Picture of the day

So much going on here...

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All I know from the place I downloaded it from was that it's a photo of an East German gal who successfully ran across the line.

On the left are West German troops. Note the P38 (possibly P1) and Stahlhelm of the fellow in the foreground.

The East German troops are wearing what appears to be a cross between old-style uniform pants and boots, and soviet style jackets and caps, wielding PPSH's and SKS's.

I'm sure all involved were having quite the discussion about the lovely young blond lass.
 
Doubtless they were. I don't believe German's known for its cussing, but I imagine every available profanity was being used. Maybe some English and Russian too, depending on one's political alignment.

I think the lads on the left are all wearing the West German police shako:

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Looks like the world's goofiest bump cap.

Taxi!

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749882417-shako-red-city-hall-traffic-police-town-hall-tower.jpg
 
Aha! A self-propelled whiskey barrel that can fly.


Gibbs505 said:
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German test pilot Wilhelm Eickhoff in a Roland D.VIa at Hannover Langenhagen, c. November 1917.

Can you imagine getting in one of those and actually taking off? Not to mention dog fights. Balls of steel!
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Cdn303 said:
finland-be-afraid1.jpg
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Not to rain upon the Finn's; I've read that the Soviets used that front to do some 'cleansing' of conscripted soldiers that they found...undesireable.
And nope, don't recall the source or really find it important enough to do the research on. It would explain the horrific losses though. "If the Finn's kill them...NP. If they triumph over the Finn's even better"
 
Finland Won the battles and repulsed Soviet invasion, but in the end they lost the war as Soviets still gained territories in 1944-45 that they were asking back in 1939, for which Winter War was fought.
Soviets never cared how many men they lost, in Stalins eyes its more the better, but for Finland that war was waste of men and resources. As in 1944 they saw what will happen to them after soviets be done with Germany so they sued for piece to avoid further pointless losses.
 
grelmar said:
So much going on here...

View attachment 79682

All I know from the place I downloaded it from was that it's a photo of an East German gal who successfully ran across the line.

On the left are West German troops. Note the P38 (possibly P1) and Stahlhelm of the fellow in the foreground.

The East German troops are wearing what appears to be a cross between old-style uniform pants and boots, and soviet style jackets and caps, wielding PPSH's and SKS's.

I'm sure all involved were having quite the discussion about the lovely young blond lass.
Click to expand...
Back in the early 1980s we flew to Berlin (on a PanAm flight, an airline long gone now) for a long weekend sightseeing trip. The guide explained that the Berlin Wall is in fact about six feet INSIDE the East German border and they (East Germans) can at times been seen on the West German side of the wall. If we where to see armed East Germans patrolling we where to step away about 15 ft or so and by doing so remain in West Germany and "unscoopable". The guide, an American soldier BTW, explained that every couple months the E.Germans would roll up drunk Brit/American soldiers taking a leak on the wall, or just generally being drunk and stupid around the guys with AKs and sour dispositions and earn a short visit to the wrong side of the wall.
 
AP said:
Given the cost of unification...I wonder how many 'West' Germans wish the wall was still up?
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It's funny but when I was in Berlin in 2001, the irony is the East Germans were the ones that wanted the old ways. With the wall down and the influences of the West, they suddenly had to actually work for what they wanted and with the huge choices available, their wallets could not meet their wants so they wanted the old ways back!
 
AP said:
Given the cost of unification...I wonder how many 'West' Germans wish the wall was still up?
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And the swiss!

Should have built the wall 10 Meter higher and with more machine guns.

Many east germans coming to Switzerland to work. We have quite a few of them at work. While they're good workers, you can really tell that having grown up in a communist country is bad. Living in a communist society for 50 years does something to the people. The more educated they are the better, but we happen to get the dumber ones. The younger generation seems to get over it though.

Sorry if this sounds really racist.
 
Still alive said:
It's funny but when I was in Berlin in 2001, the irony is the East Germans were the ones that wanted the old ways. With the wall down and the influences of the West, they suddenly had to actually work for what they wanted and with the huge choices available, their wallets could not meet their wants so they wanted the old ways back!
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That's true. Talking to some people from the GDR they always liked having a job, having being taken care of, a pension, health care and so on. But once you tell them what a fuXXed up place it was that people who wanted to leave were being shot it, the discussion really goes down the drain.
 
XRCD011 said:
Back in the early 1980s we flew to Berlin (on a PanAm flight, an airline long gone now) for a long weekend sightseeing trip. The guide explained that the Berlin Wall is in fact about six feet INSIDE the East German border and they (East Germans) can at times been seen on the West German side of the wall. If we where to see armed East Germans patrolling we where to step away about 15 ft or so and by doing so remain in West Germany and "unscoopable". The guide, an American soldier BTW, explained that every couple months the E.Germans would roll up drunk Brit/American soldiers taking a leak on the wall, or just generally being drunk and stupid around the guys with AKs and sour dispositions and earn a short visit to the wrong side of the wall.
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If memory serves, the wall was built by the EAST Germans.
 
My German inlaws were fond of telling me how good things were on the eastern side of the wall for the average worker. Yeah, right, all consumer goods were outrageously expensive and only for party favourites.
I suggested that they apply to emigrate as they would be welcomed as a propaganda victory for the DDR and asked why only the very old were allowed to cross the wall west to visit family.

I also pointed out that people were being shot for crossing east/west, not west/east. That usually ended the conversation.
 
bearhunter said:
If memory serves, the wall was built by the EAST Germans.
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Where...........did I say the wall was built built by the W.Germans? I did not. The six feet or so from the ACTUAL WEST German (and unmarked) border to the physical EAST German built wall was E.German land. So if a East German patrol was seen on the W.German side of the wall they where on their own land as long as they where right against the wall. Now if some drunk Berlin Brigade soldier was grabbed, on the W.German side of the wall by EAST Germans in that six foot strip it was a legitimate grab and the guy grabbed would become a guest of the DDR for a few days.

Berlin-Wall-Escape-590x442.jpg

At the Checkpoint Charlie museum the story behind this famous pic was the "wall" had just started going up and in the first days of construction (by the EAST Germans for BH) was little more then wire obstacles. This guard was encouraged by people in the West German side to jump the fence and he agreed the following day (hence camera men there filming it) he made his jump across, chucked the PPSH41 aside and instantly became a West German.
 
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Sharps '63 said:
My German inlaws were fond of telling me how good things were on the eastern side of the wall for the average worker. Yeah, right, all consumer goods were outrageously expensive and only for party favourites.
I suggested that they apply to emigrate as they would be welcomed as a propaganda victory for the DDR and asked why only the very old were allowed to cross the wall west to visit family.

I also pointed out that people were being shot for crossing east/west, not west/east. That usually ended the conversation.
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Q. How does one know they are in a "Workers Paradise" ??

A. The guards at the factory gate have AK47s.
 
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