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M3A1 halftrack of 3rd Infantry Division and 20th Armored Division Takes POWs Munich Germany 1945
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M3A1 halftrack of 3rd Infantry Division and 20th Armored Division Takes POWs Munich Germany 1945
I think it was the book Company Commander, by Charles B. MacDonald, that described the odd feeling of whizzing down both lanes of the Autobahn into Germany with the throngs of Wehrmacht soldiers walking the opposite direction into captivity.
Bob
The same picture was conveyed in the movie BOB when Webster started shouting at the Germans...that would be something a man would not forget, even years after when driving the autobahn in peacetime.
Would be very depressing for an army to be heading into captivity and seeing an all day procession of the opposition passing them inbound. Still in Berlin, Hitler was preaching to the young that he was going to turn this around and defeat the enemy...so they fought to the death.
I wonder if the picture in post 1 is taken at an airfield and the "road" is in fact a taxi-way or perimeter road???
An airfield with a downgrade? Looks like the halftrack is going down a bit of grade. Hard to say, why do you think it's airfield?Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
There are no ditches, fences or hedgerows to the "road" and to the right of the half track there appears to be a large area free of trees. I also wondered if what looks like it could be a hard surface on the far side of the dip could be the main runway?
I believe the 'mile marker' at the road's edge suggests that bit of pavement is not a taxiway or runway of an airfield.
We used to have the same sort of markers adjacent to many of our older main roads in Australia. There were still a few along Parramatta Rd. the last time I looked.
I've landed on grass/mud strips with as much as a uphill 6% uphill grade. Took off from them as well down hill. Ive done it on the snow as well. Most of the time the horizontal angle was far from "level".Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
Keep in mind the Pilot can't fly. It's the aircraft that flys. The pilot merely directs the aircraft..oh damn that human factor again:yikes:
Mike
Mountain Empire Airport near Marion/Wytheville, VA.
https://img.airnav.com/ap/03892.jpg?v=MAI355
There's a 55 foot rise in approximately 1/2 of its 5252 ft length.
Bob
The ultimate :) Attachment 74358
I'm not sure that the marker is a "mile marker" it could be a marker to mark the taxi-way? There are plenty of runways here in the U.K. on an incline.
I've seen plenty of runways on inclines, including a ~3300 ft one in Vietnam with one end 91 feet higher than the other. What I haven't seen, ever, is a stone or concrete marker near a runway or taxiway.
The taxi-ways must have been marked by some method for night fighter use and presumably lights were not used for obvious reasons in Germany, especially in the latter part of WW2. The large dip next to the marker could be a "historic" bomb crater that has not been filled in fully which sometimes they weren't. There is an airfield near here where I live which is now a privately owned airfield but was a RAF airfield which still has, in 2016, bomb craters in nearby farmland caused by German bombs in WW2.
Bristol-Filton? I was looking for craters but couldn't see them...Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk