Picture of the day.

[syscom3]

WASP pilots walk in front of a B-17 for a photo shoot

 

[michaelmaltby]

Chiang Wei-kuo - Wikipedia

 

[SaparotRob]

View attachment 616756

What airplane is that? No, not the P-40, wise guy. At first glance I thought it was an A6M!

 

[Capt. Vick]

That's not a zero in Chinese markings?

 

[special ed]

It was an early Zero repaired by Chinese and AVG. They had to make some pieces hence the louvered panel.

 

[SaparotRob]

Wise guys.

 

[SaparotRob]

... and that's Amelia Earhart in the background explaining how to fly it.

 

[SaparotRob]

But it sure do look like a Zero.

 

[syscom3]

Blackburn Shark torpedo bomber, 20 March 1936. It first flew on 24 August 1933 and went into service with the Fleet Air Arm, Royal Canadian Air Force, Portuguese Navy, and the British Air Observers' School, but was already obsolescent by 1937 and in the following year, replacement by the Fairey Swordfish began.

 

[SaparotRob]

So I'm still looking at that picture. Do I owe an apology?

 

[michaelmaltby]

a6m2_zuikaku_23_01_1942-jpg.616761

 

[Wurger]

 

[michaelmaltby]

At 11pm Trans-Baikal (UTC+10) time on 8 August 1945, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed Japanese ambassador Naotake Satō that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, and that from 9 August the Soviet government would consider itself to be at war with Japan.[17] At one minute past midnight Trans-Baikal time on 9 August 1945, the Soviets commenced their invasion simultaneously on three fronts to the east, west and north of Manchuria:

 

[michaelmaltby]

 

[Wurger]

 

[michaelmaltby]

 

[michaelmaltby]

... the IJA was finished on the mainland, a Manchurian Army of near 900,000 (I have understated this # previously as 70,000) had been stripped of much of its resources for operation Ichigo - the big successful push in 1944 that took the south from the B-29 bases and secured interior lines of communication/supply further west. The IJA made this commitment based on Russo-Japanese agreement .... in the end it had become Stalin's Theatre - as PuppetMaster.

Korea says "Welcome the US Army" .... indeed.
Till today

 

[michaelmaltby]

... as for the 100,000s of POWs taken by the Soviets .... they went to the gulags

The Fate of Japanese POWs in Soviet Captivity | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

 

[Shinpachi]

... as for the 100,000s of POWs taken by the Soviets .... they went to the gulags
View attachment 616790
The Fate of Japanese POWs in Soviet Captivity | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

Ironically, those re-educated Japanese and their group as the Communist Party of Japan are a safeguard for the Japanese today not to be occupied by Russia, China and N.Korea as they are all comrades.

 

[SaparotRob]

At 11pm Trans-Baikal (UTC+10) time on 8 August 1945, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov informed Japanese ambassador Naotake Satō that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan, and that from 9 August the Soviet government would consider itself to be at war with Japan.[17] At one minute past midnight Trans-Baikal time on 9 August 1945, the Soviets commenced their invasion simultaneously on three fronts to the east, west and north of Manchuria: View attachment 616768View attachment 616769View attachment 616770View attachment 616771View attachment 616772

Did those Japanese troops surrender before the IJA agreed to comply with the Potsdam Agreement?