eBay: Soviet Airforce and other arms

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IMHO th pic wasn't taken in the Italy and especially in 1943 as Stalin would never send any Pe-2 there at that time. I would say the pic was taken at one of three airfields, Stalin allowed to be used by th USAAf for Shuttle Raids ( Operation Frantic ) in Russia. The Poltava airfield, Ukraine in 1944 could be very possible . Undoubtedly, the guy on lteft is a soviet soldier. His uniform is quite distinctive. So the Pe-2 couldn't be a captured by Germans and sent to the Italy for some reason.



Scondly the Red Star seen partially in the enlarged shot got the wite outline. The thin outher red one can't be noticed because of the poor quality of the source image. The kind of the soviet nationl marking was introduced in August 1943 as memo serves. And that may indicate that the date of the pic should be later than the 1943.

 
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I haven't heard about the kind of the soviet support for the shuttle raids. The only Stalin's help was the russian personnel assigned to support Americans at the airfields.
Speaking of ... the range of the Pe-2FT was about 1200-1300km while the one way distance from Bridisi, Italy to Poltawa, Ukraine is about 1650km. It looks like the rage of the Pe-2 wasn't enough to get the Italy airbases . About those in the Great Britain not to mention at all..
 
No no i mean usaaf forces going to SU. The maker labbeled were he was stationed at the time,namely Italy. Seems logical.
 
Oh ... now grasped. A such caption sounds a little bit too strange although I agree it seems logical. Mostly , picture captions is created using the what/where/when pattern. Usually, the where-when part relates to the actual place, a pic was taken. The kind labbeling you suggested, may be fine for the author but also may be misleading for other people.
Anyway I have adoubt the shot with the Pe-2 was taken in the Italy. But using your explanation the caption sounds much reliably now.
 
The Poltava airfield (USAAF Station 559)
The Pyriatyn aifield (AAF-560)
The Myrhorod airfield (AAF-561)

Poltava and Myrhorod were used for heavy bombers B-24 Liberators, B-17 Flying Fortresses while the Piriatyn one for long-range escort fighters P-51 Mustangs and P-38 Lightnings.

I believe there were units that sent their crews from Foggia and Brindisi airbases to the soviet ones bombing targests eg .. in Poland, Balkans and landing in the USSR.
However, if the pic is labbeled "Italy 1943", it wouldn't be correct because the shuttle raids started in 1944. So neither the date nor the idea of giving the label has fit.

To cocnclude ... an another attempt to drive customer.
 
Is that daylight, I see, coming through the propeller blade?
 

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