"Oh, you're thinking Mars...I think..."
Posted on 11/14/2008 10:58:59 AM PST by MindBender26
Need some assistance in identifying something really weird I just saw on The Military Channel.
From 1300 to 1400 hrs., Eastern daylight Time, The Military Channel was showing the first hour of a two-part documentary on the Russian defense of Stalingrad during World War II. A lot of it is really great video and includes major segments of film shot during the war by German and Soviet military camera.
At nine minutes after the hour the program was covering Russian efforts to reduce a German salient into their territory. The picture shows two early war Russian fighter aircraft taking off from right to left. It's a rather close picture and aircraft are clearly of Soviet manufacture. They are absolutely not any of the P-40 or P-63 aircraft we gave to the Soviets during their battle with Hitler's army.
As the aircraft are taking off, there is a flagpole in the right front of the picture. The staff is stuck into the ground. Hanging from a flagpole, blowing clearly in the wind is an American flag! Not only is it clearly an American flag but both the gold ropes and tassels and pointed device at the top of the pole are all clearly visible and identifiable.
The size of the flagstaff is approximately 6 feet long and the size of the flag itself is a typical flag, about 3 feet by 5 feet, that you would normally associate with military colors carried during a parade or on display in the commander's office. I'm not sure but it even appeared that there was gold fringe around the outside edge of the flag.
The setting was not a headquarters area of any kind but rather just a snow-covered runway in the middle of the wheat fields in the breadbasket area of the former Soviet Union. There were no identifiable Americans or anything else American in the film to indicate why the flag would have been there.
Can somebody please ping the World War II and aviation ping lists and see if anybody has any idea why the American flag was there.
I got so fed up with my local video store, because they decided it prudent to go with hours convenient to them, not me, so I’ve decided to give netflix a try.
So I’ve selected a boatload of movies and while I’m waiting for a couple of selelctions like Hancock to come out, I’ve got ‘World at War’, all 15 or so discs selected.
I remember watching it on TV back in the late 70’s...I haven’t seen it since and I still remember how excellent it was...so I’m looking forward to it.
Going to offer my son a glimpse into real history, as he surely won’t get such in depth WW2 history in school ANY school.
Funny he’s one year younger now than I was when it came out originally in ‘74.
Has there ever been a better narrator than Sir Laurence Olivier in The World at War?
Not that I know of, and this entire series should be part of the history curriculum in every High School.
Stalin may also have feared that the Americans would learn about Russian tactics and equipment.
It was really a shame. The decision to select the Sherman tank over the much heavier Sheridan was based on what was known about the German order of battle from Battle of France in 1940. Some of what the Germans learned fighting the T-34 was the need to up-armor and the effectiveness of the 88-mm anti-aircraft gun. Had the Americans known that, we probably would have deployed armor and anti-armor weapons that enjoyed the same edge over their German counterparts as the P-47, P-51 and P-38 did over the Me-109 and the FW-190.
On the flip side, Stalin my have feared that the Americans, having seen the Russian Army first hand, would develop contempt for their fighting ability, especially after Finland and disasterous start of the War for the Russians.
Have you picked up any additional info on this since your post?
Another indicator to me is a book cited as telling the history of the 777 is Cobras Over The Tundra, much of which is in Russian, but which is a history of the land ferry from Alaska to Irkutsk to send aircraft to the Sov's. It doesn't seem to have any references to a 777 or any AVG.
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