here is a post by Konstantin Lesnikov; he asked me to insert it, because of the closure of subscription due to the known situation.
Hi Massimo,
I would appreciate it if you post following on Sovietwarplanes forum:
Analysis and all the photos that were posted on this tread, clearly show that the "famous Il-2" markings (bort No 25 and personal markings "Mstitel" with the lightning) are real and not retouched.? All other photos which show this Shturmovik without? the markings are actually retouched.? Markings on these photos were simply erased or "censored".
I did some Internet search using google, google.ru and their "kartinki" and I also checked some older posts from sukhoi.ru forum.? Following is the summary of my finds:
1.? ? Author of the original series of photographs is Mark Redkin, famous soviet war corespondent and photographer.
2.? ? the photo-montage posted on EP page is known as "Nad Berlinom", (something like "Over the Berlin").? It was probably made and published first time in 1975.? Other, lower quality copies, usually censored, were probably published between 1945 and 1975?
3.? ? Original series of photographs was taken on April 30th, 1945.? There is no doubt where, the title tells it.
4.? ? Airplanes belonged to 16th VA, more precisely 198th ShAD.? Regiment is not known, but airplanes belonged to the squadron commanded by Senior lieutenant V. Bondarenko.
Following are my comments, links, open questions etc.:
During the war, Mark Redkin (1908?1987) was a photo correspondent for TASS and "Frontovaya Ilustraciya".? Redkin is author of many iconic images of the GPW and post-war Soviet era. Later in his life Redkin had a status of "Заслуженный работник культуры" (Honoured Worker of Culture).
Galleries with Redkin's photos can be found on following links:
http://www.avia-n-aero.ru/photo.php?category_id=58&parent_id=3http://visualrian.ru/bylines/item/99http://fotosoyuz.ru/ru/catalog/&cntvat_fgrc=128&png=284966&vqFrnepu=247356039&cntvat_fgneg=0?paging_curPage=1&искать=Редькин%20Марк%20(1908-1987)&newSearchFlag=1http://victory.rusarchives.ru/index.php?p=41&author_id=120You may page through these photos just to get an idea how much propaganda and art was involved in Redkin's photos.? You may also get an idea how often Redkin had used photo-montage or retouch.
Following war time photo shows Redkin and his camera (from:? ?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13927522@N00/71830942 ):
Massimo please insert Attachment Redkin and Leica
In comments posted on Flickr you will find that camera is identified as Leica III with 135 telephoto lens.? Telephoto lens may explain perspective distortion (planes look closer to each other than they really were) and blurred background (limited depth of field) on some photos.
http://visualrian.ru/images/item/608 is useful for dating photos.? It gives the date when photos are made as 30 April 1945.? It also shows how crude retouch can be.
http://sov-photo.livejournal.com/70374.html provides context for 'Nad Berlinom" photo-montage:? it states that image was published in "Soviet Photo" magazine № 05 from 1975.? It is possible that photo-montage was made for the thirtieth anniversary of the Victory and the battle of Berlin.? Something that could be checked on Russian forums.? Although this work should be seen as an art photography piece, it is clear that Redkin had used original negatives and published them as a better quality image.
Following is a high res scan of "Nad Berlinom" available at?
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/more7007/view/161486?page=7 or
http://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/3104/more7007.12/0_276ce_18ace6cb_orig Massimo please insert Attachment 0_276ce_18ace...
Important info on units comes from sukhoi.ru forum member Tora:?
http://forum.sukhoi.ru/showpost.php?s=b7d5c57cee474df277efa04b388bf140&p=1158824&postcount=132.? Image posted by Tora looks like a clip from 1945 army magazine.
Massimo please insert Attachment 198-%FF%20%...
Partially translated text:
Air Attacks
Fierce fightings? in the centre of Berlin were still going on when General-colonel Rudenko's airmen? moved to city's airfields....
Top photos:? Shturmovik squadron led by senior lieutenant V. Bondarenko during combat action over Berlin.? Bottom - results of soviet airmen attacks:? enemy's strongholds in flames.
...
Bottom - Guards Colonel V. Belousov greets Senior lieutenant V. Bondarenko for excellent results of air attack on enemy's strongholds in the centre of Berlin.
Photos by Captain M. Redkin and Sr lieutenant A. Arhipov
http://www.allaces.ru helps to identify Units: General-colonel Rudenko commanded 16 Air army (over 3000 airplanes), and Colonel Belousov commanded 198 Shturmovik air division.? 198 ShAD consisted of: 41ShAp, 567ShAP and 945ShAP (from
http://www.allaces.ru/cgi-bin/s2.cgi/sssr/struct/d/shad198.dat).
This clip also shows the third known photo of an Il-2 with all the markings.? Photos and text celbrate victory, cold war hasn't started and markings are not censored.
IMHO 1: in the case Velichko vs Pilawskii, markings of this particular Il-2? can not be used against Erik.
IMHO 2: Erik's comments posted on
http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/DigitalModeling/monthly_profile/june06/june06.html like:? "Unit, Location and Pilot unknown" or "The surrounding landscape, to my eye, suggests eastern Germany" or "but the poor quality of the image (a still from 16mm movie film, in fact) makes any definitive statement impossible" don't make sense considering what is available on the Internet.
I hope all this helps.
Konstantin