Soviet exhibition of captured German weapons

[Schirmmutze]

Stumbled upon this video yesterday, an amazing assortment of weapons, especially aircraft, all assembled in Moscow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9so...qmy9dA&index=2

[Steve Coates]

Very nice. I've seen some of this before but I can't remember if it was in colour. Anyway, thanks for posting.

[Paul Thompson]

I had also seen some of this before, but never the full video version. Thank you, Schirmmutze. This is a video of captured German equipment exhibited in Gorky park (aka Central Park of Culture and Leisure) in Moscow. The exhibition opened on 22 June 1943, on the second anniversary of the German invasion, and closed in October 1948.

Seeing the video has spurred me to find similar material. I have found an 80 minute long Soviet flight test video of captured German aircraft, which I think is important enough to be separated into its own thread - click on link .

Links to photographs that I have found are below, but be warned that I couldn't get my computer to copy the full links properly, so you'll have to cut and paste the links into your browser search window. The links will work fine once you have done that.

Steve, can you explain the presence of what appear to be He 111Es in the first photograph? I don't think the Luftwaffe operated any on the Eastern front, so are these taken from the batch of aircraft supplied in 1940?

1. Photograph of captured aircraft grouped together.
waralbum.ru/233660

2. Various images from the exhibit, dating from 1943 to 1945 and possibly later
fishki.net/1257591-vystavka-trofejnogo-vooruzhenija-v-parke-gorkogo-1943-g.html

3. Bf 109G-2 and pilot of I./JG 53 captured by the Soviets in September 1942, later exhibited in Gorky park
waralbum.ru/153828

4. Highest-scoring Soviet ace Kozhedub with the wing of a Ju 388 behind
waralbum.ru/35560

5. Zhukov and others next to the first captured Tiger tank
waralbum.ru/16081

6. Soviet amputee and rear view of first captured Tiger tank
waralbum.ru/43758

7. Wrecked Ferdinand tank destroyer, later exhibited in Gorky park
waralbum.ru/41181

8. Armoured vehicles in the exhibition, photograph from autumn 1945
waralbum.ru/38997

Regards,

Paul

[Steve Coates]

Paul - Thanks for the vote of confidence but I'm a long way from being an Ostfront expert but my guess (without referring to any sources) would be that they were used in connection with the Stalingrad air lift.

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by Steve Coates

Paul - Thanks for the vote of confidence but I'm a long way from being an Ostfront expert but my guess (without referring to any sources) would be that they were used in connection with the Stalingrad air lift.

Hello Steve,

You are right. On further investigation it seems that Kampfgruppen z.b.V. 5 and 20, possibly other units too, used older model He 111s during the air lift.

Regards,

Paul

[fsbofk]

Very interesting footage of that display - I had never seen color movies filmed by Russian photographers to cover the war. Based on the camouflage finish of the aircraft, the color rendition in the film looks very accurate. The director of this film appears to have followed a practice used by photographers for National Geographic magazine in the early days of color photography: pose someone wearing red in the photo - the people walking back and forth in the background look familiar from one scene to another (probably staged), and several of the young women are fashionably attired in red dresses !

[researcher111]

Interesting stuff and given the war was still ongoing. I couldn't identify any ME-109
of JG53 except this of JG 52 and an HE-111 of KG 27 . Interesting where they captured the FW200 and rest of the aircraft in airworthy condition .

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by fsbofk

Very interesting footage of that display - I had never seen color movies filmed by Russian photographers to cover the war. Based on the camouflage finish of the aircraft, the color rendition in the film looks very accurate. The director of this film appears to have followed a practice used by photographers for National Geographic magazine in the early days of color photography: pose someone wearing red in the photo - the people walking back and forth in the background look familiar from one scene to another (probably staged), and several of the young women are fashionably attired in red dresses !

Hello fsbofk,

You made a very interesting point, I am sorry I was not able to reply earlier. The pictures do look staged, I found a link with some stills from the video, which emphasise the point. On the stills, you can see of some of the red dresses: http://foto-history.livejournal.com/2889836.html

Do you happen to know of Allied colour videos of captured German aircraft?

Regards,

Paul

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by researcher111

Interesting stuff and given the war was still ongoing. I couldn't identify any ME-109
of JG53 except this of JG 52 and an HE-111 of KG 27 . Interesting where they captured the FW200 and rest of the aircraft in airworthy condition .

Hello researcher111,

I am glad you found these photos interesting. The aircraft are difficult to idenitify individually, you are right. The Fw 200 may be WNr. 0034 according to Russian sources, perhaps Chris Goss can solve this particular mystery?

Some more links that I have found are listed below, they include some close-ups of the various captured aircraft:

large selection of still images and photographs from the Gorky park exhibition, including images of a Fw 190D-9 'Dora' and a Fw 200
http://mikle1.livejournal.com/2798110.html

smaller group of photos, includes many images seen above
http://foto-history.livejournal.com/2419216.html

bad quality but highly interesting photographs of a He 111 which was used by Soviet POWs to escape from Peenemünde - see summary of the story on Wikipedia
http://mikle1.livejournal.com/2176438.html

Wrecked Fw 190s on Jüterbog airfield
fotki.yandex.ru/next/users/ucmopuockon/album/482134/view/1193658

Wrecked aircraft with the Reichstag in the background
fotki.yandex.ru/next/users/ucmopuockon/album/419413/view/914014

Regards,

Paul

[researcher111]

Paul

Thank you for the feedback, since I speak and read fluent Russian , I was aware about these links , escpe story of Devitayev and other Soviet pilots who managed to escape by air, the show was footaged twice once in 1943 and again 1945. What is most exicting for me is to have discovered few Soviet VVS and VMF pilots within my research area. One of them died in January 1944 while hit by a German sub after attempting to topedo with his A-20 a German ship.