By a broken Soviet helicopter. Ashmar, province Khunar, 18 January, 1980.
This photo with this cutline appeared in a well-known to many comrades famous Russian Live Journal about two years ago. And it won’t be a kind of surprise if it appears again, because an anniversary date (30 years) is on the doorstep.
It was clear from the first look that neither comrade drugoi nor photographer Alain DeJean had no idea about Afghanistan geography, because there was no such place as Ashmar in Khunar province. There is village Asmar in Bar-Khunar district where a cc ording to western journalists’ legends Afghan Resistance movement to Soviet armed forces had its source. Let Allah judge them if they don’t know, though it would be better to know the subject used for misinformation. Another fact is more interesting. There is the date under the picture ? 18 January, 1980. But in open military sources you can’t find any note about any soviet helicopter crash in Khunar province neither on January, 18 nor earlier, nor later during 1980, nor eve n during the next year. So the date is rather confusing. T ak ing into consideration the fact that less than a month passed from the moment Soviet troops had entered Afghanistan, shot down Soviet helicopter should be a rather significant eve nt and western journalists just couldn’t leave it without comments. But that time and in that area Soviet Army had no losses.