Stalin's British heroes-

[v2]

The discovery of a forgotten medal reveals the extraordinary courage of the RAF aces who fought for the Soviet Union...

The Messerschmitt was screaming towards him on a head-to-head collision course, but it was Flight-Lieutenant Micky Rook who got his shot in first. He held his nerve, pressed the firing button of his Hurricane fighter plane and the German Me109 exploded in mid-air, disintegrating before his eyes. Another hard-won 'kill' for the RAF in the early years of World War II.

full story: Stalin's British heroes: A forgotten medal reveals the extraordinary courage of the RAF aces | Mail Online

 

[RabidAlien]

Holy crap, what a find!!! Cryin shame they're gonna auction it off, not donate it.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I think one of the truly sad things is the RAF aces that flew for the Soviets is not widely known.

 

[RabidAlien]

I think its still fairly public knowledge that the Allies shipped equipment back and forth to each other during the war....what gets lost (at least for me) is that most of this equipment is "new" to the receiving country, and therefore there's a goup of technical advisors, mechanics, and other assorted individuals who come with it to explain its use/maintenance/operation to said receiving country. And if a few 109's get shot down in the process of this explanation/demonstration, so much the better! I agree, though, with Viking...its sad that their tales are largely forgotten/ignored. Not only did these guys fight the war, and do a good job of it, but they did it in a country where their allies, for the most part, didn't speak their language. I imagine the American crews coming to England had it alot easier than either US or Brit crews going to Russia, but still....

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

He held his nerve, pressed the firing button of his Hurricane fighter plane and the German Me109 exploded in mid-air, disintegrating before his eyes.

Woohoo, that must have been an exciting moment.

 

[trackend]

The poor sods on the artic convoys just shipping the stuff out to Russia also had a terrible time I remember one guy on the tv(i'll try and find his name) lost both legs after his ship was sunk on the way to Murmansk he was in the water for very few minutes they took him to Arcangel said legs off in broken engilish and amputated his legs with no anesthetic.