Picture of the day

moonshot5 said:
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German Fieldgendarme examines rifle SVT-40, been taken from the Yugoslav partisan.

http://queenvioletxix.tumblr.com/post/51474293887/german-fieldgendarme-examines-rifle-svt-40-been
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The caption is crap. This is an SS Feldgendarme examing the rifle of a "Hiwi" or "Hilfswillinge", a Soviet national either serving in the Wehrmacht or as an auxiliary of some kind. There were millions of them. When you remember how popular the "bolsheviks" (who were really the Mensheviks) made themselves in the Ukraine in the 1930s, you can understand why they often welcomed the Germans with bread and salt ("open arms" in other words)

First the Soviets gave very little if any aid to the Yugoslav partisans, that was mostly British with some American help. Secondly, if this was a combat theatre that steel hat would be on his head, not his belt; not wearing one could get you charged with self-wounding. Fourth if that guy was a partisan, he would be bound or more likely already dangling from the nearest tree or telephone pole, and Mr. SS man would not be smilingly examining his rifle while Mr. Partisan stood on looking able to grab it whenever he chose.

And the fact that he's looking at the SVT-40 like he's never seen one before probably means either this is just a staged shot or the SS man was new to the Eastern Front.

They say the camera never lies, but people sure do.
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Hope you're right, Fox. As described, I'd thinking the "partisan" would appear far more fearful. Either the caption is kittywhumpus, or buddy's got a set of steel. His expression is less "Oh lord I'm gonna die" and more "Yeah. yeah, yeah, it's a nice rifle. Now give it back and let me go about my business."

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God bless the Finns:

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That's a hard looking gent. Do reindeer have an adaptation that allows them mobility on glare ice? I would think a WT deer in a similar spot would spend a lot of time on his belly...

160,000 more pictures on a similar theme here:
http://sa-kuva.fi/neo?tem=webneoeng
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Another thing to note is the soldier's boots. They are a traditional Finnish/Lappi style with the upward hooked toe. The purpose is to hook into a traditional ski binding, so the boots can be worn with or without skiis.
 
Suomi said:
Another thing to note is the soldier's boots. They are a traditional Finnish/Lappi style with the upward hooked toe. The purpose is to hook into a traditional ski binding, so the boots can be worn with or without skiis.
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That picture looks like it's of a Lapp or Saami nomad going about his ordinary traditional lifestyle, except doing it while wearing an army coat and cap as some sort of military auxiliary patroller. Except for the coat and cap, he's wearing his normal winter clothing and accompanied on his hunting trip or reindeer herding round by his normal pack reindeer.
 
Heavy reliance on "dogmobile" assets. Interesting.

The dudes on the left look like the famous Belgian Chimneysweep Division.

Soviet T-35:

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http://3.bp.########.com/-EGclFL5UTfw/UX9wHz3CDGI/AAAAAAAAAPY/-KnvTduX05g/s1600/world+of+tanks+t35+soviet+tank.gif
 
The pictures of the gentlemen in the top hats with the dog cart machine gun in post 2827 are the “Belgian Garde Civique”. They fought in slowing down the German advance through Belgium but were disbanded as the Germans would not treat them as POWs according to the Geneva Convention
 
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Those T-35's are awesome. I'll bet the Germans thought so too, especially when they were coming over the hill, so to speak.:runaway:

Thanks for posting the web address for those Finn pics. I set the slideshow going, got to 155/10000, so far.:popCorn:
 
Ike chats up the 101st - England, June 5th, 1944. 70th anniversary next year. Hard to believe.

Some of those boys got pretty Nehiw about their look for The Big Show.

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For a German lad in what was supposed to be a quiet part of France, raised on Karl May's "Winnetou" stories, seeing what appears to be a homicidal Rotte Indianer materialize in your yard at at dark o'clock in the morning would be absolutely fascinating, not to mention not a little terrifying.
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
Ike chats up the 101st - England, June 5th, 1944. 70th anniversary next year. Hard to believe.

Some of those boys got pretty Nehiw about their look for The Big Show.

269.jpg


ss040_49.jpg


121969175_McNiece_384364c.jpg


For a German lad in what was supposed to be a quiet part of France, raised on Karl May's "Winnetou" stories, seeing what appears to be a homicidal Rotte Indianer materialize in your yard at at dark o'clock in the morning would be absolutely fascinating, not to mention not a little terrifying.
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Especially when the aforementioned Rotte Indianer had replaced his common traditional Colonial-era Tommiehawke with the slightly less common variant, the Tommiegunne...
 
Here is a short movie featuring the photo recon version of the Spitfire. I learned some interesting things about it, including that the Americans flew them in preference to P-38s and they had the range to fly to Berlin.

My accountant flew the Spit in WW2. He told me it drank a gallon a minute and only held 45 gallons.

When he transitioned to the Griffon engine Spit (instead of the Merlin) he tells me he was not told the engine rotated in the opposite direction. When you take off in a plane you either crank on a lot of rudder trim, or stand on the rudder pedal, because the torque tends to swing you to the side. He cranked on full rudder trim - which was in the wrong direction. He said he was lucky it was a wide grass field.

I used to fly a Mooney. About Spitfire in size and pretty hot with 200hp. I cannot imagine what it would be like to blast of with almost 2,000 hp. At about age 20.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie3SrjLlcUY
 
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