ARMOURY ARES WWII RIFLES
BOLT (AIRSOFT)) (AIRSOFT ACTION! IT WILL COME AS NO SHOCK TO KEEN WWII AIRSOFTERS THAT ARES HAVE RECENTLY RELEASED A BATCH OF NEW MODELS FOR BOTH AXIS AND ALLIED WOULD-BE-TROOPS, AND WE WERE ABLE TO ACCESS THEM THANKS TO IWHOLESALES IN THE UK WHO VERY KINDLY SHOWED THE ONLY ONES “IN COUNTRY” AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS. AS WE HAD OUR “D-DAY SPECIAL” ALREADY IN PLANNING THEY SEEMED THE IDEAL CHOICE TO LEAD OFF WITH THIS MONTH, SO IT’S OVER TO BILL FOR HIS “FIRST TAKE” ON THEM!
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s you’ll see from the contents page for this month we made the decision a little while back that for our June issue this year we would bring a lot of information together to celebrate all that is good in WWII-soft whilst remembering the events of D-Day and focus on the AEGs and GBBs that have been, and are, out there; as luck would have it (or perhaps fate!) this coincided with the arrival of two very important rifle models crucial for this period from ARES AIRSOFT! When it comes to ARES I am lucky that I have an exceptionally good relationship with the guys at UKdistributor iWholesales, and I visit them every other month to catch up with what’s new from this brand and all the others that they work with. I had been given the “heads up” that the new ARES historical bolt action models were due to arrive, but it wasn’t until I got there during late May that this became a reality, and I was finally able to get my hands on them! These two new lines in their CLASSIC series are vitally important for players that favour the WWI 8
JULY 2022
period, and in the context of D-Day were probably two of the most widespread models in the hands of the combatants. Tucked behind that “Atlantic Wall” young soldiers of the German and AXIS forces, some of them green and untested in battle, would have nervously clutched their Kar98k rifles as they awaited the invasion forces heralded by overnight glider and parachute landings as well as countless small resistance actions. They must have known that something was coming, and those rifles must have seemed very heavy in their clammy hands. Equally young men of the Allied forces, some veterans already of many years of war, and some just as green as their foes waiting for them would have been huddled against the elements in the bottom of vomit-filled landing craft heading for the dramatically beautiful beaches of Normandy; in some cases though those beaches had become death traps, and the Lee Enfield No4 MkI gripped tight between their thighs must have given them some confidence, even if both that and their youthful bravado were somewhat forced and strained.
