In the US, fighting with the dead. Operation "Zebra" and the fight against the monument

14
Moscow’s relations with the West (especially with Britain and the United States) are dramatically exacerbated. Syria, Ukraine, “intervening in the American elections,” “The Case of Violin,” and so on, are pretexts for fomenting Russophobia in the form of Pandora’s box. That Britain sends Russian diplomats and persuades other EU countries to take a similar step, then the United States is willing to follow a bad example. One gets the feeling that there was no cooperation period between our countries.

But he was when the anti-Hitler coalition existed during the Second World War. Now in the USA and in some other countries it has been decided to deny the decisive role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Well, the response of many citizens of Russia is understandable: we often exaggerate, saying that only “canned cans” came from our allies. Of course, this understatement has its justification: it is unpleasant when they lower the huge price that our people had to pay for this Victory.



But, in fairness, the real help of the Allies was, after all. In particular, high-quality and modern at the time military equipment came from the United States. For example, the seaplane "Catalina" (and their improved version of "Nomad"). Soviet pilots were trained in the management of these machines in the US city of Elizabeth City. After that, seaplanes (which were called “flying boats”) were distilled in the USSR. It was a secret operation until recently called “Zebra”. It was declassified in the USA only at the beginning of the 90s, and in Russia - in the 2007 year. Of course, the United States did not supply seaplanes and other things for "beautiful eyes." weapon, and counted on the help of the USSR in the war with Japan.

Operation Zebra began in the summer of 1944. Within its framework, the Americans transferred over 160 amphibian aircraft to the Soviet Union. It was not safe to overtake planes from the United States to the USSR — adverse weather conditions, the likelihood of being hit by the enemy ... I had to follow difficult long routes, landing at the air bases of the allied countries. Therefore, the crews included navigators and boardradists, mostly British. They flew with Soviet pilots to Reykjavik, and then returned to the United States.

During the time that Operation Zebra lasted, two crashes occurred, as a result of which 11 pilots were killed. One of the crews, which followed to Murmansk, crashed in the northern coast of Norway. Famous names of the dead: N.P.Romanov, V.N.Vasilyev, I.F. Moscepan, A.M.Skvortsov, K.Chichkan and N.Ye. Kuznetsov. The bodies of the last two were not found. The rest were taken for American pilots and buried in Belgium. Until recently, they were considered missing.

Another tragedy occurred 11 January 1945 of the year. The Catalina, which took off from the aerodrome in Elizabeth City, crashed into the nearby Pasquotank River. Four Soviet pilots were killed: N.M. Chikov, V.M. Levin, D.M.Medvedev, A.I. Borodin, as well as an officer of the British Air Force, a Canadian citizen Nataros Peter.

But back in our day. After Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, there was a faint hope for at least a relative normalization of relations between Moscow and Washington. And in May, 2017, a good idea appeared: to install in the city of Elizabeth City (North Carolina) a monument to the pilots who died during the float of seaplanes.

Russia was supposed to make a monument. And the local authorities of Elizabeth City pledged to accomplish the improvement of the Coast Guard Park. It was there that it was planned to install a 25-ton bronze monument - three figures of the pilots of the allied states.



Last year, the Russian delegation led by the Deputy Head of the Defense Ministry to perpetuate the memory of those killed in the defense of the Fatherland, Andrei Taranov, was timed to coincide with the 22 Day of Memory and Grief in June. Then the parties, it would seem, finally agreed on the installation of a monument to the pilots. Representatives of Russia presented a draft memorial.

“Representatives of the mayor’s office and officers of the US Coast Guard base unanimously support the actions of the Russian side and promised assistance and administrative support in the installation of a memorial sign and a monument at the site of the death of Soviet pilots who died during the mission aviation technology ”

- then told Taranov, adding that this memorial would become an important landmark of Elizabeth City.

Less than a year later, it became clear that no improvement in Russian-American relations could be expected. The conjuncture has changed - the position of the American side regarding the installation of the monument has also changed.

The Associated Press recently published material on this topic, which states that a new vote was held in Elizabeth City. Five members of the city council spoke against the installation of a monument to the pilots (which, it would seem, have already agreed). Now only three support this initiative.

Those who opposed, do not even hide the fact that the whole thing is in a spoiled relationship. A member of the city council, Anita Hammer, said that she understood: it was about the memory of the heroes who died during the Second World War. She is also aware of the fact that there are American soldiers who are buried on Russian territory. “But now is another time,” she added.

What exactly does not suit those who voted against the memorial? It turns out that the fear of the mythical ubiquitous "Russian hackers" prevented. Another member of the city council, Johnny Walton, called Russia "the state of hackers." A monument compared with the Trojan horse. Say, these insidious Russians nashpiguyut his special technique that will help conduct cyber attacks.

There are, however, those who favor the appearance of sculpture in Elizabeth City. One of them is retired coast guard captain Tony Stimac. Previously, he was a member of the City Council.

“I know that now we are not in the best of relations with Russia, but she was our ally. It is about commemorating the events that happened 70 years ago ",

- he stressed. Moreover, in his opinion, it would attract tourists from Russia to the city.

Local activists collect signatures for the monument to be erected. As the Associated Press noted, this situation triggered a “miniature cold war in a small American town.”

It's a shame that in the USA, trying to spit in today's Russia and looking for various reasons for this, they are simultaneously fighting the dead. With those who died more than seventy years ago for the Great Victory. They certainly did not commit hacker attacks, did not poison Spy Slippery, but did their military duty, fighting and dying for the common cause.
Our news channels

Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest news and the most important events of the day.

14 comments
Information
Dear reader, to leave comments on the publication, you must sign in.
  1. +2
    26 March 2018 15: 32
    What an anti-Hitler coalition !? There, the main task is to slaughter Russia. Insanity and spy mania in all its glory ..
    1. +4
      26 March 2018 15: 41
      Microphone cameras and other radio electronics stuffed. Yes, the "newbie" uploaded.
      1. +1
        26 March 2018 16: 26
        They didn’t cram it ... We no longer have a pioneer organization ... They were “scoundrels” in the House of Pioneers who made a bug from the coat of arms of the Amerz ..
        Quote: Borik
        Microphone cameras and other radio electronics stuffed. Yes, the "newbie" uploaded.
  2. +7
    26 March 2018 15: 35
    A stupid decision not to erect this monument but they don’t want to. Since someone knocks on his head then demolish it. Install it in Murmansk, to improve the place. And let the Americans be ashamed.
    1. +1
      26 March 2018 15: 59
      It is a pity that the conjunctural considerations of the American authorities disrupted the installation of the monument. They spat in their heroes. Sorry.
      1. The comment was deleted.
    2. +1
      26 March 2018 16: 29
      I agree with you. It is only a pity that we will sooner erect a monument to the Mannerheim, Yeltsin, Nemtsov ..
      Quote: seti
      A stupid decision not to erect this monument but they don’t want to. Since someone knocks on his head then demolish it. Install it in Murmansk, to improve the place. And let the Americans be ashamed.
    3. The comment was deleted.
    4. 0
      26 March 2018 22: 27
      Quote: seti
      A stupid decision not to erect this monument but they don’t want to. Since someone knocks on his head then demolish it. Install it in Murmansk, to improve the place. And let the Americans be ashamed.

      Who will be ashamed? Sir, fear God; Americans simply destroyed the competitors they didn’t need: Germany and Russia (it was Russia, it doesn’t matter what the natives call themselves). The war against fascism, and when they were against the unification of the German Democratic Republic and the FRG is also a struggle against fascism? The United States has solved and is resolving its economic and financial issues, they do not need competitors in any field. Russia and China are now enemies for the USA and England and they will seek to destroy them.
  3. The comment was deleted.
  4. +1
    27 March 2018 11: 31
    A beautiful composition, you can install at home. Fortunately there are a lot of places. As a monument in general to pilots-drivers of aircraft. Even in the same Siberia it is possible.
  5. The comment was deleted.
  6. 0
    27 March 2018 20: 02
    [/ quote] It was declassified in the USA only at the beginning of the 90-s, and in Russia - in the 2007 year. [quote]

    Elena, in the 60's, the magazines "Seeker" and "Around the World" published stories and essays by Valentin Akkuratov, honored navigator of the USSR. A number of publications were devoted to the Catalin ferries from the USA to the USSR. I remember the episode when, due to a malfunction, the author had to take a tropical lake in Africa (there was such a route, it turns out). After eliminating the breakdown, the car could not take off for some time due to crocodiles that crawled out from under the snags. The attempt to shoot them was unsuccessful. Then the flight engineer poured a bucket of gasoline into the lake, and the crocodiles scattered. With great caution, the plane took off, the flight was successfully completed. And you have an operation to distill Lend-Lease cars for some reason secret until 2007 year.
    1. +1
      28 March 2018 01: 46
      On this occasion, the information is contradictory - some sources say that the operation was declassified in 2007, while others say that in 2013. And memories are not declassification of the whole operation.
      1. +1
        28 March 2018 08: 50
        There is such a thing - declassification of a document. In the West, most documents are declassified after a specific time: 20, 30, 50 years, etc. Moreover, declassification is not always automatic - so the documents on the flight of Rudolf Hess to England in 1941 should have been declassified after 50 years, but after the declassification period they were classified again. How much - I don’t know, maybe again on 50. We don’t have any deadlines at all: you need to write a memo on declassification, after consideration by the commission, the material may be declassified. I already wrote that recently, when writing a historical reference, I had to write a paper about declassifying the structure of the scientific unit created in 1962, without which it was impossible to publish material. I think that according to separate documents of Lend-Lease assistance, such jambs could be left, which are now issued as "secrecy of supplies." And further. Memories are declassification; if you mention material from a document with the corresponding heading in your text, dismissal will be the mildest punishment.
        1. +1
          28 March 2018 17: 51
          But can it be that, say, the fact of the flight of the aircraft was not a secret, and under the vulture were documents testifying to certain details? And declassified them gradually ...
          1. +1
            28 March 2018 20: 47
            I wrote about this. Lend-Lease deliveries were no secret. The secret were probably specific flight routes, of course, at that time. And about declassification in 2007 or 2013 years - perhaps this is a common mistake, which is full on the Internet.
  7. +1
    30 March 2018 13: 49
    Usually mongrel learn from the owners, the opposite is true - the owners adopted the habits of their watchdogs in the war with monuments

"Right Sector" (banned in Russia), "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) (banned in Russia), ISIS (banned in Russia), "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham" formerly "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia) , Taliban (banned in Russia), Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia), Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia), Navalny Headquarters (banned in Russia), Facebook (banned in Russia), Instagram (banned in Russia), Meta (banned in Russia), Misanthropic Division (banned in Russia), Azov (banned in Russia), Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), Aum Shinrikyo (banned in Russia), AUE (banned in Russia), UNA-UNSO (banned in Russia), Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (banned in Russia), Legion “Freedom of Russia” (armed formation, recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and banned)

“Non-profit organizations, unregistered public associations or individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent,” as well as media outlets performing the functions of a foreign agent: “Medusa”; "Voice of America"; "Realities"; "Present time"; "Radio Freedom"; Ponomarev; Savitskaya; Markelov; Kamalyagin; Apakhonchich; Makarevich; Dud; Gordon; Zhdanov; Medvedev; Fedorov; "Owl"; "Alliance of Doctors"; "RKK" "Levada Center"; "Memorial"; "Voice"; "Person and law"; "Rain"; "Mediazone"; "Deutsche Welle"; QMS "Caucasian Knot"; "Insider"; "New Newspaper"