Mig19 Archives - Aviation Wings

The hottest ‘battlefield’ of the Cold War

Germany was the most heated “battlefield” of the Cold War, remaining divided for decades between the late 1940s and the early 1990s. According to Kevin Wright’s account in his book Danger Zone, the western portion of the region was littered with numerous significant military facilities belonging to both the reconstituted national armed forces and NATO allies, primarily the United States, Great Britain, and France. Even more so, the Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) controlled one-third of East Germany, which was home to numerous major air and ground units.

Three Aerial Corridors

The only means of communication between the German Democratic Republic (GDR)’s central city of West Berlin and its three occupation zones—controlled by the United States, Great Britain, and France—and the outside world were tightly controlled railways, waterways, and autobahns. Three Aerial Corridors, however, linked it to West Germany in the air. Several intelligence services from the US, Great Britain, and France took use of this feature to conduct covert operations along these Corridors, far away from high-profile intelligence-gathering operations such as those carried out by Lockheed U-2s.

These operations, which were mostly carried out by liaison or transport aircraft that had undergone a variety of clandestine modifications, frequently placed their crews in the middle of what NATO considered to be the “danger zone”—the airspace over some of the most sensitive Soviet military installations.

USAF RB-66 shot down

Up until the early 1960s, there were frequent navigational errors—both intentional and inadvertent—along the Inner German Border (IGB), with NATO aircraft occasionally straying into GDR airspace.

Mar. 10, 1964: Near Gardelegen in East Germany, near the Letzlinger Heide training area, a USAF RB-66 electronic reconnaissance aircraft from the 19th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron based at Toul-Rosières in France was shot down. The flight is described as a local training flight in the 1964 Annual Report of the United States Military Liaison Mission (USMLM). It happened during a major exercise being conducted by the Soviets in the area where it was lost.

Some narratives have tried to depict it as a botched attempt to obtain information on a significant Soviet exercise that was taking place on at the time on the training area. The least likely of all is the facts that claim the RB-66 was operating inside one of the Corridors, despite the fact that combat aircraft are not allowed to use them and that previous flight plans must be filed with the Berlin Air Safety Center (BASC).

USAF RB-66 shot down by Soviet MiG-19s

When the Soviets discovered the RB-66’s intrusion, they had two Wittstock-based, 33 Istrebitel nyy Aviastionyy Polk (IAP, Fighter Aviation Regiment) MiG-19s on Combat Air Patrol (CAP) in their Northern Sector. The Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) flight from Zerbst launched two more MiG-19s, and they managed to intercept the RB-66 before the Wittstock aircraft did. Kapitan FM Zinoviev was ordered to engage the US aircraft as it turned westward and brought it down with a salvo of four S-5 unguided rockets followed by canon fire.

According to the 1964 Allied Military Liaison Mission (AMLM) annual report, the RB-66 vanished from radar screens around one hour after taking off and entered the German-Soviet Zone near Gardelegen, northeast of Helmstedt. In a matter of hours, USMLM teams were placed on alert and quickly set out to locate the aircraft and its crew. By then, they believed the three crew members had managed to parachute from the doomed aircraft. Though none of the three USMLM tour vehicles were allowed access, they were able to approach the site.

A ‘provocation’ flight

First Lieutenant Welch, one of the crew, was treated at a Soviet military hospital in Magdeburg after suffering a broken leg. He was returned to US custody on Mar. 21 with the pilot Captain David Holland and Captain Melvin Kessler following on Mar. 27, 1964. Subsequently, the USAF expended significant energy to prove that the misplacement of the RB-66 was due to a malfunction with its compass. While the Soviets maintained that the flight was a “provocation” intended to test their air defenses, the US has always stuck to the explanation of navigational error.

The French account

Another account of the incident is provided by the French. At the time, they had an N-2501 Noratlas “Gabriel V” that was operating along the Southern Corridor, and they had an active listening post at Berlin-Tegel. Between them, they recorded the RB-66 flying towards the IGB and then being downed by the MiGs. It implies that the RB-66 was operating close to the Central Corridor’s entrance, where they thought it was trying to locate a new Soviet radar. The ground station and the Gabriel V concurrently translated and recorded the intercepted radio exchanges, allowing them to triangulate the position of the RB-66.

Danger Zone is published by Helion & Company and is available to order here.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

Before swinging back to launch a cannon strike, the MiG-19 broke away from the RB-47H during the maneuver. The aircraft was shot down after two firing attempts

The 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (SRW), headquartered at Forbes AFB, Kansas, was re-equipped with the specially modified RB-47H type of the B-47 Stratojet during the second half of 1955, replacing their outdated Boeing RB-50Gs. Three Special Operators were transported by the RB-47H in a pressurized bomb-bay capsule. The APD-4 automatic receiver/analyzer served as the primary Elint system for the aircraft, with manual APR-17 receivers, an ALA-6 direction finding (D/F) system, and ALA-74 pulse analyzers serving as backups. Regular monthly detachments to the UK were undertaken by the RB-47Hs of the 55th SRW, from whence they launched Elint sorties over Europe.

RB-47H shot down: when a Soviet MiG-19 downed a USAF Elint plane over the Barents Sea — The RB-47H carried a crew of six, with the pilot, co-pilot, and navigator in a pressurized section in the nose. The three electronic warfare officers (EWOs), also known as “Ravens” or “Crows,” were stationed in what would be the bomb bay in a normal B-47. On typical missions, the EWOs spent about 12-14 hours working in this confined, windowless compartment, completely surrounded by electronic equipment.

An RB-47H (53-4281) of the 55th SRW, based at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, launched an Elint sortie into the Barents Sea on July 1st, 1960. The aircraft flew in international airspace about 50 miles (80 km) off the Russian coast while traveling up the Norwegian coast, around the North Cape, and then southeast along the Kola Peninsula’s coastline. A MiG-19 Farmer intercepted the RB-47H as it got close to the tip of the peninsula and flew in tight formation with it. The RB-47H performed a predetermined maneuver to the northeast, moving away from the coastline, about 50 miles (80 km) off Cape Svyatoy Nos (Holy Nose Point), close to the entrance to the White Sea.

The RB-47H broke away from the MiG-19 during the maneuver, and it then swung back to launch a cannon strike. The aircraft was downed after two fire passes. Sadly, only Col. Bruce Olmstead, the co-pilot of the RB-47H, and John McKone, the navigator, remained alive; the three Special Operators perished. Later, the Soviet Union used the assertion that the aircraft had violated Soviet territorial waters by approaching a location 11.83 miles (19 km) north of Svyatoy Nos to defend against the strike.

Over the Arctic Ocean, Olmstead and McKone were forced to eject from their damaged aircraft. They were detained in the Soviet Union for seven months. The KGB sent Olmstead and McKone to Moscow’s feared Lubyanka prison and accused them of spying after they survived the downing of their RB-47H. They were interrogated nonstop while being confined in isolation in a freezing cell with limited opportunities for food or rest.

They knew plenty of secrets. But neither Olmstead nor McKone gave up a thing to the KGB during seven months of solitary confinement.

“They continued to fulfill the Airman’s Creed, to never surrender,” explained retired Brig. Gen. Reg Urschler of Bellevue, a squadron mate of Olmstead’s later commanded the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (SRW). “None of us can imagine what they went through.”

After his release, Olmstead never flew again for the 55th, but he became a test pilot and, later, an air attaché in Denmark, and he retired as a colonel in 1983. Post-military, he became a home remodeling contractor. He visited Russia and hosted Russian military veterans in his home.

However, he carried the effects of those months in jail with him for the rest of his life.

“You can’t sit in a cell for 211 days without it affecting you,” he told the Washington Post in 1978. “You don’t forgive and forget. You forgive, and you live with it.”

In 2004, after Cold War veterans became eligible for combat medals, Olmstead and McKone (who passed away in 2013) finally earned their Silver Star medals. After two years, Olmstead gave his to the 55th Wing.

The loss of the RB-47H increased scrutiny of US units operating out of the UK, according to Dave Forster and Chris Gibson in their book Listening In, RAF Electronic Intelligence Gathering Since 1945. It was discovered that the UK was typically given the Navigator’s log and intelligence findings from each flight sometime thereafter but was not typically given the route of US Elint missions in advance. The Air Ministry was only generally informed about the expected aircraft track of any sortie as a result.

Later, the flight plan for the RB-47H sortie on July 1 as well as ground intercepts of Soviet air defense activities, including tracking information, were forwarded to the Air Ministry. This suggested that the intended distance from the Soviet coast was to be 60nm (111km), however, intercept evidence suggested that the RB-47H had actually closed to 28 nautical miles (52km) before continuing on its intended course and standing off by about 66nm (122km). Although the tracking information was inconsistent, it seemed to indicate that the aircraft may have closed the coast again before being shot down.

The RB-47 remained in service until 1967, when the RC-135 took its place.

Photo by U.S. Air Force

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The USAF RB-66 that strayed into East German airspace and was shot down by Soviet MiG-19s