Thanks for your reply.
Had the P-40s been in outside storage the whole time or were they crated/protected? What other Lend Lease jewels were up there? P-39s? P-63s? A-20s? B-25s?
I recall reading that all of the PT boats and other small surface combatants that had been loaned to the Russians were either scrapped due to their worn out condition or destroyed upon return. Assume the armor and trucks met the same fate. Surprised any aircraft (other than in museums) survived. Where these just some that escaped destruction because they were mislocated/lost from the inventory?
Actually, I was referring to the flight to Moscow from Murmansk.
I could see you being secreted aboard a SovAF transport as an unmanifested passenger (after, of course, the mandatory crossing of palm(s)(?) first.). Hard to see that working at Aeroflot check-in in a military restricted zone.
Of course, once you are airborne, there is an interesting question about the arrival airfield in Moscow. Military or civilian? Ha, ha, ha. Probably easier to just bundle the unexplained American into a taxi and wish him well rather than go through the bother of figuring out the how and why ... Anyway, Perestroika! Glasnost! Wave and smile!
Okay. Right. I get it. Any game involving drinking is going to get the Russians’ interest.
So, just how drunk were you when you got on that plane?
The P40s I recovered were from right where they bellied in during the war.Some were better than others but all were rebuildable.I had to remove the 50s from the wings and that was a bitch because the guns load from underneath so we had to jack the planes up to get at them.We are in the middle of nowhere and made log stacks to accomplish this.Somewhere I have pictures of me standing on top of the longerons with a death grip on the lifting cable we used to pick up one of the planes with a chopper.Even the Russians thought I was crazy.I was sober as a judge at the airport when I managed to get out.We got to arkangel by train from Moscow and they did not check our coach.21 hour train ride was something to experience.Wild youth.I did manage to aquire the P40 that was on display at the museum in Monino(?) much to the amassment of people in the business.