A large number of missing American spy pilots
1950 On April 8, 1950, the spy plane pb4y -2 piloted by American Jack Ford was shot down by the fighter plane "Sura-1 1" piloted by St. Boris of the former Soviet Air Force near the coast of Latvia. 15 shells hit the mad turtle, and the mad turtle dragged black smoke into the clouds. Later, both the Navy and the Swedish Navy found the fragments of the "Crazy Turtle" plane, but none of them were found. For decades, Jack Ford and nine other crew members were unaccounted for.
1In March, 993, after the reporter of US News and World Report got the report about the flight departing from Moscow, the matter began to surface.
These reports show that Boris only shot the mad turtle when it was attacked. The battle took place at the altitude of 1 1000 meters, because the mad turtle without oxygen supply equipment could not last long at the altitude of 10000 meters and was defeated. It is also reported that the eight crew members of the "Crazy Turtle" are still alive and they are being held in prison. 1956 In April, the US Embassy in the Soviet Union submitted a memorandum to the Soviet Foreign Ministry, in which it wrote: China * * * learned that the American-made pb4y-2 was shot down over the Baltic Sea, and at least one of its pilots was being held in a concentration camp near Tash. It is said that he was being tried for espionage. We hope to reach him. There are indications that the crew of the "Mad Turtle" was probably captured after parachuting and later detained in a Russian prison.
During the cold war of nearly half a century, neither the United States nor the Soviet Union publicly and completely disclosed how many spy planes the United States sent to the airspace of the former Soviet Union. 1992, a man named Bruce Sanderson went to Moscow to look for him. His father, Warren, disappeared in the sky on April 29th, 1953 1953, and has not been heard from since. Dead or alive, there is no way to know. Sanderson met Russian journalist Staning of US News and World Report in Moscow, and they decided to investigate the matter together. From a large pile of materials sealed for more than 30 years, they were surprised to find that Warren was not alone. During the Cold War, the US Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the US Navy and the Air Force sent a large number of purely offensive reconnaissance planes to the former Soviet Union in order to "find out the layout of Soviet air defense forces" and the location of "important industrial facilities." At that time, it experienced dozens, and the scale and quantity were really amazing.
According to available data, in 1950s and 1970s, the United States shot down 3 1 plane and 252 pilots in the air, of which at least 24 were killed, only 90 survived, and the whereabouts of the rest 138 were unknown. In fact, I'm afraid the exact number of missing persons is far more than that, because it is proved that two joint spy planes were shot down by Soviet planes over the Caspian Sea in 1958, and no official records have been found so far. According to a rough estimate, in the 1950s alone, the United States sent as many as 20,000 spy flights to the former Soviet Union and other countries, and during this period, there were countless so-called "harassment flights" that crossed the international three-mile general restricted area.
Among the many incidents in which US reconnaissance planes were annihilated, the most sensational one was the destruction of the u-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane. This event was called the "u-2 Massacre" and took place in 1960 May 1 during the Cold War, which Khrushchev called "the event that broke the honeymoon between the United States and the Soviet Union".
1960 On the International Labor Day, American Gray Paavos flew over Sverdlovsk in his u-2 high-altitude reconnaissance plane, and he could clearly see the crowd celebrating in the street. Paavos was particularly happy because he escaped the Soviet air defense radar. Once attacked, he can also pull into the sky. At that time, the Soviet Union's air defense firepower did not reach the height of 1 10,000 meters. He leisurely picked up the camera and photographed every suspicious target. A few minutes later, Paavos suddenly felt the fuselage beating, and then he found black smoke coming out of the tail of his plane. Only then did he realize that the plane had been hit. The fuselage sinks and parachutes! Pavos landed in the farmland outside Sverdlovsk. His plane crashed into pieces in the nearby forest. According to Soviet media reports, U-2 was shot down by Soviet 5-75 air defense missiles.
Subsequently, Paavos was sent to the Moscow military court, where he was convicted of espionage. However, Paavos didn't stay in prison for long, and he was soon exchanged back to China. Later, Paavos also wrote a book about this experience, which caused quite a stir in the United States and embarrassed Washington.
Family members are full of doubts.
After the "u-2 tragedy", the activities of the United States to send spy planes to the former Soviet Union increased. Even within a few hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency sent dozens of spy planes around the world like lightning to closely monitor possible provocations against the United States, especially the former Soviet Union.
Until the next few decades, the u-2 reconnaissance plane was the only publicly recognized spy flight in the United States. Paavos survived the crash and returned to the United States alive, which can not but arouse people's doubts about the whereabouts of the missing pilots in other flight activities.
According to a joint report by US News and World Report, the missing pilot may still be alive in many recorded spy flights, at least proving that some people did not die when they were shot down.
1June, 952 13, the American rb-29 fighter reconnaissance plane was shot down over the sea in Japan and the wreckage of the plane was salvaged, but the crew of 12 failed to see it. By 1953, it was reported that a Japanese prisoner of war had seen 10 or 12 American pilots at Kabarovsk labor camp in the former Soviet Union. Later, American intelligence officials got the news that "a pilot on the rb-29 plane was treated in a Soviet army near Megadan in June 5438+0953+00."
1On September 29th, 953, the US rb-50 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Asia, and Roque was the only surviving crew member. 1 95565438+February, he learned from an air force intelligence that a Japanese prisoner of war was repatriated to Japan at the end of 1952, and according to this Japanese prisoner of war, when he was detained in the inta- 1 concentration camp in the Soviet Union, he had seen a brown-haired man about1m 70. Transferred to another concentration camp, Japanese prisoners of war heard that the "Caucasian" prisoner was an American pilot. Although the details are somewhat vague, the "Caucasian" described by Japanese war criminals is very similar to Warren Sanderson on the rb-50 plane, that is, the father of Bruce Sanderson who went to Moscow mentioned above.
In the United States, because the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other departments that directly sent spy planes have been silent for decades, the families of the missing pilots only know that their loved ones "died for their country", and they believe that their son disappeared from the world when the plane was in the clouds. However, in 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin personally revealed that the former Soviet Union had captured 12 American pilots in its airspace in the 1950s. Yeltsin's statement seemed to wake them up from a nightmare with a thunder, and the hope that they had rekindled in their hearts, a feeling of being quilt, which had never been seen before, followed. "I only know that he is going to perform a meteorological observation mission. I didn't expect to go back The official only told us that the plane crashed and the body could not be found. " Ruth Heller's husband was shot down by the Soviet army on the rb-29, and she didn't know until now that her husband was hit by invading other countries!
American missing spy