Mikhail Devyatayev
en.wikipedia.org
Mikhail Devyatayev
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Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#2What is fascinating and tragic is how how Soviets treated their own repatriated POWs. The hero of this story remained classified a criminal until 1957 when the head of the Soviet space agency personally pled his case.
Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#3See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust
>An amateur pilot, the then-teenager flew from Helsinki, Finland, to Moscow, being tracked several times by Soviet air defence and interceptor aircraft. The Soviet fighters did not receive permission to shoot him down, and his aeroplane was mistaken for a friendly aircraft several times. He landed on Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, next to Red Square near the Kremlin in the capital of the Soviet Union.
Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#4seems like they probably were better off in the camp
Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#5seems like they probably were better off in the camp
Not really. If they had stayed in the camp they would have died anyway or sent to the Gulag when they got home instead of “just” being disgraced for a decade
Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#6Modern day version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airstan_incident
Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#7seems like they probably were better off in the camp
The Germans hated the Russians (and generally anyone east of them). You had a 57% chance of dying if you were a soviet POW, compared to a 3.6% chance if you were British or American [0].
[0] - https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-perse...
Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#8> After a short time in hospital, in late March 1945 seven of the escapees were sent to serve in the rifle unit, five of them died in action over the following weeks.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire!
Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#9> After a short time in hospital, in late March 1945 seven of the escapees were sent to serve in the rifle unit, five of them died in action over the following weeks. Out of the frying pan, into the fire!
Union sent their own ex-POWs to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtrafbat who were marched in front of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrier_troops
Re: Mikhail Devyatayev
#10> After a short time in hospital, in late March 1945 seven of the escapees were sent to serve in the rifle unit, five of them died in action over the following weeks. Out of the frying pan, into the fire!
Union sent their own ex-POWs to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shtrafbat who were marched in front of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrier_troops
Yeah, when I read "rifle unit" I translated it into penal battalion.