Picture of the day

Grizzly Adams said:
What is it about those Italian women? I latched onto my wife because he reminded me of Sophia. Said she had been handed that compliment several times, she was German though. :)
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Looks like SL? Good work, mate. I'm very happy to be married to someone who shares a gender with The Sophia.

Ms. Cardinale is French Algerian, and was never, in any of her roles, any less than incandescently hot. And because it's a military pic thread, here she is with Anthony Quinn in The Lost Command:

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Dark Alley Dan said:
Well there's absolutely nothing wrong with a Spitfire from any angle. You and I are 100% in alignment on that one, mate. :) Although the Mk. 9T is coming close to not being attractive...

And as we're on a cheesecake jag just now, I thing Claudia Cardinale should be on any reasonable list of Most Beautiful Women:


Anyhow, military pics. Here's Johnny Turk and friends, on maneuvers in 1940. Note the antiquated kit. One wonders how they would have done had they been dragged into the fray.

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the water used for personal ablutions regardless of how it is contained (tin, pot, bidet) is a very standard practice with moslem men and women. they are quite horrified at westerners who drag a piece of paper across their ass and call it good to go.

Two stories that stay with me about Turkish troops is the one about them chaining themselves to their MG's so that they wouldnt be tempted to flee from the enemy and the other story (that seems well researched by psychologists) involves repatriated UN Turkish POW's captured by the Chicom in Korea...

The 'experts' determined that obviously the released Turks were given special treatment in the Chicom POW camps because they returned in generally good spirits and health while the American personnel who had been captured were in very poor mental and physical condition (suffering with what we would call PTSD today) .... eventually it was established that both Turkish soldiers and American soldiers were given the same treatment which included sporadic and random beatings and only one meal a day of an unpleasant 'gruel'.

The difference was that the Turkish soldiers were accustomed to regular beatings at the hand of their Sr NCO's and Officers and thought themselves lucky to be fed every few days. To them the POW camp wasnt such a hardship.

There was quite a 'body of pyschiatric work' investigating ptsd accumulated by American medical personnel as a result of the execution of Eddie Slovik
 
They ran out of surplus SKS's to sell off... I wonder if the Ukraine would ever be willing to ship some of their other surplus soviet era gear...

kharkov-tank-repair-plant-ukraine-20.jpg
 
AP said:
the water used for personal ablutions regardless of how it is contained (tin, pot, bidet) is a very standard practice with moslem men and women. they are quite horrified at westerners who drag a piece of paper across their ass and call it good to go.

Two stories that stay with me about Turkish troops is the one about them chaining themselves to their MG's so that they wouldnt be tempted to flee from the enemy and the other story (that seems well researched by psychologists) involves repatriated UN Turkish POW's captured by the Chicom in Korea...

The 'experts' determined that obviously the released Turks were given special treatment in the Chicom POW camps because they returned in generally good spirits and health while the American personnel who had been captured were in very poor mental and physical condition (suffering with what we would call PTSD today) .... eventually it was established that both Turkish soldiers and American soldiers were given the same treatment which included sporadic and random beatings and only one meal a day of an unpleasant 'gruel'.

The difference was that the Turkish soldiers were accustomed to regular beatings at the hand of their Sr NCO's and Officers and thought themselves lucky to be fed every few days. To them the POW camp wasnt such a hardship.

There was quite a 'body of pyschiatric work' investigating ptsd accumulated by American medical personnel as a result of the execution of Eddie Slovik
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Book and a movie made about Eddie Slovik. The execution of the only American soldier convicted of desertion , a very political decision during the last days of WWll, the Americans were having disciplinary problems, personally approved by Eisennhower. During WW l, the Brits executed a fair number, who should have been classified as mental combat casualties. The Soviets actually locked tank crews into their vehicles, so they couldn't bug out.



Grizz
 
grelmar said:
They ran out of surplus SKS's to sell off... I wonder if the Ukraine would ever be willing to ship some of their other surplus soviet era gear...

kharkov-tank-repair-plant-ukraine-20.jpg
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The picture is from 2014, just prior to the outbreak of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. You can safely bet that the Kharkov tank plant's yard doesn't look quite the same five years later.
 
Folks who want some insights into the Korean War, incl the treatment of POWs by the Chinese, should read, "This Kind of War" by TR Fehrenbach. I bought a copy in 1967 and re-read it every few years.

Fehrenbach says that some of the reasons why the Turks stood up so well to the Chinese captors was their austere upbringing, their pride and sense of unity and their internal discipline; selling out to the Chinese for individual favors wasn't an option. The lack of these same things made the American POWs very vulnerable and caused a high percentage of them to die in Chinese captivity. The next best survivors in Chinese captivity were the British NCOs.
 
CV32 said:
The picture is from 2014, just prior to the outbreak of armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. You can safely bet that the Kharkov tank plant's yard doesn't look quite the same five years later.
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Not really. That pic is from the repair facility, not the actual factory. The repair yard was abandoned in '91. It would cost more $$ and time to clean it up and get it running again than the Ukraine can afford.

Some Ukrainian bloggers snuck into the yard in 2018, and it was largely the same, with some of the empty concrete being used to temporarily store new tanks before shipping.


The two lads in the video got themselves arrested and locked up for posting the video. The Ukrainian government was none too happy about having how lax the security is around the plant exposed to the WWW
 
So there is something to be said for having a moral compass, self discipline and a sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves.

When the US Embassy was over run in Teheran, the civilian employees quickly became demoralized and came back as basket cases. The USMC Embassy guards had a field day, tormenting their captors and came back mentally and physically fit. They tormented their Irani captors relentlessly by doing culturally offensive things like eating with their left hands, farting loudly in front of female guards, etc., etc. In other words, they behaved like Marines.

Journalist Buckley once described the USMC as "one of the last bastions of disciplined thought in America." They proved it. Semper Fi.
 
grelmar said:
They ran out of surplus SKS's to sell off... I wonder if the Ukraine would ever be willing to ship some of their other surplus soviet era gear...
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View attachment 255103

The Kharkiv abandon factory in Ukraine. Was also one of the maps generated in the PC game. Battlefield 4 Zavod 311

Some good photo's here. https://imgur.com/a/nDdDR

And a good story here. Perhaps they should have held on to them.

Google Earth
Kharkiv tank factory
lat 50° 1'21.12"N
long 36°11'32.37"E

Kiev tank Graveyard
lat 50°25'6.89"N
long 30°41'44.85"E
 
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grelmar said:
They ran out of surplus SKS's to sell off... I wonder if the Ukraine would ever be willing to ship some of their other surplus soviet era gear...

kharkov-tank-repair-plant-ukraine-20.jpg
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I've seen a couple of companies out of the UK and former East Bloc offering running condition T 72s for sale (cannon deactivated) relatively cheap. I'd love to get one, but shipping and how to do maintenance would be the turn off.

Year's ago, a guy in ? Northern Alberta (I think) brought in a Chieftain or Centurion tank---i only know of it because it was featured on local news
 
grelmar said:
Not really. That pic is from the repair facility, not the actual factory. The repair yard was abandoned in '91. It would cost more $$ and time to clean it up and get it running again than the Ukraine can afford.
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Yeah, that wasn't the point. And I know where the pic is from. The point is that shortly after the pic(s) of the repair yard were taken, the war in the Donbass began in earnest. And while the tank repair yard hasn't returned to its former self, tank hulls from the yard - either in whole or in the form of parts - have been drawn upon to sustain the war effort.

For example, less than a month ago Ukraine announced that it had upgraded more than 100 T-64BM model main battle tanks, fifty or more of them by this time in 2018.

Some Ukrainian bloggers snuck into the yard in 2018, and it was largely the same, with some of the empty concrete being used to temporarily store new tanks before shipping.
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As I said, it doesn't look quite the same. There has been activity there, as is evident from the refurbished tanks and the presence of the tank transporter, even if the repair yard hasn't been returned to full operational status.
 
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For those with more money then brains and a very understanding wife I introduce to you,

http://www.mortarinvestments.eu/

I believe they're in chechzlovakia, I believe they even have two engineless Migs, nothing like equipping your 3rd world army or blossoming drug cartel with Soviet armour, or you know, having your neighbors question your sanity, the even have a t-34....
 
Well - I was in the Czech republic back in the early 90's. The Russians had left a pile of military gear when they exited. I was at a aircraft factory (Aerovodohody?), where the were selling Migs (19?) for 30kUS$. The sales office was filled with military types from Africa and a few folks from the Confederate airforce.
 
cosmic said:
Well - I was in the Czech republic back in the early 90's. The Russians had left a pile of military gear when they exited. I was at a aircraft factory (Aerovodohody?), where the were selling Migs (19?) for 30kUS$. The sales office was filled with military types from Africa and a few folks from the Confederate airforce.
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Aero Vodochody is still around, producing indigenous aircraft as well as parts and components for a range of Western aircraft.
 
For sale. Patina. As is/where is.

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This talk of MiGs got me looking. The MiG 15 - good aircraft, passable boat:

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(Background story on this is here.)

The Egyptians appear to have bent a few of the ones they had.

mig15.JPG
 
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