JimZ Posted September 22, 2011 Author Posted September 22, 2011 (edited) OK....so the yacht is just a distraction... But that means that these ships are not trading shots with eachother. The vessel on the left has some instantly recognisable features....Perhaps the one on the right may have some too..... Either way, these vessels are in close proximity with eachother...and of sufficient interest to have some folks in boats doing some sightseeing too!! So if they're not planning on shooting at eachother, what else are they doing so close. Remember that we're not yet out of the cold war!!!!!! Edited September 22, 2011 by JimZ
JimZ Posted September 23, 2011 Author Posted September 23, 2011 (edited) Ok...so the ship on the left was the first of her class.....the ship on the right is named after a rear admiral. There was yet another ship involved....a cruise ship were actual events took place. The ships are both anchored on neutral territory...and can very well be considered as the beginning of the end....You may think that this is some insignificant event, but at the time, the eyes of the world were on it...at least for a few days. Jim :cheers: Edited September 23, 2011 by JimZ
JimZ Posted September 23, 2011 Author Posted September 23, 2011 And a bit more info about the ship on the right.....it was involved in a collision at sea some 24 years before with a world famous carrier, where it opened our ship up like a can killing a number of its crew. If you can find the ships you should be able to work your way to our event......and of course only one of these two ships is Russian. More hints soon if you don't get it..... JIm :cheers:
Harvey Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 (edited) 1) Which event does this memorial commemorate? It commemorates the historic 1989 Malta Summit between U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. 2) What does the memorial symbolise? It symoblizes "THE END OF THE COLD WAR," according to the inscription at the base of the monument. (See, I did find it!) 3) In which country is it located? The island of Malta, along the Birzebbuga promenade. The summit was held aboard the cruise ship SS Maxim Gorkiy in Marsaxlokk Bay. 4) Why is this event so significant? Because it marked the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Edited September 23, 2011 by Harvey
Harvey Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 Additionally, the ship on the right must be the USS Belknap (DLG-26/CG-26), named for Rear Admiral George Eugene Belknap. She collided with the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) on 22 November 1975 - 14 (not 24) years before the summit. Following the collision, a fire broke out on Belknap during which her aluminum superstructure was melted, burned and gutted to the deck level. She was eventually repaired and converted to a flagship from May 1985 to February 1986.
JimZ Posted September 23, 2011 Author Posted September 23, 2011 (edited) Yeah!!! Was it sooo difficuilt ?? Harvey, I had no doubts that you'd find the text...but putting a pic with the inscription showing clearly would have given the game away. I do hope the hints that I gave were useful - well you got there so they must have been. I thought that the easiest way was through the ships. The Russian Slava...now Moskva but nevertheless a Slava Class missile cruiser and the USS Belknap which collided with the USS John F Kennedy in the seventies (Yes 14 and not 24 - am I allowed a typo pls ) .... President Bush was actually staying on board the Belknap at the time of the Summit. Yes, this was the first meeting between the American and USSR heads in yonks and it heralded the end of the cold war. These days the monument is just a forgotton mass of marble and bronze in bad need for restoration with neither the Americans, the Russians nor the Maltese authorithies giving a hoot about its restoration. So the answers are correct and Harvey gets a well deserved point!!! Edited September 23, 2011 by JimZ
JimZ Posted September 23, 2011 Author Posted September 23, 2011 The points now stand as follows !! 15 points - JimZ 14 points - Harvey 10 points - Hauptmann 3 points - Valter 3 points - Christophe 3 points - Gunner 1 2 points - kapten_windu Oh and this next question is the 50th of this year's quiz!! :jumping: The honour of asking it goes to Harvey......but who will have the greater honour of replying to it?? Jim
Christophe Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 Congratulations to Harvey !! ) I was mistaken, thinking about Odessa first (the cranes on the pic) and the Caspian or Black seas... And then about this incident that occured in 1988, but the size of the ships was not correct... From Wikipedia : "In February 1988, Caron operating with Yorktown, entered Soviet 12 miles (19 km) territorial waters limit in the Black Sea off the Crimean Peninsula. Under international law, this act could be permissible if the ship was progressing from one point in international waters to another point in international waters via the shortest course possible, but according to the Soviet Union, it was the right of the USSR to authorize or prohibit travel in selected areas within the 12 mile limit. The United States however did not recognize the Soviet's claim in this case. To prevent it from becoming accepted precedent, the US Navy claimed that it had sailed warships through such areas at regular intervals in the past, although no reference was provided. On this occasion, Caron had onboard a Ship's Signal Exploitation Spaces (SSES) system, operated by a crew of 18, supporting the U.S. National Security Agency. This system was capable of recording data on Soviet defense radars and communications. In response, the Soviets deployed a destroyer and a Mirka II class light frigate as well as many other Soviet Navy, Coast Guard, KGB and "civilian" ships to intercept the U.S. ships. Soviet aircraft continuously buzzed the Caron and Yorktown as smaller vessels weaved to and fro in front of the American ships. Several times, Soviet vessels and aircraft obtained radar "lock" on the Caron and Yorktown. Both American ships maintained a constant course and speed throughout the incident. Eventually, the Soviets lightly rammed both ships. No significant damage resulted to any of the ships involved. The Captain of the Caron Lou Harlow, ordered that painters go over the side to paint over the superficial marks created by the "ramming" within minutes of the event. The Soviets depict the outcome of the incident slightly differently. Following is a transcript of a report by Russian officers Nikolay Mikheev and Vladimir Bogdashin: "By the moment they approached our waters, the Americans followed in radio order distanced at 2700-3600 meters from each other. Cruiser was leading and more to seaside, destroyer closer to seashore at the cruiser's angle of 140-150 degrees left board. Coast Guard ship "Honest" ("Bezzavetny"), which was 8 times lighter than its American counterpart, and Coast Guardship "SKR-6" (equally lighter) were following the cruiser and destroyer at their course abgles of left boards 100-110 degrees at the distance of 90-100 meters. Behind that group an additional two USSR coast guardships followed. When we received the order to start push out the US invaders, we run "All sailors man their battlestations", we sealed the bow sections, moved personnel out of bow sections, armed torpedoes, primed the machine guns, fielded the fire-fighting crews, sent "ready to engage" to shock troopers, rest of the sailors manned their stations. Right anchors were moved out the hawseholes. At the bridge of the "Honest" was Mikheev in contact with headquarters and managing the battle group, Bogdashin is helming the ship, translation officer keeps constant radiocontact with US group. Closed in at distance of 40 meters, then closed to 10 meters (SKR-6 does the same with the destroyer). At the US cruiser's deck jolly sailors and officers waving, shouting, taking pictures, making obscene gestures as US sailors normally do. US cruiser's captain walked out to the left open part of the bridge. When we've been confirmed "Act as planned" we started to "shove" the cruiser, simultaneously SKR-6 "shoved" the destroyer. Bogdashin steered the ship in such a way that the first contact was at tangent to the US cruiser's left board. After the impact as a result of the shock, sparkles flew, and American's board paint started to burn. For a moment, the fireball appeared, and then deep clouds of smoke trailed our movements. After the hit, our anchor has torn up the cruiser's board and made a pretty dent in our bow. The aftershock threw our bow away, while our stem went left, and our aft got dangerously close to enemy's board. The US cruiser sounded full alarm, personnel rushed from decks down to holes, cruiser's captain rushed inside from the outer bridge. At that moment Americans obviously were unable to control the ship, so the cruiser turned right, which made it even more dangerous for the "Honest". After that Bogdashin commanded "right on board" increased the speed to 16 knots, which allowed somehow to lean our aft away from the enemy, but at the same time the US cruiser turned left and the most devastating (for Americans) impact occurred - what we wanted as "showing" turned into full ramming. We've hit the cruiser into the helideck - our high and sharp bow, so to speak, "crawled" onto cruiser's helicopter deck, and at angle of 15-20 degrees to the left started to crush everything in its way, gradually sliding down to the cruiser's aft. The "show" tore up the deckhouse, cut down all the rails of helipad deck, destroyed the commander's cutter, further crawled to the aft deck, and also destroyed all guardrails. After that we broke the "Harpoon" launcher—we thought we're going to cut it off completely, but we just cut it in half. Then the anchor tore loose off the chain (by miracle, thank God, it didn't hurt any of US crewmen) it flew within inches from cruiser's firefighters crew and fell into water. Out of four US "Harpoon" launch pads, two were cut in half, the missiles' warheads hanging on the wires. One more "Harpoon" launch pad was bent. Finally, our forecastle fell on water from the cruiser, we've parted with the cruiser and started to follow it at 50-60 meters. We've informed Americans that we will repeat a "show" if they don't leave our territorial waters. Strange activity was observed at the cruiser's decks. Firefighting crews (all of them Afro-Americans) first unrolled the fire hoses, but then disappeared into the holes - the US "Harpoons" didn't catch fires, so all men went into ship's inner spaces." As intelligence reported later, US cruiser developed a fire in "Harpoon" support bunks deep in the hull, and also in "Asrock" anti-submarine missile bunks." Again, Harvey, well done !! Congrats !! Ch.
JimZ Posted September 23, 2011 Author Posted September 23, 2011 And this is the Belknap in 1975. This is what happens when you crash into a Cv!!!! Which is also why the USS JFK she was nicknamed "Can opener"! ergo my reference......
JimZ Posted September 23, 2011 Author Posted September 23, 2011 Oh...and as the Slava was the first of the Slava class, it appears that the Belknap is also the first of the Belknap class too..... I was not aware of that....would have been nice to work that into the hints...... But without much further ado....Harvey.... its your turn Jim :cheers:
Harvey Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 In honor of the 50th question, here's a stumper (hopefully) for you all: Our legacies are well-known to all Soviets. We were buried side by side, comrades in death. 50 years ago this month, one of us suffered an indignity. The following month, the other of us suffered an indignity. Who are we, and what happened to us?
Gunner 1 Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 (edited) Who are we: Lenin and Stalin Sept 1961: During a visit to Lenin's Tomb in Moscow, a woman identified only as L.A. Smirnova broke the protective glass around Vladimir Lenin's sarcophagus, spat on his corpse, and yelled "Take that, you bastard!". The incident was not reported at the time, but found later in a declassified pretrial investigation by the KGB. Oct 1961: In October 1961, Stalin"s body was removed from public display in Red Square and shunted off to a nearby tomb. Edited September 23, 2011 by Gunner 1
Gunner 1 Posted September 23, 2011 Posted September 23, 2011 References for the above answer: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/stalins-body-removed-from-lenins-tomb http://www.celebritymorgue.com/josef-stalin/
JimZ Posted September 24, 2011 Author Posted September 24, 2011 Good going Gunner 1. You got the reply to question 50!!! The score now stand as follows !! 15 points - JimZ 14 points - Harvey 10 points - Hauptmann 4 points - Gunner 1 3 points - Valter 3 points - Christophe 2 points - kapten_windu Question 51 is up next and its up to Gunner 1 to fire away. Jim
Gunner 1 Posted September 24, 2011 Posted September 24, 2011 (edited) Question #51: I was the son of a German mining engineer and grew up in Berlin. As a Corporal in the German Army during World War I, I was severely wounded and won the Iron Cross. After the war I studied at a number of German universities; joined the Nazi party; and worked as an editor with a German news service. Amazingly, with this background my portrait appears on a number of Soviet stamps and one of my opponents once stated, ‘During my entire life, I have never met anyone as great as he was.’ Who am I and what was I great at? Edited September 24, 2011 by Gunner 1
JimZ Posted September 24, 2011 Author Posted September 24, 2011 I was Richard Sorge and I was a Russian Spy! He seemed particularly good at being able to supply info concerning invasion dates - Pearl Harbour - Operation Barbarossa. A veritable Master Spy!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sorge
JimZ Posted September 24, 2011 Author Posted September 24, 2011 And the quote: "In my whole life, I have never met anyone as great as he was." - was proclaimed by Mitsusada Yoshikawa, the Chief Prosecutor in the Sorge trials who obtained Sorge's death sentence Jim :cheers:
Gunner 1 Posted September 24, 2011 Posted September 24, 2011 Jim: Very good!!! An amazing man. Even after the Japanese arrested him they thought he was working for the Germans. Gunner 1
JimZ Posted September 24, 2011 Author Posted September 24, 2011 Indeed - a generation of spies that don't exist any longer. :cheers:
JimZ Posted September 24, 2011 Author Posted September 24, 2011 The score now stand as follows !! 16 points - JimZ 14 points - Harvey 10 points - Hauptmann 4 points - Gunner 1 3 points - Valter 3 points - Christophe 2 points - kapten_windu Question 52 will follow shortly. Jim
JimZ Posted September 24, 2011 Author Posted September 24, 2011 (edited) Question 52 I spoke but one word, and Russia would never be the same again. Yet I am loved by millions who have visited me since. 1 - Who am I? 2 - Where was I when I spoke? 3 - What was I doing there? 4 - Attach a picture of me for all to see. Jim :cheers: Edited September 24, 2011 by JimZ
JimZ Posted September 25, 2011 Author Posted September 25, 2011 I was a recipient of the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the October Revolution, which did me great honour. JIm :cheers:
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