Picture Quiz - Page 23

mcoffee · #**551** (**permalink**) November 13th, 2009, 12:50 PM

This is really not that obsure - its covered in multiple books and articles about a particular air campaign. The designation of the Savoia tells the country it belonged to. The date was 27 August 1944. A major change had just occured there.

vathra · #**552** (**permalink**) November 13th, 2009, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcoffee

The flight originally took off in a Savoia-Marchetti JRS-79B1, but it developed engine problems and returned. Under time pressure, the Bf-109 was the only remaining option. The result was approximately 1300 happy souls.

This tells it was Romanian plane...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constan...uzino_(aviator)

Quote:

Cantacuzino was then given a special mission: to transport Lieutenant-Colonel James Gunn III, the highest ranking American POW in Romania, to the airbase at Foggia and then to lead back the USAAF airplanes that were coming to take the POWs home. He landed after two hours and 5 minutes of flight. He returned flying a Mustang because his Bf-109 Gustav couldn't be refueled. He needed only one flight to get used to it and dazzled the Americans with his aerobatics, which he couldn't help himself not to execute.

mcoffee · #**553** (**permalink**) November 13th, 2009, 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vathra

This tells it was Romanian plane...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constan...uzino_(aviator)

Good job, Vathra (I was running out of clues).

Lt. Col. James A Gunn III, deputy commander of the 454th BG was flown to San Giovanni, Italy sealed in the radio compartment of Cantacuzino's Bf-109. That took a bit of nerve since the Bf-109 was likely to be shot at by either the Americans or the Germans at that point, and he had no way out. He was attempting to arrange for the repatriation of the POW's released by Romania when it changed to the side of the Allies. The result was Operation Reunion, in which 1,270 POWs were flown out of Romania in B-17s stripped as transports.

This is Gunn's report:
I was shot down over Ploesti the morning of Aug. 17. The first flak caught us and three motors were shot away. When the crew was safely out I jumped and I never felt such a sense of relief as when I got away from the ship which had become an inferno. I landed in a cornfield and two soldiers and two farmers discovered me. I was driven to Ploesti and imprisoned there with other members of the crew. Later we were taken to Bucharest and placed in a school- house, which served as a stockade for interned Americans. I was the ranking officer. The night of Aug. 23 we heard the king broadcast the news that Rumania had changed sides. We decided to fight it out rather than be overrun by the Germans. We asked the colonel in charge to give us back our sidearms, which amounted to 20 pistols. He said he would give them to us if the Germans tried to storm the schoolhouse. Next morning the colonel told us he was delighted Rumania was fighting on our side, opened all exits to the prison and gave us our guns.
When the Germans began to bomb the city, the Rumanians got mad. They killed many Germans, but many civilians also were killed by the German bombings. Our people were getting jittery. No real protection was guaranteed us. On Aug. 24, I sent two officers out to make radio contact with Fifteenth Air Force Headquarters and sent a third officer out to see what chance we had of evacuating the men to the safety of the country. By noon of the twenty-sixth none of these officers had been heard from.
I made a request to see the Rumanian minister of war, Gen. Racovita. Within two hours he received me. I told him the men should be evacuated to the country. He agreed. I then asked the general to send me in a plane back to Italy to make arrangements to evacuate the men by air. He said maybe we had better talk with the chief of staff. The chief of staff took me to see Air Minister Gheorghiu, who said "It is an excellent idea. I will do it."
Next morning I was presented to a lieutenant commander who took me to an airfield and we boarded an old Italian plane which barely got off the ground. In 30 minutes we were in such trouble that I wondered whether we would get back to the field. It was pretty disheartening to return, but the air minister then introduced me to Capt. Constantine Cantacuzene, (the cousin of Princess Catherine Caradja) who is Rumania's ranking pilot with the astonishing number of 64 Allied aircraft to his credit.
He said he would get me to Italy in his Messerschmitt 109. We painted an American flag on the fuselage and white stars on the wings. After the radio equipment was removed I got into the fuselage and he screwed the plate over the side. We were ready to go.
It was a tense moment when we came onto the Italian field. I'll never forget the sense of relief when the wheels hit the ground and we still were not shot at. People crowded around the Me-109. I heard Capt. Cantacuzene say: "I have somebody here you'll be glad to see." One of the men yelled. "Look at those GI shoes stickout." They removed the plate from the fuselage and I climbed out. Gen Twining (Maj. Gen. Nathan Twining, Commander of the 15th United States Air Force) wasn't at the field, so I went into a huddle with Gen. Born (Brig. Gen. Charles Franklin Born) and we then went to headquarters. I told the story to Eaker and Wilson (Lieut. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, and Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, Commander-in- Chief in the Mediterranean). After that they asked me to leave the room and made the decision that resulted in evacuating all those happy kids."

Your turn Vathra.

TiredOldSoldier · #**554** (**permalink**) November 14th, 2009, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcoffee

Good job, Vathra (I was running out of clues).

Lt. Col. James A Gunn III, deputy commander of the 454th BG was flown to San Giovanni, Italy sealed in the radio compartment of Cantacuzino's Bf-109. That took a bit of nerve since the Bf-109 was likely to be shot at by either the Americans or the Germans at that point, and he had no way out. He was attempting to arrange for the repatriation of the POW's released by Romania when it changed to the side of the Allies. The result was Operation Reunion, in which 1,270 POWs were flown out of Romania in B-17s stripped as transports.

Your turn Vathra.

Sorry to jump in, was this the plane?
cantacuzino.jpg

mcoffee · #**555** (**permalink**) November 14th, 2009, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiredOldSoldier

Sorry to jump in, was this the plane?
Attachment 9103

Yes, indeed. Looks like a fine place to ride at 19,000 feet!

vathra · #**556** (**permalink**) November 15th, 2009, 09:35 AM

This photo is probably more famous.
What do we see on this photo?

TiredOldSoldier · #**557** (**permalink**) November 15th, 2009, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vathra

This photo is probably more famous.
What do we see on this photo?

Haven't seen it before but could be the blowing up of the Maxim Gorki I battery at Sevastopol.
EDIT: I had it seen it before and it is turret 2 of Maxim Gorki under attack by 1st coy 173 pioneer batallion on 18 June 1942

vathra · #**558** (**permalink**) November 16th, 2009, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiredOldSoldier

Haven't seen it before but could be the blowing up of the Maxim Gorki I battery at Sevastopol.
EDIT: I had it seen it before and it is turret 2 of Maxim Gorki under attack by 1st coy 173 pioneer batallion on 18 June 1942

Yes it is!
Famous photo, IMO one of the better of ww2.

TiredOldSoldier · #**559** (**permalink**) November 16th, 2009, 06:46 PM

This is not exactly a hospital ship, who is she and what is her current mission ?

red_cross.jpg

vathra · #**560** (**permalink**) November 16th, 2009, 07:14 PM

You can obviously see from the photo it is Italian ship Duilio, which was in 1940. requisitioned as a hospital ship, taken by Germans and sunk in Trieste in 1944.

Regarding its mission, maybe this could be

Quote:

The missions completed in A.O.I. (Italian East Africa) by the ships Saturnia, Vulcanici, Giulio Cesare andDuilio to repatriate civilian refugees became famous: these trips, which have been examined by many authors, were conducted with the British authorities' agreement and were all successful, though they did not dispel the bitterness that came from the realization that they were the symbol of Italy's defeat, or the grief of many families that would be separated until the end of the war.
Of these four units, Saturnia and Vulcania survived, while Duilio and Giulio Cesare sank in 1944, in Muggia bay, the victims of air raids

TiredOldSoldier · #**561** (**permalink**) November 17th, 2009, 06:12 AM

Right on both counts, should have photoshopped out the ship name !
Pretty interesting how this operation took place in 1942 with the war still raging, the ships went round Africa as the short way through the Suez canal was considered too "sensitive".
Over to you

BTW: Your quote has a typo Vulcanici instead of Vulcania in the first line.

vathra · #**562** (**permalink**) November 17th, 2009, 09:36 AM

This one shouldn't be too heavy, since it was mentioned on this website.
What tank do we see on this photo, and where did it came from?

TiredOldSoldier · #**563** (**permalink**) November 17th, 2009, 06:08 PM

Definetly a WW1 "rhomboid" I think it's a Mark V male.
At a guess this is the misterious WW1 thank that appears in some stories of the battle of Berlin 1945.

vathra · #**564** (**permalink**) November 17th, 2009, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiredOldSoldier

Definetly a WW1 "rhomboid" I think it's a Mark V male.
At a guess this is the misterious WW1 thank that appears in some stories of the battle of Berlin 1945.

Yes it is!
Allegedly, british Mark V tank, supplied to white russians, captured by soviets, then captured again by germans in 1941, and met his faith in Berlin.

When it was made, they probably wished it would enter Berlin.
This was probably not the way they thought of.

Your question.

TiredOldSoldier · #**565** (**permalink**) November 17th, 2009, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vathra

Yes it is!
Allegedly, british Mark V tank, supplied to white russians, captured by soviets, then captured again by germans in 1941, and met his faith in Berlin.

Which goes to show how very tough that vehicle was to survive all that !!!

This is also a very well known episode, didn't know a photo of it existed until I came across this one, looks authentic .....

dramatic_poise.jpg

mcoffee · #**566** (**permalink**) November 18th, 2009, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiredOldSoldier

This is also a very well known episode, didn't know a photo of it existed until I came across this one, looks authentic .....

YB-17s intercept the SS Rex 12 May 1938 in a well publicized training exercise. 1st Lt. Curtis E. LeMay is lead navigator.

The photo is on the AF Museum website, so I believe it is authentic.

TiredOldSoldier · #**567** (**permalink**) November 18th, 2009, 05:14 PM

Correct, from the angle it must have been taken from a third plane. Looks like those pilots are breaking all safety procedures (assuming any existed at the time

) .

Over to you

mcoffee · #**568** (**permalink**) November 18th, 2009, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TiredOldSoldier

...from the angle it must have been taken from a third plane.

Yes, there were three YB-17s on the mission.

Who are these guys?

Slipdigit · #**569** (**permalink**) November 18th, 2009, 07:05 PM

Dang, missed that photo of the Rex, thought it was a sig pricture when I looked last night and moved on.

Looks like more than the usual compliment of officers around the B-24. Stateside?

vathra · #**570** (**permalink**) November 18th, 2009, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcoffee

Who are these guys?

Judging by the sign on the aircraft, probably some Yugoslav pilots in USAF.
Here is quick link from this site, I will try to fins more data on specific plane.
http://www.ww2f.com/north-africa-med...-af-usaaf.html

mcoffee · #**571** (**permalink**) November 19th, 2009, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vathra

Judging by the sign on the aircraft, probably some Yugoslav pilots in USAF.

Correct, this is one of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force Detachment crews. The photo was taken 31 October 43 in Cairo where the crews were reviewed by King Peter II and his government in exile. On 8 November they were attached to the 512th Squadron of the 376th Bomb Group. Of the 4 B-24s and crews, two were shot down, this one - 42-73085, was struck by another flak-damaged B-24 in the formation and crashed 22 August 44. The forth plane survived the war. Another photo of all 4 aircraft at this review.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slipdigit

Looks like more than the usual compliment of officers around the B-24.

The detachment consisted of 26 officers and 14 enlisted men. The Yugoslav officers often flew in positions other than the normal P, CP, B and N slots. A Lt. Stoykovitch was tail gunner on this particular plane on the mission in which it suffered the mid-air.

vathra · #**572** (**permalink**) November 19th, 2009, 01:24 PM

Thx for nice story!

---

Here is new question:
What do we see on this photo?

Slipdigit · #**573** (**permalink**) November 19th, 2009, 01:51 PM

The Greek Battleships Liminos & Kilkis, formerly the USS Idaho & USS Mississippi, sunk in Salamis.

vathra · #**574** (**permalink**) November 19th, 2009, 09:19 PM

Yes they are!
Your turn, Slipdigit.

Slipdigit · #**575** (**permalink**) November 19th, 2009, 11:26 PM

What was the name given to this specific section of highway?