gewehr76
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Yep PPD40
Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Not sure if this belongs here or in the "Beautiful Women" thread:
Remember, ladies, war or no war, there's always time to keep your eyebrows tuned up.
Remember, ladies, war or no war, there's always time to keep your eyebrows tuned up.
Sporting Lad
Regular
- Location
- Vancouver Island
Just shoot me!
Hey, she'd look good on ANY thread.
"Oooo...just shoot me now, darlin', and I'll die happy."
ps-- Look, if she didn't trim those eyebrows every morning,
they'd be very bushy by the afternoon!
Hey, she'd look good on ANY thread.
"Oooo...just shoot me now, darlin', and I'll die happy."
ps-- Look, if she didn't trim those eyebrows every morning,
they'd be very bushy by the afternoon!
Not sure if this belongs here or in the "Beautiful Women" thread:
Remember, ladies, war or no war, there's always time to keep your eyebrows tuned up.
Ok, I keep seeing that photo referenced as Lyudmila Pavlichenko, but I think that's a mis-attribute... If it is her, the war really took a toll on her...
This is a post war pic:
Sporting Lad
Regular
- Location
- Vancouver Island
Whoa! Looks like she got a gender reassignment. Still got the eyebrows goin' on tho, eh?
In another year or two she probably looked like Nikita's sister c/w babushka and lumpy nose.
In another year or two she probably looked like Nikita's sister c/w babushka and lumpy nose.
- Location
- Leduc County, Alberta
Bah.
She looks to have nice facial features...
I bet if she dropped the Androgynous Soviet uniform, let her hair down, and grabbed your Mosin, ya'll would be singing a different tune!
She looks to have nice facial features...
I bet if she dropped the Androgynous Soviet uniform, let her hair down, and grabbed your Mosin, ya'll would be singing a different tune!
- Location
- Leduc County, Alberta
Here is a more flattering picture of the Bolshevik Bombshell, Lyudmila Pavlichenko.
Also, Amoeba pattern Camo and an SVT40 Snipers Rifle in another staged propaganda photo for the win!!
She definitely has some piercing eyes...
Also, Amoeba pattern Camo and an SVT40 Snipers Rifle in another staged propaganda photo for the win!!
She definitely has some piercing eyes...
Last edited:
Sporting Lad
Regular
- Location
- Vancouver Island
While we're on the topic...
Roza Shanina
Roza Shanina
Well the sag of maturity will eventually set in at some point in time. Hint to the young whippersnappers on here; if you want to know what your GF/prospective wife will look like in 30 yrs time, check out her mom. And BTW, those perky looking tats will cascade downwards along with everything else.
The same applies to men. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
I found a book in the library on the American/Russian lend lease program that ferried US aircraft to Alaska where they were picked up by Russian pilots after flight familiarization and ground crew training.
I was surprised to see that the Russian delegation had a number of women, many very attractive and stylishly dressed. Just what their role was in the mission, I'm not sure.
I found a book in the library on the American/Russian lend lease program that ferried US aircraft to Alaska where they were picked up by Russian pilots after flight familiarization and ground crew training.
I was surprised to see that the Russian delegation had a number of women, many very attractive and stylishly dressed. Just what their role was in the mission, I'm not sure.
Good chance the women were ferry pilots, similar to the Canadian and American female ferry pilots that flew aircraft to England during the Blitz and the later bomber campaigns.
Combat pilots were in desperately short supply, so to get aircraft to England as quickly as possible, women pilots were used to fly completed aircraft from the US factories, through to Gander, Greenland, Iceland, and then to England. Women weren't considered capable of being combat pilots, but they pretty much proved everyone wrong by how well they conducted the ferry work. Flying over the North Atlantic, in all seasons, in a prop aircraft using dead-reckoning navigation, was dangerous as hell. Some of those women made the trip dozens of times.
They tend to get, at best, footnote level of mention in history books. Which is a shame, and a gross injustice. Given that it was a small number of ladies doing the trip over and over again, during the course of the war they suffered quite a high fatality rate. They should be given the respect and honour they earned for their service.
Here we go:
Of the 1000 American women who ended up qualifying for the "Women Airforce Service Pilots" - 38 died in the line of duty. Because they were considered non combat roles, they were denied military funerals, funeral benefits (their families had to cover the costs), and the war office even denied them the traditional honorary flags. The surviving members had to wait until 1977 and an act of Congress to receive veterans benefits, and another act of Congress in 1984 to receive the "V" victory medal that was awarded to all other vets automatically after the war.
The Brits treated their women a lot better. Equal pay to other pilots of equal rank. They had 166 female pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary. Of those 166, 15 died in service.
Interesting read on the female pilots of WWII:
http://militaryhistorynow.com/2012/11/16/bomber-girls-the-women-fliers-of-world-war-two/
Of the 1000 American women who ended up qualifying for the "Women Airforce Service Pilots" - 38 died in the line of duty. Because they were considered non combat roles, they were denied military funerals, funeral benefits (their families had to cover the costs), and the war office even denied them the traditional honorary flags. The surviving members had to wait until 1977 and an act of Congress to receive veterans benefits, and another act of Congress in 1984 to receive the "V" victory medal that was awarded to all other vets automatically after the war.
The Brits treated their women a lot better. Equal pay to other pilots of equal rank. They had 166 female pilots in the Air Transport Auxiliary. Of those 166, 15 died in service.
Interesting read on the female pilots of WWII:
http://militaryhistorynow.com/2012/11/16/bomber-girls-the-women-fliers-of-world-war-two/
Russians took it a step further than just using females as ferry pilots;
From Wiki
The 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment: This unit was the first to take part in combat (April 16, 1942) of the three female regiments and participated in 4,419 combat missions (125 air battles and 38 kills). Lydia Litvyak and Yekaterina Budanova were assigned to the unit before joining the 437th IAP in the fighting over Stalingrad and became the world's only two female fighter aces (with 12 and 11 victories respectively), both flying the Yak-1 fighter.
The 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment: This was the best known of the regiments and was commanded by Yevdokia Bershanskaya. It originally began service as the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, but was redesignated in February 1943 as recognition for service which would tally 24,000+ combat missions by the end of the war. Their aircraft was the Polikarpov Po-2, a very outdated biplane. The Germans were the ones however who gave them the name that they are most well known as, The Night Witches.
The 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment: Marina Raskova commanded this unit until her death in combat, and then the unit was assigned to Valentin Markov. It started service as the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment until it was given the Guards designation in September 1943.
From Wiki
The 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment: This unit was the first to take part in combat (April 16, 1942) of the three female regiments and participated in 4,419 combat missions (125 air battles and 38 kills). Lydia Litvyak and Yekaterina Budanova were assigned to the unit before joining the 437th IAP in the fighting over Stalingrad and became the world's only two female fighter aces (with 12 and 11 victories respectively), both flying the Yak-1 fighter.
The 46th Taman Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment: This was the best known of the regiments and was commanded by Yevdokia Bershanskaya. It originally began service as the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, but was redesignated in February 1943 as recognition for service which would tally 24,000+ combat missions by the end of the war. Their aircraft was the Polikarpov Po-2, a very outdated biplane. The Germans were the ones however who gave them the name that they are most well known as, The Night Witches.
The 125th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment: Marina Raskova commanded this unit until her death in combat, and then the unit was assigned to Valentin Markov. It started service as the 587th Bomber Aviation Regiment until it was given the Guards designation in September 1943.
Ok, I keep seeing that photo referenced as Lyudmila Pavlichenko, but I think that's a mis-attribute... If it is her, the war really took a toll on her...
This is a post war pic:
That's not Pavlichenko in your upper photo, but no doubt the war did take a toll. This is is her:
Slavic women tend to strongly built, at least the "peasant stock" ones. A friend of mine knew one who could lift a full oil drum onto the tailgate of a truck; remember they used to hitch women to the plows back in the day.
By the way, Pavlichenko went on PR tours of the UK, Canada and USA. In the UK she was presented with a No.4 Mk.I(T) complete in the chest. Must be in some Russian museum now.
Prettiness was not a requirement for the job.
In the photos of the sniper companies on the march you can see that not all of them have scoped rifles. Perhaps only the best shots got them, or it was the "pick up the casualty's rifle" you read about elsewhere.
This lady is holding something unusual, but I doubt she was any kind of sniper
And it doesn't end well for most
Last edited:
- Location
- Leduc County, Alberta
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
...
And it doesn't end well for most
Only 1 in 5 Soviet female snipers survived the war, if I recall correctly. I don't think it was any better for the men.
The Eastern Front was a no holds barred, junkyard dog fight. The more I read/learn about WWII, the more i come to the conclusion that the European war was essentially a war between the Soviets and the Germans. Everything else was, at best, a distracting sideshow.
That's not to belittle the efforts of the Western allies, which were enormous in their own right, but the scale of the conflict on the Eastern Front was truly apocalyptic.
The scale of slaughter inflicted on the retreating Wehrmacht during the Falaise Gap battle wasn't apocalyptic? It sure left an impression on the participants, according to eye witness accounts.
The lot of the Canadian infantryman in the battles to liberate Holland may not have been on the scale of the battle of Kursk, but it was pretty horrific, as was the fight up the Italian boot.
Read Farley Mowat's "And No Birds Sang" for a pretty good depiction of the war as seen by a participant.
The lot of the Canadian infantryman in the battles to liberate Holland may not have been on the scale of the battle of Kursk, but it was pretty horrific, as was the fight up the Italian boot.
Read Farley Mowat's "And No Birds Sang" for a pretty good depiction of the war as seen by a participant.
