Thread: MEAT - US

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxjnlcQmNtE

Pique your curiosity? It's not too clear but on the can of rations says MEAT and under it "US" is in a circle. It appears to be some sort of American ration can but I'm wondering how it ended up in Russia.

Американскую тушёнку, поставлявшуюся по ленд-лизу, в советских войсках прозвали "второй фронт". =)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease

“The Allies and Lend-Lease” is the name of the Moscow-based museum, the only one of its kind in Russia and in the world.

“I believe that interest in our war-time cooperation has never abated. True, it grew considerably in recent years,” Nikolai Borodin, the Director of the museum, says. “During the Second World War we were Allies. Moreover, we were comrades-in-arms. The aim of our museum aim is to tell visitors about the war years with the maximum historical accuracy. At the beginning of the Nazi aggression, when the war was especially hard for this country, many nations expressed their willingness to help the Russians in every possible way. Foreign assistance began to flow in instantly. There were many private donations, like, for example, the British BSA motorcycle now kept in our museum. All the exhibits that can be seen here came in handy and were put to good use during the war, and I think this contribution was substantial.”

The museum collection began with a few items found on the Barents Sea coast, where the Northern convoys had sailed. Nikolai Borodin, a retired Navy officer, says he happened to travel along that very sea route. One of his first findings in the early 1980s was an ice skylight with the inscription ‘Red’ – either American or British. It took Borodin and his associates years to prepare the exposition and, finally, to open the lend-lease museum in Moscow on June 22, 2004, the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of this country.

Wartime newspapers, medals, weapons, uniforms – each exhibit is a witness of those far-away days. A photograph on the wall portrays a Soviet soldier at Stalingrad equipped with the Canadian-made “Thompson” submachine gun. Of special interest are those connected with the historic link-up of Soviet and American troops on the Elbe River in April of 1945, such as cigarette lighters the Soviet and American soldiers exchanged during their meetings and also three gramophones – British-, American-, and Soviet-made. All in all, there’re about 1,000 exhibits. The collection is replenished practically daily. Some of the showpieces were found on the battlefields of the Second World War and then restored by the museum staff. Others were brought by volunteer assistants. One such exhibit – a Soviet Navy flag – was presented to the museum by Carl Watt, an American citizen, who brought it from the United States a while ago. The flag was made in the United States for the Soviet Navy during the war. Items displayed in the Moscow lend-lease museum also include metal buttons from a Red Army uniform, bearing the Soviet state symbols – the hammer and sickle and a five-point star. The buttons were made in Chicago, Illinois, as indicated on their reverse side. By supplying these and many other items the Allies helped to release millions of people for the Soviet-German front, where most of the fighting took place during the Second World War.

“A unique exhibit on display in our museum is a Ford Willys that belonged to Marshall Konstantin Rokossovsky, a gift from his family,” Nikolai Borodin says. “The car was made in 1944 but is still in a good working condition. Rokossovsky was one of the most popular and best-loved military commanders in the Soviet Army. He took good care of his soldiers. Everyone who fought under his command knew it well. Our museum regularly holds reunions of World War Two veterans, and they always speak about the legendary Marshall very warmly.”

The pride of the museum collection is the exposition dedicated to General Maxim Chibisov, whose name is practically unknown in Russia to this day. During the war he was in charge of a secret Soviet Air Force division, which ferried the American Catalina Flying Boats to this country. Chibisov’s daughters, Emilia and Yelena, are in close contact with the lend-lease museum staff, and the exposition was made with their enthusiastic support.

The museum staff is planning to expand the Second World War exposition and to show more items dealing with military operations of Allied troops in Africa, in the Pacific, and in the Atlantic. But, while appreciating the Allied contribution to the Great Victory over Nazism, Nikolai Borodin pointed out, we must remember that the fiercest battles were fought on the Eastern front — near Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk, and that it was on Soviet territory that the tide of war changed.

The article was taken from here:
http://english.ruvr.ru/2007/11/02/160300.html

Funny...I watched this movie several months ago and never noticed that.