Picture of the day

[johnny1984]

Sometimes a guy just can't win. Damned few options available to a person when they live under an authoritarian government.

There used to be an old Polish gentleman who lived in the old folk's lodge in my home town. He was in a bunker at the beach on D-Day. It was that or be shot, so he chose self preservation. He was nearly killed four times that day, and still lived long enough to die of old age in Alberta.

Best landlord I ever had was a sweetheart of an old German who'd been a baker for the army in der ost. He was captured in 1945, shippedtoSiberia, and was one of the last guys released in 1955.

When I was in Lahr in the late 70's we had a running club at school that would go out on lunches of the Kaserne and into the forest.
There was an old gentleman that always handed candy out to the "Kanadische Kinder".
Got to know him over the years and he was captured in Stalingrad and released in the early 50's. We have to remember not all Germans were Nazis.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

We have to remember not all Germans were Nazis

The majority of Germans were not Nazis and the majority of German soldiers served their country with honour the same way our soldiers did.

 

[grelmar]

Sometimes a guy just can't win. Damned few options available to a person when they live under an authoritarian government.

There used to be an old Polish gentleman who lived in the old folk's lodge in my home town. He was in a bunker at the beach on D-Day. It was that or be shot, so he chose self preservation. He was nearly killed four times that day, and still lived long enough to die of old age in Alberta.

Best landlord I ever had was a sweetheart of an old German who'd been a baker for the army in der ost. He was captured in 1945, shippedtoSiberia, and was one of the last guys released in 1955.

When I was in Lahr in the late 70's we had a running club at school that would go out on lunches of the Kaserne and into the forest.
There was an old gentleman that always handed candy out to the "Kanadische Kinder".
Got to know him over the years and he was captured in Stalingrad and released in the early 50's. We have to remember not all Germans were Nazis.

The majority of Germans were not Nazis and the majority of German soldiers served their country with honour the same way our soldiers did.

Sometimes you just have to ride that tiger, and hope it tires before you do.

 

[grelmar]

"I don't see those two explanations as mutually exclusive."

A lot of people cry in battle and under very stressful conditions, and somehow, they seem to function, and no one around them notices or says anything about it later.

Good insight.

Worked with a guy doing oilfield maintenance out by Drum back before safety was invented. Great big hump. Could lift anything, flip it on his shoulder, carry it where you needed it carried. Thing is, his "grunt" when he lifted something really heavy was more was more like the kind of high pitched sigh a young lady might make in the throws of passion. So naturally he earned the nickname "Martha." If he was struggling to lift something, the crew would egg him on, "Come on, Martha, put your t!ts behind it!" That sort of thing.

Of course, Drum... Oilfield... Before safety was invented... Fridays started early with steaks and beer and went downhill from there, with a good chance of at least one or two barfights before Monday. Turns out, Martha would squeal and scream like a 13 year old girl who'd snuck into Friday the 13th when tables started tipping and glass started breaking. And you absolutely, 100%, were glad he was on your crew when things got spicy. He was a wrecking ball.

He admitted that the screams of terror were real... He was terrified whenever a fight broke out. But he'd step up and step in anyway, screaming the whole time.

Like the pr!cks we were, we'd razz him mercilessly about it come Monday in the shop. He didn't mind. He knew where it came from and what we really meant.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

German-operated Universal Carriers:

...Mit 2.5cm French AT gun...

...Mit 4.7cm PaK:

...Mit 8.8mm Panzerschrek (x3):

...undt...

...undt...

Needs must, I guess, but Mein Gott, what a thing to do to a buncha little abandoned British utility tractors.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

World's fanciest boot jack.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Pelican vs. F-111. F-111 wins, but it was a very close thing.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

The Danish military Krankenwagen. For when the injuries aren't all that severe.

"You doin' OK back there? Wanna stop for lunch on the way?"

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

How many Swiss have won the VC?

One. Corporal Ferdinand Christian Schiess VC, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Natal Native Contingent, South African Forces.

Citation​

For conspicuous gallantry in the defence of Rorke’s Drift Post on the night of the 22nd January, 1879, when, in spite of his having been wounded in the foot a few days previously, he greatly distinguished himself when the Garrison were repulsing, with the bayonet, a series of desperate assaults made by the Zulus, and displayed great activity and devoted gallantry throughout the defence. On one occasion when the Garrison had retired to the inner line of defence, and the Zulus occupied the wall of mealie bags which had been abandoned, he crept along the wall, without any order, to dislodge a Zulu who was shooting better than usual and succeeded in killing him, and two others, before he, the Corporal, returned to the inner defence.

 

[Chas]

Down at the stern, the doughty HMS Nabob and her largely Canadian crew make their long way home from the Arctic after being torpedoed during Operation GOODWOOD

HMS Nabob sits high and dry in a Rosyth dry dock with her massive wound exposed.

The hulk that was HMS Nabob was sold to Holland for scrap after the war but, in an ironic twist, was resold and converted to a general cargo training ship for the German merchant marine service. She kept her historic name however—MV (Motor Vessel) Nabob.

I had no idea most of the small AC carriers were converted to merchant ships after the war.

 

[*lawrence]

 

[*lawrence]

Chechen sniper using a modified Mosin-Nagant with a makeshift suppressor and PSO-1 scope, First Chechen War, 1995.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Dude's got full-on Manson lamps.

 

[R005t3r]

The Danish military Krankenwagen. For when the injuries aren't all that severe.

"You doin' OK back there? Wanna stop for lunch on the way?"

BROT aka Loaf

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

A pleasant drive through someone else's country.

 

[XRCD011]

Down at the stern, the doughty HMS Nabob and her largely Canadian crew make their long way home from the Arctic after being torpedoed during Operation GOODWOOD

HMS Nabob sits high and dry in a Rosyth dry dock with her massive wound exposed.

The hulk that was HMS Nabob was sold to Holland for scrap after the war but, in an ironic twist, was resold and converted to a general cargo training ship for the German merchant marine service. She kept her historic name however—MV (Motor Vessel) Nabob.

I had no idea most of the small AC carriers were converted to merchant ships after the war.

I would flip the script and say merchant ships made into AC carriers, then back again. Post war transportation of all types was in short suppy, trucks, trains and ships.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

Kettenkreaftraden into plowshares. France, postwar:

 

[XRCD011]

Kettenkreaftraden into plowshares. France, postwar:

View attachment 1084409View attachment 1084410
View attachment 1084411

Dan the middle pic looks to me like a home made version of a Babiole conversion of a Kettenkrad into being a small tractor. While my Kett (a purported abandoned Battle of the Bulge vehicle) came out of Belgium it never got scooped by Babiole but it did get "made better" into a small bulldozer by some Flemish farmer post war.

https://nicokubel.########.com/2016/11/restauration-dun-kettenkrad.html

https://www.nevingtonwarmuseum.com/kettenkrad-tractor-conversion.html

https://souvenezvous44.########.com/2013/02/tracteur-babiole.html

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

You'd know, amigo!

 

[bdft]

Tried to click on your links but this stupid forum censors the hyperlinks.