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Cool down sport. Hate goverment if you must not the people.
The Germans had created a large and technically advanced air force during World War I, and they were determined to maintain a secret force that could be expanded as soon as the hated Versailles Treaty was renounced. To do so, the German army needed a place to train its airmen and develop new technologies and tactics. The Russians offered the Germans a base at the spa town of Lipetsk, 300 miles southwest of Moscow. It proved ideal, and became the focus of a secret Luftwaffe rearmament and training program in the late 1920s.
The Lipetsk base, which opened in 1925, was home to 60 to 70 permanent German personnel, including instructors, technicians, and test pilots. Between 1925 and 1933, several dozen Reichswehr personnel a year were officially “retired” from the army and sent to Russia as civilians. At Lipetsk they either took a six-month course in advanced fighter aircraft, or were enrolled in the aerial observer’s course. After completing the rigorous training program, as thorough as any offered in the world at the time, the airmen would return to Germany and be officially reinstated in the army. During the eight years it was in operation, more than 450 Reichswehr airmen were trained in Russia.
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By 1929 the German companies had produced six prototype heavy tanks and four light tanks and shipped them to the Russian industrial city of Kazan to be tested. These tanks, in addition to prototype armored cars produced by the Daimler and Büssing companies, helped equip the German tank officer school, which opened the same year. Along with military personnel, dozens of German engineers were secretly brought to Russia to oversee the armored experiments. Ferdinand Porsche—who would go on to design the most notorious heavy tank of World War II (and possibly of all time), the Tiger Mk IV—had his first experience in tank design as head of Daimler’s “large tractor” project and observed the German army’s first armored maneuvers in Kazan.
Fun fact 1: USSR was a Nazi ally from 1939 till June of 1941.
They were never allies.
They had no trust and a bullshit nonaggression pact. Stalin didn’t trust anyone, and hitler vilified commies.
The_Weeping_Ayatollah says
Fun fact 1: USSR was a Nazi ally from 1939 till June of 1941.
Your Sunday newspaper...yesterday morning I drove to the pool for my 08:00 workout. I parked next to a Tesla. I walked to the entrance door for the pool. Two men of average height got out of the Tesla. They were speaking Russian. I spoke to them in English. They responded in English. I started to talk to them about the work that Telewave had done in Russia before relations got bad between the US and Russia. Then I mentioned The Great Patriotic War (Russia's battle against the Nazis in World War II that cost the lives of 27 million Russians.) I pointed out that the US and Britain would have suffered millions killed, if Russia had not been in the war.
Both men warmed up and we had quite a conversation. The conversation went quickly to Sir Winston Churchill and his friendship with Josef Stalin. Here are some details on Sir Winston for those who are curious:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
Not known to many is that Churchill would get in a British bomber and fly from London to Moscow (Avoiding German territory and planes). Stalin's American-made Packard would meet Sir Winston at the airport and drive him to the Kremlin. Sir Winston would be taken to Stalin's private apartment in the Kremlin. A grand feast was always prepared by Stalin's staff. Sir Winston and Stalin would eat roast pig and consume copious quantities of alcohol. Both men would relax and "let their hair down."
The two Russian men were familiar with this little-known fact. I pointed out that Sir Winston was 5'8" and weighed 300 lbs. He smoked many cigars and drank copious amounts of alcohol. Despite all these bad health markers, Sir Winston lived to be 90 years old. The Russians pointed out that Sir Winston's daily alcohol consumption started with Champaign at breakfast, gin at lunch, and copious quantities of brandy in the evening. We all were laughing and became friends.
What a great way to start the day!!
Have a good Sunday!
Amo-a,
-JackW