video of a driver damaging a mudguard of his BMP-1 and his commander, Andrzej, yelling at him became a huge Polish military meme. A bumper is nothing a can of spray can’t fix!
For this story, we’ve prepared two items – a Polish winter camouflage and a paint spray can decal (although, admittedly, the decal fits the first story as well).
Next, there was a documentary series about the recruits enlisted into the 25th Air Cavalry Brigade. The document in question was created in between 2000 and 2001 and depicts almost all the training in the unit.
There are many iconic scenes and lines in the video, including the recruits being forced to pass through a dark, narrow pipe. And it is the pipe that we will have as a decal.
And, last but not least, there’s an older story from the 1980s. Back then, the Polish army wanted to obtain more info regarding the German Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank, especially the qualities of its fire control system. The only opportunity was determined to be a West German expo where the vehicle was shown to potential foreign buyers, including those from the Middle East.
And so a plan was set in motion. A technical officer who visually resembled an Arab was selected for the task. He was sent to the Middle East to a country where he was “properly outfitted” for his new role. He went to the expo as a person potentially interested in purchasing Leopards for one of the Arab countries. The people at the booth were eager to answer the newcomer’s technical questions and the officer thought he had succeeded in his mission.
After a week or so, a letter arrived at the Polish intelligence headquarters from its German counterpart with a photo folder where the spy’s journey was fully documented, from him entering the airport in Warsaw, the entire Middle East trip and finally his departure from Germany. The “spy” was spied upon the whole way and didn’t even know it. In a twist of irony, the data package obtained by the spy was actually real – the Germans simply didn’t think Poland would be able to utilize it given its technological sophistication. They were, but that is a story for another time. But such is the way of espionage – you win some, you lose some.
For this story we have prepared two assets – the Sheikh of Lekhistan player avatar with a middle-eastern-looking Polish soldier and a special player title: “Master of Disguise”.
We hope you will enjoy both the stories and the new items and, as always:
See you on the battlefield!