Astonishing Shot! Back from 1942

This is a real photo?, unprocessed shot, made in Murmansk, Russia 1942, during World War II, real moose, real Nazi planes bombing Murmansk.

 

Nice picture. What they call Nazi bombers are Me-109s . These are fighters, so the explosion could not have been made by them. I have my doubts and wouldn't be surprised if this is a montage to which protagonists have been added to make it look better.

 

Thats not a moose more than likely a caribou.

 

Moose And Elk

The link between the moose and elk is an interesting one, that in the past has caused much confusion simply due to their respective regional names. The moose (in North America) and the elk (in Europe) are actually the same species of animal with differences analogous to those of different races within the human population.

 

lol, clearly a doctored picture. you'd have to be a fool to believe otherwise. Animals, especially large game animals like that poor guy, tend to leave the area when there is the smell of death, loud noises, and people hunting them.

 

book “Witness to History, the photographs of Yevgeni Khaldey”. About this picture:

“One photograph that is a composite is Reindeer, Murmansk. Even while admitting this, Khaldei is insistent on the underlying veracity of his image. There *was* in fact a reindeer; it showed up during air raids. When he shows the photograph, Khaldei tells a story about it that roots in real life:

‘During the bombings, a reindeer came out of the tundra. He wanted to be with people. They built him a shed to live in, and gave him a name, Yasha. Every time the alarm sounded, he ran to be with the soldiers–he didn’t want to be alone. During one of the air raids, I took this shot. In 1944, when the battle for Murmansk was over, the soldiers didn’t know what to do with him. They loaded him into a truck and took him back to the tundra, thinking he would join the other deer. But he couldn’t understand what was happening. He ran after the truck as long as he could.

 

I still don't buy it. If that is supposed to be an air-raid, that explosion would have killed the reindeer. Its not even moving in that shot (look at the legs) and I don't care how domestic an animal is, the noise of an explosion is going to set it running.

 

not saying it's genuine matt,thats for the photographer to state his case,but a rabbit caught in the headlights freeze's from fear it wont/cant move,the same would apply to any animal struck with fear.confusion/paralysis,ray..

 

Animal instincts are to flee when they hear loud noises though - headlights (aka light at night) is not a natural occurrence which is why they don't have a 'flee' response to it. Just look at any hunting channel - as soon as they fire that shot, all the other animals take off. An explosion would cause the same reaction - as a 'prey' animal, their instinct would be to flee, not freeze.

Horses and dogs have to be trained to not react to gunshots. You take an untrained dog or horse and it will freak out when you fire a gun - you train it right and it won't even react since it knows the noise and knows its not harmful. An explosion, from artillery/bombs, would probably be different, especially if it hurts people and people run away from it.

 

of course it's natural matt,quite right! I have been a rough shooter for 40yrs and shooting does disturb others in the vicinity true,but then can the same be said as in ww1 shellshock would play a part and symptoms ensue when animals have no escape from day to day shelling/bombing..,ray..

 

I love this forum.. Where else can you go from aircraft of ww2 identification... Ballistics charachteristics... To thats not a moose...

 

I'll give you that,it's a reindeer urqh,not my fault it states moose on pic..you gotta laugh,it is so variable at times...

 

im pretty amazed at the stuff folk actually know on here..seriously .. i bet we have a matchbox expert in our ranks somewhere..brilliant stuff.

 

funny you should say that...

 

The aircraft are not German, they are either Soviet or British, as the aircraft appear to be Hawker Hurricanes.

The Hawker Hurricane was used by both the Soviet Air Force, and the RAF in the region around Murmansk.

Its not that clear but the aircraft appear to have RAF markings, which would put the time frame of the photo before 1944 as the RAF had handed their aircraft over to the Soviets by then.

It should also be noted that the aircraft are in a finger-four type formation which is a fighter formation designed to provide the best visuals to spot enemy aircraft, it is not a formation that would be used in any bombing attack.

My guess is that the photo is of a unit of RAF Hurricanes returning to base in the Murmansk region after a mission, the explosion and the raindeer have been added later

http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/english/articles/sheppard/hurricanes/index.htm

 

For a while I thought about Yacks Redcoat , but the wings pattern fit the Me-109 although I don' tlike their cockpits which seem too far in the middle, so another aircraft i.d. could be possible. As I said in my first message I still believe it's a montage.

 

So, given those to passages it would seem that our photographer created the image.

 

exactly brad,whew! thankyou ,ray..

 

Well at least we agree on that one. Now is this really Murmanks ?

 

The aircraft are most definitely Hurricanes. The size & shape of the tail give them away, as does the nose.