[WW] Re: Maps & Officers

[Michael Robert Blair <pellinoire@yahoo.com>]

A bit off topic but the Russians were paranoid about
maps. There was an incident on an exercise (70s?)
where a tank crew became lost and had to ask a party
of NATO observers where they were. The NATO boys had
much better maps of Russia than even a Russian tank
crew.

Mind you Russia was not the only country to leave
things off the map or tweak them. Britain is supposed
to do it as well and the Ordnance Survey puts 'traps'
in their maps to catch illegal copiers.

It appears to me that the gap between officers and men
is much sharper and more distinct than was the case in
the American army - maybe not so much with the small
professional army of peacetime but more the huge
conscript army with 90 day wonders for officers.

I think Britain did have non-officer pilots, maybe in
the Fleet Air Arm rather than the RAF but I don't know
enough of the details. I vaguely remember reading
something about this, someone was annoyed by it (RAF
at the FAA or RNAS if it was WW I).

Michael

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