Picture of the day

[XRCD011]

The first time the flag was placed was at the end of April but it was done at night. The Germans captured that flag. Days later the Russians controlled the entire building and Khaldei went to the roof with two soldiers to place a new flag.

The same sort of deal happened with the famous flag raising at Iwo Jima by US Marines.

Hmmm......Not quite the same. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima If one is ever in Washington take a twenty minute drive to Triangle Virginia and the USMC Museum there to see the second flag. Its an awesome museum, beats he CWM hands down for presentation. Carrying on a tradition (where the faces of the three surviving flag raisers where used in the sculpture of the event) the museum used the faces of current serving Marines when they made their displays.

 

[sail32]

The two Nelson-class battleships, HMS Rodney and HMS Nelson had 16 inch main armament

 

[Sharps '63]

The leather jerkin actually goes back to Medieval times in origin, part of the kit of the common foot soldier. I was issued one in the Canadian Army during the 1960's for a brief interval on a Signals telephone line course.
I recall they had some sort of cloth lining. They gave us freedom of movement and body warmth. I wish I had 'lost' it, but the chunk coming out of my pay would have been a serious deduction.
They were standard issue to artillery gunners as well, for the same reason.

The leather and goatskin vests popular in WWI, and to a lesser extent WWI, were referred to as "Jerkins"

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Note that Comrade Officer at bottom is wearing two watches. When this pic was first released, this evidence of looting behavior was noted by propagandists. Subsequent releases show one naked wrist:

Here's a previous frame:

Those wacky commies. Always airbrushing out awkward truths.

 

[Kirk1701]

Hmmm......Not quite the same. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima If one is ever in Washington take a twenty minute drive to Triangle Virginia and the USMC Museum there to see the second flag. Its an awesome museum, beats he CWM hands down for presentation.

I don't think this is a fair comparison. Each museum has a different philosophy. I theorize that the USMC is actively promoting itself as the modern-day equivalent of the Praetorian guard. Therefore, their iconography, statuary, and architecture will be designed to further that myth. There are a surprising amount of parallels to be drawn between ancient, pagan Rome and the USA.

In Canada, the mythology surrounding armed combat is entirely rooted in the Christian Anglo-Saxon/Brittanic ideal of Alfred the Great's family. So the concept of commemoration is far more solemn. It focuses more on the dead and those they leave behind. I'm prepared to be challenged on this; it's a new theory for me.

 

[XRCD011]

Note that Comrade Officer at bottom is wearing two watches. When this pic was first released, this evidence of looting behavior was noted by propagandists. Subsequent releases show one naked wrist:

Here's a previous frame:

Those wacky commies. Always airbrushing out awkward truths.

The statue of the Soviet soldier with his hand extended and downwards is to depict a beaten down Germany. Berliners joke instead that the statue shows a Soviet soldier who cannot raise his hand to wave because of all the stolen watches.
http://andberlin.com/2012/06/18/soviet-war-memorial-on-strasse-des-17-juni/
Question to Kirk. Have you ever been to Triangle and the USMC Museum?

 

[Kirk1701]

Question to Kirk. Have you ever been to Triangle and the USMC Museum?

I have not. I would like to, if I'm ever in the vicinity.

My point is simply that every museum has a philosophical position. I don't think a "better or worse" comparison is particularly fruitful.

I don't deny that there is great mourning in US war museums and commemorations. The Vietnam memorial is particularly painful to view.

There just something about those particular images shared by your good self that remind me of the Triumphal column in Rome. I'm not making a judgment on that either. It's just what I see.

 

[purple]

The USMC has one of the most effective publicity machines in existence and has had for a long time. It's been said that the picture of the flag raising on Iwo Jima would guarantee that the USMC would remain in existence for the next thousand yrs and they have been capitalizing on this iconic image ever since. A few yrs ago I attended a veterans memorial ceremony at a Marine Corps reserve unit in Oregon and be damned if they didn't have a group of young fellows all dressed up in WW2 kit, incl M1 Garands, doing a re-enactment of the flag raising on Mt Suribachi on a big dirt pile outside! And the crowd really lapped it up.

I've spent time with Marine units in the field and found that they often do things the hard/Marine way and are quite disdainful of others, especially the US Army. I used to chuckle to myself when I was introduced among them as a member of the Canadian Marines and I didn't bother to correct them. That was after they saw me sucking it up through a persistent air delivered CS gas attack, sans respirator, while they were all wearing theirs. They are known for frontal attacks and high casualty rates, but they keep on driving. It may seen a little hokey at times, but it all works for them and their espirit de corps and morale are always sky high. As far as I know they have never lost a battle and have never abandoned their dead or wounded. What else can be said? I wouldn't want to be going up against them.

 

[smellie]

@ POINTS:

Trick is to fit that cylinder about 2 thou loose on the piston, about 5 thou extra on the ring gap. Makes for a smoker of sorts but not bad once it heats up. At least it shouldn't seize on you.

Same problem with the Ace and Indian 4-bangers. The Henderson seized the Number 2 piston but it was the same one: they numbered from the rear, forward and everyone else numbered from front to back. I imagine it would have been the same with the Cleveland, but there are so few of those working that I doubt I will ever get the chance to play with one.

 

[drache]

 

[kennymo]

By the last picture, were they intending to crawl across no man's land pushing these shields in front of themselves? I've never seen an Austrian version, though IIRC the Brits and French attempted something similar. The only thing that these proved of much use was as a sniper's shield.

 

[Cdn303]

Note that Comrade Officer at bottom is wearing two watches. When this pic was first released, this evidence of looting behavior was noted by propagandists. Subsequent releases show one naked wrist:

Na, that is simply so he can have Berlin time on one wrist and Moscow time on the other.

 

[Mister Donut]

Back to the pictures!

Haha, I wonder if these guys are going through their basic training or something. Reminds me of a couple of cornflakes that posted some goofy pictures of themselves on their BMQ recently.

Kind of neat finding pics like these, a side of war you seldom see.

 

[drache]

 

[plinker 777]

Back to the pictures!

Looks like something out of a 1970's Punk album...complete with hallucinogenic eyes

 

[points]

@ POINTS:

Trick is to fit that cylinder about 2 thou loose on the piston, about 5 thou extra on the ring gap. Makes for a smoker of sorts but not bad once it heats up. At least it shouldn't seize on you.

Same problem with the Ace and Indian 4-bangers. The Henderson seized the Number 2 piston but it was the same one: they numbered from the rear, forward and everyone else numbered from front to back. I imagine it would have been the same with the Cleveland, but there are so few of those working that I doubt I will ever get the chance to play with one.

I didn't think you could do that. I never worked on one. Just drooled over a few. Any time you bury a cylinder like that you can run into trouble. I had a 38o Suzuki triple and the mid cylinder burnt the piston a couple of times. Thank God for aluminium welding rods.

 

[screwtape]

I didn't think you could do that. I never worked on one. Just drooled over a few. Any time you bury a cylinder like that you can run into trouble. I had a 38o Suzuki triple and the mid cylinder burnt the piston a couple of times. Thank God for aluminium welding rods.

How do those newer Triumph triples avoid that problem? Anybody know? The Bonneville of course is a double, but the newer big bikes like the Triumph Tiger are triples...

 

[screwtape]

By the last picture, were they intending to crawl across no man's land pushing these shields in front of themselves? I've never seen an Austrian version, though IIRC the Brits and French attempted something similar. The only thing that these proved of much use was as a sniper's shield.

An ingenious idea, but probably not too popular with the troops for a couple reasons:

1. When you're already carrying a 60 to 90 lbs. load, the last thing you want to add is another 30 lbs or so of steel; and

2. It looks like it would work reasonably well as long as any possible fire was coming from directly in front of you and level. The moment you run into an enemy who is on a slight slope, though, his fire is going to go over the top of the shield and hit your legs, and the machine gun in the strongpoint 150 yards to your right or left is going to bypass the frontal shield entirely and cut you in two.

I would also assume that this is the reason these rather ingenious devices didn't catch on, except for use in static positions by sentries and snipers.

 

[drache]

German SdKfz 251 “Falke” with an MG42 machine gun and IR scope and spotligh

 

[Red_Liner740]

Water cooling. V twins had a similar problem with their rear cylinders. Some manufacturers ran the rear cyl slightly richer to help keep it cool. I know my vtr1000 is like that

How do those newer Triumph triples avoid that problem? Anybody know? The Bonneville of course is a double, but the newer big bikes like the Triumph Tiger are triples...