Picture of the day

[dryfire]

I'd agree with this. Looks long overdue for some tonsorial care as many Navy types are. He looks to be flying an F6F Hellcat, perhaps off a smaller carrier without a barber chair.
If Navy guys are going to wear beards I think they should model themselves on that spiffy old sea captain in "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir".

Coincidentally Edward Mul'hare' played the role in one remake !

 

[kawicrash]

Drummer at the far left. I don't remember seeing drummers in German units.

What's this all about?

 

[Dfbshaw]

Drummer at the far left. I don't remember seeing drummers in German units.

Looks more like a Russian unit, given the Cyrillic writing on their sign.

 

[dryfire]

From what I've read, they had either six or eight-gun noses installed. The K model had 8, plus very uprated engines and many improvements over the stock A26. They were very serious airplanes.

The Germans never really got into that sort of thing. There were, of course, some attempts - the JU 87 with the twin 37 MM cannons, "


Can't forget the Dornier 215 nightfighter, Ju88G and the Heinkel 219 all had concentrations of cannon , upwards of 6-8 20mm and later 30mm as well as the Schrage Musik installation in the spine of the fuselage.(Cannon mounted obliquely upward to fire into the belly of the target a/c.

 

[tigrr]

jwhc 3 years and it is still going. Bet you never thought that it would be!!

My grandfather is in two of the three pictures. Aircraft mechanic.

 

[tigrr]

swoop in fix it up and fly out.

 

[Fidelito]

Drummer at the far left. I don't remember seeing drummers in German units.

The sign reads: “General primary school in Voynov, 1st class.”

It's absolutely nothing unordinary to see a large german presence in Imperial Russia.. Catherine the Great was born in Prussia, and Peter III was also born in Germany... and thats just a very very lazy example.. To put it in to perspective Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; King George V of England; and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia were all first cousins.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Blogs/2013/brookings-now/Familyrelationships.png?la=en

 

[Donny Fenn1]

swoop in fix it up and fly out.

if i didn't know any better i'd say that was a Lysander flying over a Norseman?

 

[RRCo.]

The sign reads: “General primary school in Voynov, 1st class.”

It's absolutely nothing unordinary to see a large german presence in Imperial Russia.. Catherine the Great was born in Prussia, and Peter III was also born in Germany... and thats just a very very lazy example.. To put it in to perspective Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; King George V of England; and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia were all first cousins.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Blogs/2013/brookings-now/Familyrelationships.png?la=en

Especially since in 1918-19 they occupied the Ukraine and large parts of western Russian under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

 

[kayceel]

While the aircraft shadow resembles a Lysander it was more likely to have been a Stinson Reliant.

 

[kawicrash]

Looks more like a Russian unit, given the Cyrillic writing on their sign.

I think they are posing with a captured sign. The jackboots, gew 98's, cap badges and pickelhaube helmets and the gott mit uns (god with us) banner say Germans.

 

[Quiet]

The sign reads: “General primary school in Voynov, 1st class.”

It's absolutely nothing unordinary to see a large german presence in Imperial Russia.. Catherine the Great was born in Prussia, and Peter III was also born in Germany... and thats just a very very lazy example.. To put it in to perspective Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; King George V of England; and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia were all first cousins.

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Research/Files/Blogs/2013/brookings-now/Familyrelationships.png?la=en

Prior to WW1, Germans were a large minority in Imperial Russia, they were represented in large numbers in the merchant/intellectual classes, and Germans, particularly Mennonites were encouraged to settle and build communities in many areas in the Ukraine. I believe I recall reading there were over 2 million.
The German army occupation of the Ukraine in 1918 protected the communities against the anarchy and pillaging that was going on in the rest of Russia because of the communist revolution. Before withdrawing from the Ukraine, the German army provided leadership, training and arms to form local self-protection or "selbstschutz" units who for a time successfully defended the communities against the anarchists. Some of these units fought together as part of the White army in the Russian Civil War.
"Selbstschutz group from the villages of Blumenort, Tiege, and Ohrloff, 1918":

 

[RRCo.]

swoop in fix it up and fly out.

All the vehicle tracks leading off the road and down onto the ice suggest otherwise.

 

[grelmar]

From WarHistoryOnline:

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/37beautiful-sad-but-touching-colourised-images-of-wwii.html?src=fba&type=wca&page=who

‘Dropping a huge French flag on top of the Arc de Triomphe’
RAF pilot Flight Lieutenant Ken Gatward and his navigator, Flight Sergeant George Fern, volunteered for the audacious mission, which was planned following intelligence reports that German troops were parading down the Champs-Elysees every day between 12.15 and 12.45 pm.
On 12 June 1942 Gatward and Fern took off in their Bristol Beaufighter from Thorney Island, West Sussex, flew over the English Channel into occupied France and headed towards Paris at low level. Gatward later recalled, “I’ll never forget the astonishment of the crowd in the Paris streets as we swept low at rooftop level. They had been taken completely by surprise.”

Gatward flew at just 30ft down the Champs-Elysees and Fern dropped the French Tricolour on top of Paris’ famous monument. Gatward then flew on to the Gestapo’s Paris HQ, the former Ministere de la Marine, raked it with 20mm shells – scattering its SS guards in panic – and Fern dropped a second Tricolour on the building. The daring duo’s spectacular raid boosted the morale of oppressed Parisians and, when the news broke at home, lifted the spirits of the beleaguered British too. Gatward was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and both he and Fern were feted as heroes.

Some guys have balls. Some have style. Some have both.

 

[Dark Alley Dan]

"Take this mug. Fill it with whiskey. Wait a moment while I empty it. Repeat as instructed, or until I tell you to go get another bottle."

 

[Rod B]

From WarHistoryOnline:

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/37beautiful-sad-but-touching-colourised-images-of-wwii.html?src=fba&type=wca&page=who

Some guys have balls. Some have style. Some have both.

The three bars on his epaulets signify the rank of Squadron leader. Flight Lieutenant is two bars. Regardless the guy had a huge set of balls.

 

[grelmar]

The three bars on his epaulets signify the rank of Squadron leader. Flight Lieutenant is two bars. Regardless the guy had a huge set of balls.

The pic was from a bit later on, after he'd earned a chest full of medals for various and sundry acts of insane levels of bravery.

The info about him in the WarHistoryOnline link is quite telling. He retired from the RAF in 1967 as a Group Captain, then promptly re-enlisted as a Volunteer Reserve at the rank of Flight Lieutenant so he could get back in the cockpit.

 

[kawicrash]

Prior to WW1, Germans were a large minority in Imperial Russia, they were represented in large numbers in the merchant/intellectual classes, and Germans, particularly Mennonites were encouraged to settle and build communities in many areas in the Ukraine. I believe I recall reading there were over 2 million.
The German army occupation of the Ukraine in 1918 protected the communities against the anarchy and pillaging that was going on in the rest of Russia because of the communist revolution. Before withdrawing from the Ukraine, the German army provided leadership, training and arms to form local self-protection or "selbstschutz" units who for a time successfully defended the communities against the anarchists. Some of these units fought together as part of the White army in the Russian Civil War.
"Selbstschutz group from the villages of Blumenort, Tiege, and Ohrloff, 1918":

That's interesting. I've been to Blumenort (Manitoba)
I always understood the Mennonites to be conscientious objectors. I guess things were a bit different then.

 

[Desert_Fox]

That's interesting. I've been to Blumenort (Manitoba)
I always understood the Mennonites to be conscientious objectors. I guess things were a bit different then.

Yup. I had relatives fight against the Anarchists, Bolsheviks, and Ukrainian Makhno Bandits. Lost quite a few to the Red hordes, starvation and disease. My grandfather lost his parents in the Revolution....

While some feel that the Selbstschutz were a bad idea as it brought even harsher reprisals against the Mennonite community after the Civil War, I still believe that defending their homes and families was the correct course of action. But then again, the misery brought onto many of them in the Ukraine and Russia forced the remainder to emigrate to much better lives in Canada, the USA and elsewhere... so I guess I can thank Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov and that old Georgian Fatback, Stalin, for being born in Canada, and not the hell hole that is Greater Russia!

This Mennonite will never be a pacifist.

Also, some fantastic reading on the Mennonite community from the Fraser Valley in South-Western B.C. and what they did during WW2 can be found at this link: http://app.ufv.ca/fvhistory/studentsites/wwII/mennonitewwIIservice/index.html

 

[dryfire]

The three bars on his epaulets signify the rank of Squadron leader. Flight Lieutenant is two bars. Regardless the guy had a huge set of balls.

The stripes on the epaulets look equal width which would make him a WingCo at that time. Sqn Ldr's were two thick with a thin in the middle. The thin stripe being the width of a pilot officer's .
He's also wearing the DFC ribbon

And I agree, the brazen audacity of the chap to dare disrupt a Wehrmacht parade !