Gepard

The final day. Italy vs Spain. May it be a thrilling match and the better team win.

The old Napoleon said: "There are two kinds of people in a revolution, the one who made the revolution and the others who get profit from the revolution." My heart is with the guys and girls who went on the streets for freedom and democracy. But i'm worry about the guys who now are called "opposition". An other islamistic land in middle east is not that what i wish. And if i see what happens in Libya, Iraq, Egypt and Syria i get the bad thought, that the west could be in a very near future wishing back the old dictatorships, because they were never a threat for us.

The chinese showed a lot of new aircrafts and helicopters in a very short timeframe (compared with the west and russia). I ask myself very often wheter it could be possible, that we see Potjemkin Villages? Could it be, that they show us "playmaterial"?

Congratulation Italy. German team played like mentaly blocked. Dont know what they have done, but for me it was as if someone had changed the entire team. No spirit, no speed, no luck.

This morning, when i drove to work i saw suddenly a very big bird on the street. Twice as big than the normal birds of prey we have here in middle Germany. A yound Sea Eagle (still had a brown tail, only adult Sea Eagles have white tails) I stopped my car, the Eagle looked at me, for a while, then started, flow over my car an landed side by side, no 5 meters (15 feet) away and looked at me again. Of course i had no camera (never by hand if you need one), so i took my handy (mobilephone, cellphone whatever this device is called in your language) and took this photo: Was impressing, to be so close to a wild living Eagle. Had never been before so close. The bird had a sitting height of, (i guess) 1 meter and a wingspan of 2,5 meters.

Yes, i mean the SAR bird indeed. Of course the RF-4 was downed by a SAM and i think it was a modern SAM system, perhaps the S-300, which is very comparable with the american Patriot.

yeah, but i would had prefer England to win. Would be easier for Germany in the semifinal.

missinterpretation by the journalists. The syrians locked on SAM Radar on the plane, but dont open the fire. A lock on can also seen as an hostile action.

Some facts. 1.)The turkish Recce Phantom was flying a typical recon mission. The task was to test the syrian air defence network. (Similar missions were flown very often during the cold war along the iron curtain. American recce birds flew over small parts of east germany and soviet planes made the same with west germany. Due violating the opposing airspace the opponent should be forced to activate their radar network, so that electronical data (frequences etc..) could be recieved.) 2.) At the syrian coastline Syria has deployed long range land based anti ship missile batteries (P-800 Yakhont). This weapon system is of high value, because this missiles could block all naval surface activities till Cyprus island if neccessary. Thatswhy the deploy area is heavily defended by modern russian delivered SAM systems. It is said, that S-300 Favorit, Buk-M1 and Pantsir systems are deployed there. 3.) the F-4 violated the syrian airspace when flying from turkish coast to the open sea, then the plane made a turn and tried to fly back the same way. If the turkish statements are correct, the F-4 was 13nm away from the syrian coast when it was hit by the SAM. 4.) the plane crashed 8nm away from the syrian coast into the sea. Conclusion: the F-4 had a direct course to the syrian coast when it was hit,only 1 nm (1,852 km) away from the syrian teritorial waters. It must have had a very high speed when it could fly still 5 nm before it crashed. The F-4 was shot outside the syrian airspace and crashed inside the syrian airspace. The shot down was a violating of international law, but the syrian reaction is understandable, because the turkish plane violated the syrian border before and attempted to make an other recon run along (and surely in) the syrian airspace. The turks played with the fire and burned their fingers. Both sides know this and after a while all sides will calm down. No need to start a war. s**t happens.

Sorry? He may be a lot of things, but he is not islamistic and Al Quaida.

England vs Italy today

Today Germany vs Greece or with other words "The battle for the EURO" :grin: :grin:

Here the promised picture. Sorry for the bad quality.

absolutly agree with you

England vs Ukraine will hope that they will not be on valium

Its a very difficult topic, especially after all what the Nazis have done in their Eutanasie program.

Debt of Hounor was a good book in english. I got the german translation first and the guys who translated it were absolute fooooooooooooools with no technical knowledge.

Not all what was called "kill" was really one. But the wreck of the B-52 shot down by Pham Tuan the vietnamese had found in the dshungle. I think, that i have somewhere a picture of it in a book. Will try to find it.

Hi Spinners, where can i download the skin?

This was an unexpected surprise for me. Poland and Russia are out of the championship. And i thought, that both teams would have a good chance to come into the next round. Greece and the czech we will see again on the green.

England 3 : 2 Sweden. And Sweden is out of the championship.

North vietnamese MiG-21 aces: Nguyen Van Coc......9 kills Pham Thanh Ngan.....8 kills Nguyen Hing Nhi.....8 Kills Mai Van Cuong.......8 kills Dang Ngoc Ngu.......7 kills and 8 pilots with 5 or 6 kills North Vietnamese MiG-17 aces Nguyen Van Bay......7 kills Luu Huy Chao........6 kills Le Hai..............6 kills Nguyen Nhat Chieu...6 kills I think the legendary Col Tomb was an imagination of the US pilots, an amalgam of all vietnamese ace pilots, caused by photos of vietnamese MiG's with a lot of kill marks, and the missinterpretation, that the killmarks means that the kills would belongs to a single pilot. Correct was, that the killmark was credited to the plane, not to the pilot.

Ehm. At this time West Berlin was not surrounded by the GDR. The GDR was founded on 7.October 1949, more than one year later than the start of the Airbridge and one month later than the Federal Republic of Germany. The "birthday" of the FRG was never an official celebration day, because also the most "smart" people of Germany would realise who had ruptured Germany into parts. West Berlin was never a part of the FRG, it was a seperate part of Germany under westallied occupation (you can called it protection if you want). The Berlin Blockade was started when the west allies made a surprising currency change. They changed the old Reichsmark into "Deutsche Mark West Berlin" under the condition, that only money on saving accounts were changed in a relation of 10:1. All cash money was not changed. At the same time the Reichsmark was the official money in East Berlin, so that billions of Reichsmark flew over the open border into the east and had a devasting effect of the east german economy (inflation) The soviet command had seen only one methode to stop the moneyflow and closed the border with military force. Then they organized a money change in the eastern zone of germany. and so on..... Perhaps we will see a similar behaviour of the EU states if Greece will leave the Euro zone. Maybe. Enough with backroundinfos. The british, american and french pilots made a great job. No doubt.

Ich weiß, klingt nach einer blöden Frage. Habe gehört, daß die im Kosowo vor einiger Zeit die DM als Zahlungsmittel hatten. Ist das heute noch so? Wenn nicht, dann frage ich mich wieso die Bundesdruckerei Leipzig wie blöde DM Scheine druckt :dntknw: Oder hat das was mit unseren Ouzo trinkenden Artgenossen zu tun????? Grübel, grübel, grübel ............

You cant expand an existing map. If you want it larger you must start from the scratch and build a new one. Unfortunatly.