Today in US Military History: Soviets shoot down a B-29 over Korea, & the first mass parachute jump

Unto the Breach ^ | Aug 29, 2017 | Chris Carter

[fugazi]

1940: At Lawson Army Airfield (modern-day Fort Benning, Ga.), 1st Lt. William T. Ryder and his Parachute Test Platoon conduct the first mass parachute jump in U.S. military history.

Meanwhile, a delegation of British scientists begin sharing radar and other military technologies with the United States, hoping to secure assistance from the still-neutral nation.

1944: Four years after German conquerors marched through Paris’ famous Arc de Triomphe, 15,000 American soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division parade down the newly-liberated capital’s Champs-Élysées.

1945: An American B-29 “Superfortress”, carrying a load of humanitarian aid to Allied prisoners of war in Korea, is intercepted by Soviet Yak-9 fighters. The supposed allies attack the bomber, forcing 1st Lt. Joseph Queen’s crew to bail out before the plane crashes. The air crew are rescued, and the incident marks one of the first international confrontations between the soon-to-be Cold War rivals.

Across the Sea of Japan, Allied occupation forces begin arriving in Japan, as well as the battleship USS Missouri, which will host the upcoming formal surrender ceremonies on Sept. 2. Gen. Douglas MacArthur is granted the authority to oversee the formation of a new Japanese government. Rather than disband the existing government, MacArthur rules through the emperor – whom the Japanese people still view as divine – during Japan’s transition to democracy.

1983: During the Lebanese Civil War...

[fugazi]

I have railed against both previous administrations for highly restrictive rules of engagement in our current military campaigns (let's hope Trump sticks to his guns on loosening them and allowing the military to do their job), but to be fair, ROE for our Marines in Lebanon enabled jihadists to kill hundreds of troops under the Reagan administration.

[robroys woman]

Those soviets/socialists are great at reverse engineering what they can't create themselves.

[SJSAMPLE]

They got real live, flyable B-29s when American crews were forced to divert to Russia. At the time, Russia wasn’t at war with Japan, so they had to intern the crews until the war was over. From one documentary I saw, the Soviets even copied the Boeing capfrom the control wheels.

[onedoug]

Commie bastards and design thieves.

Our “allies”.

[Uncle Sam 911]

Stalin gave his aeronautical engineers a certain amount of time to copy the B 29s and they got it done. They had to change every measurement from inches to metric but copied it down to the last nut and bolt. By the time they finished, jets were appearing and the B 29 was almost obsolete.

[mosesdapoet]

Don’t know the date but when the Jappanese surrendered to the Russians in Manchuria and Korea. We had negotiations with Stalin. Stalin offered that the division of Korea be at the 39th parallel not the 38th.

[fugazi]

I find it somewhat comical that when the Russians do flyovers of American targets, they do so in propeller-driven Tu-95 “Bear” bombers. I would be somewhat embarrassed if I was Putin, considering he is up against B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s. If I was going to publicly flex my military muscles, I would at least do so with something a little more sexier and modern.

[onedoug]

They are counter-rotating turbo-prop blades; maximum speed ~530mph, which is comparable with a modern passenger jet. Still a potentially formidable platform.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

That was the second copy. The first Russian B-29 copy was similar but improvements were made to the design. Stalin had the engineers shot as he wanted their B-29 to be exactly the same as ours.

Not forgetting this lesson Russian engineers working with atom bomb plans that were stolen from us even copied the “Made In The USA” label wherever it appeared on ours. Theirs was an exact copy of ours even the things that didn’t matter.