paul roncetti

Hi Farmer & Mike69, I am glad to hear there are others interested too. There were 3 guns built by the Krupp Works, only one went into battle at Sevastopol, on coastal Ukraine. Fired a total of 48 rounds total during the war there, brought the city to its knees. 7 ton shell was able to penetrate solid rock or concrete 90 feet thick. But high maintenence piece of equipment, took up to 3 months to get in place and assemble, laying track, security, assemble crane, mechanics, factory engineers, army, Luftwaffe, 4200 men total etc etc, etc............Paul

Hi bulldogboy, Yes that gun is a well engineered piece of equipment. Those constellations were based down here at Otis Field. Remember as a kid see them flying so low over town, 3 engines out, oil pouring out of the others, belly covered, sirens out at the base blaring, town fire whistle blowing, and they just about making it back. During that era, main street Falmouth, was patrolled by Army MP's along with police dept. Yes sub discovery made public this summer. About 10 years ago another off Chatham was discovered sitting upright on the ocean bottom, swastika still visible on deck. Also Gustav being assembled......Paul

oh ok...........i wouldnt blame you if you could have bought it if it was for sale.........Paul

Rich..............you bought it?

HI Vlad, Check out: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=328 and http://www.dean-boys.com/ec-121.htm Paul

Hi Vlad, You are so right, I am so glad I have lived long enough to have met and know Russian people and that after the war we were both brought up to fear each other and all we both really wanted to do is live in peace. But the politicians got in the way. Attached is a Lockheed Early Warning Radar Constelation. 125 were based at Otis Field here on Cape Cod, two would fly out 200 miles, then one would go to the North Pole and back, the other to Cuba and back, This went on 24/7 through out the 1950's into the 60's A lot were lost at sea. Same thing was done on the West Coast. Paul

Congrats

Here is another interesting discovery recently Vlad, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/9057074/2-billion-treasure-chest-of-sunken-Second-World-War-British-steamer-discovered.html Russian payment to USA on ship sunk by Nazi sub off of Cape Cod also....... (Interesting everyone here is oblivious to our conversation, I hope Vinny is getting a history lesson, lol)...........Paul

Hello Vlad, check this out, you will find more stories on it, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/9434204/Sunken-World-War-II-submarine-found-off-Nantucket.html its the latest one found. Also, from what I unserstood, Russia, itself was said to have lost 1 in 3 people during the war which would put it into higher numbers and why Stalin didn't want help from the Marshall Plan as it would have revealed Russia's weakened condition in terms of loss of life, whetherr true or not, I don't know. Paul

Hello Vlad, For years I have made the point in conversations that Russia lost 20 to 22 million,, all other figures for other minorities and groups of people I will say i wasn't aware of, just to piss off people that are so stupid or ill informed also, when I mentioned the original start of Barbarossa as April 1st, I actually don't think it was even possible till around middle to late May due to the spring rains, nevermind the conditions of the Pripyat marshes.......Paul

Pround new Daddy.................nice pic Tom....................Paul

Little different from Jersey landscape Tom, LOL

Nice pics Tommy

Heavy seige gun used in seige of Sevastopol. Gun crew including engineers, security, mechanics, solders, Luftwaffe etc, 4200. Three months to assemble and 60 rail csrs to move. Fired total of 48 shells, each weighing 7 tons, during whole war. Only remains of 3 built at end of war, was a spare gun barrel and trunion, on a rail siding in Poland. Nikita was quite facinated with this story.........Paul

Well Vlad, I was born during the war, and where I live, Cape Cod, there was a big military presence as I would say 1/3 of the Afrika Corp POWS were held here and worked in local businesses like farms. My father ran a night shift of them at the local dry cleaning plant, and being Italian got along well with them, LOL. Also, 85000 americans were traing here on the beaches for D Day, so they were up at Camp Edwards too. Plus, along this whole east coast around 2800 US supply ships were sunk by German subs. The coast was manned with navel guns and heavy rail guns. Matter of fact another sub was found last summer off of Nantucket, it had sunk the biggest oil tanker we owned and was sunk after a battle with support vessels. Sitting upright with the swaztika painted on the deck. German embassy out of Boston stepped in right away, hands off, German War Grave. But the Russian campaign if facinating because of the shear scope of the undertaking, will never ever see anything like that again with massive land armies We also have a lot of Russian and Ukranian students here working in the summer of which I have sponsored several and love any time spent talking with them, about history........Paul

Yes you are correct Vlad, and I also believe a major blunder was starting a major offensive on June 22, way too late into the season. The blunder being to quell an uprising I believe in Bucharest, lost 3 months with that operation and bringing equipment back to the front and refitting tank tracks, etc etc etc. If BARBAROSSA was launched April 1st as planned there may have been a different outcome also. Other major blunder was going in as a liberator and soon discarded that with all the Russian people now against him, instead of having Russian forces fighting with him against Stalin, he now created more armies with a vast number of people now against him fighting for Mother Russia.............Paul

Hi Vlad, That heavy a concentration of salt must really raise hell with those trucks over there, how do you cope with it? What about the secondary and country roads, do you still have to deal with a lot of unpaved roads? One thing for sure, back in the winter of 42, Hitler's fate was being sealed by the Russian winter, combination of snow and mud............Regards, Paul

Tommy, Make sure you get us pictures as soon as you get you're new trailer hooked up to you're rig............Paul

BTW, do both axles on you're truck drive? I'd like more details.........Thanks, Paul

Welcome to the site Steve, im sure there are many on here to answer you're questions........and post any pics you may have............Paul

U NEVER KNOW, IT'S A SMALL WORLD..............PAUL

GOOD LUCK TOMMY, I WILL BE OUT THAT WAY THIS WEEK ON A BUSINESS TRIP MYSELF, ALWAYS TAKE SOMEONE WITH ME AT MY AGE, LOL. ALL I CAN ADD IS TO HAVE A LITTLE NOTEBOOK WITH ALL YOU'RE IMPORTANT NUMBERS, CELL AND LAND LINES, PLUS YOYU'RE PHONE CHARGER, ............... AGAIN, GOOD LUCK.....PAUL

Hi Vinny, In my comment of wondering what you would think, I should have added after studying the auction very close, I started to think maybe I wanted to own it, it is a very nice truck for sure, price doesnt seem to bad so far either. Tommy will probably buy it for his fleet before its over, LOL...........Paul

Wonder what Vinny is going to say Tom!