U2 mission failed

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After the Soviet air defense finally managed to shoot down U-2, the USSR airspace ceased to be a “walk-through yard for foreign reconnaissance aircraft”


Training flight U-2 over California. This state housed the main base of American reconnaissance aircraft - Biel. In addition to her, there were four additional, placed in different parts of the world. Photo: SMSGT Rose Reynolds, US Air Force

Half a century ago, on May 1, 1960, Soviet rocket men shot down an American U-2 spy plane over the Urals. The pilot - Francis Gary Powers, 1929 – 1977 - was captured and was publicly tried. U-2 flights over the Soviet Union stopped - Moscow won an important victory in the next Cold War battle, and Soviet anti-aircraft missiles proved the right to be called the best in the world. The shock that this aroused in our opponents at that time was akin to testing the first Soviet nuclear charge in 1949 or launching an artificial Earth satellite in 1957.

Cold War in the air

5 March 1946, Winston Churchill (Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, 1874 – 1965) delivered a famous speech in Fulton (Missouri), which is considered to be the starting point of the Cold War. In it, for the first time, the term “iron curtain” sounded in relation to the Soviet Union. But for the timely "parry of threats" emanating from the "iron curtain", it was necessary to know what was happening there. Best of all with this could handle air reconnaissance.

American at that time aviation possessed a serious advantage - it had at its disposal strategic bombers and reconnaissance aircraft with a very high flight altitude, inaccessible to Soviet aircraft and air defense systems. The airspace of the Soviet Union became, in fact, a “passage yard”, where American pilots initially felt completely unpunished. Only on April 8, 1950, Soviet fighters managed to bring down the first intruder aircraft - the PB4Y-2 Privatir reconnaissance aircraft “overwhelmed” the Baltic region, breaking the border in the Liepaja region and deepening 21 km deep into Soviet territory. However, most violators remained safe and sound, reconnaissance aircraft even reached Baku!

However, the Americans understood that it would not be possible to use the existing aircraft for reconnaissance flights over the territory of the USSR and its allies for a long time. In addition, a number of inland regions of the USSR generally remained outside the flight zone, and the scale of agent intelligence, thanks to the well-organized border guard and the superb Soviet counterintelligence, was seriously limited. In fact, aerial reconnaissance remained the only opportunity to gather information about the Soviet army and the defense industry, but this required a new, more high-altitude reconnaissance tool.

Order 10 – 10

Exploration of objects on the territory of the USSR was entrusted to the crews of U-2 spy planes from the “10 – 10 Detachment”. Officially, this unit was called the 2 th (temporary) air squadron of the WRS (P) -2 weather survey, and according to legend, was subordinate to NASA. It was U-2 from this squadron that systematically carried out reconnaissance flights along the borders of the USSR with Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, and also performed similar tasks in the Black Sea region, including over other countries of the socialist camp. The priority task was to collect information about radio stations located on Soviet territory, radar posts and positions of various-purpose missile systems - information that is crucial for preparing for the future breakthrough of Soviet air defense.

During the interrogation, Powers stated:

Every year several times I flew along the borders of the USSR with Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. In 1956 – 1957, three or four flights were made over the Black Sea. In 1956, I made one or two flights, in 1957, there were six or eight such flights, in 1958 - ten to fifteen, in 1959 - ten to fifteen, and in four months of 1960 - one or two. All these flights were made by me along the southern borders of the Soviet Union. Other pilots of the 10 – 10 subunit also flew with the same goals. We climbed from the airfield Incirlik in the direction of the city of Van, on the lake with the same name. After that, they headed for Iran’s capital, Tehran, and after flying over Tehran, flew eastward south of the Caspian Sea. Then I usually flew south of the city of Mashhad, crossed the Iranian-Afghan border and then flew along the Afghan-Soviet border ... A turn was made not far from the eastern border of Pakistan and returned to the Incirlik airfield along the same route. Later, we began to make a turn earlier, after deepening into the territory of Afghanistan by about 200 miles.

Career in the CIA

Francis Powers was an ordinary military pilot, he served in the United States Air Force and flew F-84G Thunderjet fighters. However, in April 1956, he, to the surprise of his colleagues and acquaintances, retired from the Air Force. But it was not a spontaneous decision, Powers was taken away by “merchants” from the CIA - as it was said later at the trial, he “sold out to American intelligence for 2500 dollars a month”. In May of the same year, he signed a special contract with the CIA and went to special courses to prepare for flights on a new reconnaissance aircraft.


Francis Powers with a U-2 model. Upon his return to the United States, Powers was charged that he had not destroyed the intelligence equipment in the aircraft. But then the charge was dropped, and Powers himself was awarded the POW medal. Photo from the archive of the CIA

The training hired by the CIA pilots, future U-2 pilots, were held at a secret base in Nevada. Moreover, the preparation process, as well as the base itself, were so classified that secret names were assigned to the "cadets" during the training. Powers at the time of preparation became Palmer. In August 1956, after successfully passing the exams, he was allowed to fly independently on U-2, and was soon enrolled in the “10 – 10 Detachment”, where he received an ID No. AFI 288 068, which states that he is an employee of the Ministry of Defense United States (US Department of Defense). After the capture of Powers, the pilot certificate issued by NASA was also withdrawn.

Since I personally had nothing to do with NASA, - declared at the interrogation of Powers, - I believe that this document was issued to me as a cover in order to hide the real objectives of the 10 – 10 intelligence unit.

For Soviet secrets

The first “combat” reconnaissance flight U-2, which received the code designation “2003 Task” (pilot - Karl Overstreet), took place 20 June 1956 of the year - the route ran over the territory of East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The air defense systems of the countries that Overstreet flew over made unsuccessful attempts to intercept the intruder, but the U-2 was out of reach. The first pancake did not come out loud, to the delight of the CIA, it was the turn to check the new aircraft on the USSR.

4 July 1956, the U-2A, owned by the US Air Force, set off for Operation 2013 Task. He proceeded over Poland and Belarus, after which he reached Leningrad, and then crossed the Baltic republics and returned to Wiesbaden. The next day, the same aircraft as part of the “2014 Task” went into a new flight, the main goal of which was Moscow: the pilot, Carmine Vito, managed to photograph plants in Fili, Ramenskoye, Kaliningrad and Khimki, as well as the positions of the newest stationary air defense missile systems C-25 "Golden Eagle". However, the Americans no longer began to tempt fate, and Vito remained the only U-2 pilot who flew over the Soviet capital.

During 10, the “hot” July days of 1956 of the year that US President Eisenhower (Dwight David Eisenhower, 1890 – 1969) identified for the “combat tests” U-2, based in Wiesbaden, a group of spy planes made five flights — deep air incursions into the air the European part of the Soviet Union: at an altitude of 20 km and the duration of 2 – 4 hours. Eisenhower praised the quality of the intelligence obtained - in the photographs one could even read the numbers on the tails of the aircraft. The Soviet Union lay in front of the U-2 cameras, in full view. From this point on, Eisenhower authorized the continuation of U-2 flights over the Soviet Union without any restrictions - even though, as it turned out, the plane was quite successfully “tracked” by Soviet radar stations.

U2 mission failedStarting table at the Tyuratam training ground. The picture was taken during one of the first U-2 flights over the territory of the USSR. Photo: US Air Force

In January, 1957, U-2 flights over the USSR were resumed - from now on they invaded the interior of the country, "processed" the territory of Kazakhstan and Siberia. The American generals and the CIA were interested in the positions of the missile systems and test sites: Kapustin Yar, as well as the discovered Sary-Shagan test sites, not far from Lake Balkhash, and Tyuratam (Baikonur). Prior to the fateful flight of Powers in 1960, the U-2 aircraft invaded the airspace of the USSR at least 20 times.

Shoot him down!

Sergei Nikitich Khrushchev, the son of the Soviet leader, later recalled that his father had once said: “I know that Americans laugh while reading our protests; they understand that we can do nothing more. ” And he was right. He set before the Soviet air defense a fundamental task - to destroy even the latest American reconnaissance aircraft. Its solution was possible only with the constant improvement of the anti-aircraft missile weapons and the early rearmament of fighter aircraft to new types of aircraft. Khrushchev even promised: the pilot, who will bring down the high-altitude intruder, will be immediately presented to the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union, and in material terms he will receive "everything he wants."

Many wanted to get the Gold Star and wealth. Many people tried to shoot down a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, but always with a constant result - a negative one. In the 1957 year over Primorye, two MiG-17Ps from the 17 th Fighter Aviation Regiment attempted to intercept the U-2, but without success. The 1959 pilot also completed an attempt to pilot the MiG-19 from the Turkestan Air Defense Corps - an experienced commander managed to disperse the fighter and, due to a dynamic slide, reach an altitude of 17 500 m, where he saw an unknown aircraft above himself at 3 – 4 km. All hopes are now placed on a new anti-aircraft missile system - C-75.

9 On April 1960, at the height of 19 – 21 km, an intruder was discovered in 430 km south of the city of Andijan. Having reached the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, U-2 turned towards the lake Balkhash, where the Sary-Shagan anti-aircraft missile forces station was located, then to Tyuratam and then went to Iran. The Soviet pilots had a chance to shoot down a reconnaissance aircraft - there were two Su-9 armed with air-to-air missiles near the Semipalatinsk airport. Their pilots, Major Boris Staroverov and Captain Vladimir Nazarov, had enough experience to solve this problem, but the “politician” intervened: in order to intercept, Su-9 needed to land at the Tu-95 airfield near the test site - to its base they lacked fuel. And the pilots did not have special access, and while one brigade negotiated with the other bosses on this score, the American plane went out of range.

Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev (1894 – 1971), having learned that the six-hour flight of the plane of the intruder had passed for him with impunity, was, as eyewitnesses said, greatly angry. The commander of the Turkestan Air Defense Corps, Major General Yuri Votintsev, was warned about incomplete official compliance, and the commander of the troops of the Turkestan Military District, Army General Ivan Fedyuninsky, was severely reprimanded. Moreover, it is interesting that at a special meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the State Committee on Aircraft Engineering - USSR Minister Peter Dementyev - and General Aircraft Designer Artem Mikoyan (1905 – 1970) stated:

There are no planes in the world that could 6 hours 48 minutes go at a height of 20 000 meters. It is not excluded that this plane periodically gained such a height, but then it would certainly decrease. It means that those means of anti-aircraft defense that were in the south of the country should have been destroyed.

"Game" and "Hunter"

The U-2 aircraft and the C-75 anti-aircraft missile system began to meet each other almost at the same time, both were created with a wide cooperation of enterprises, in a short time, and outstanding engineers and scientists took part in the creation of both.


During operation, the U-2 was constantly upgraded by US military engineers. But soon the need for this disappeared: reconnaissance aircraft replaced satellites. Photo: US Air Force / Senior Airman Levi Riendeau

"Game"

The catalyst for the development of a specialized high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was the successes of the Soviet Union in the development of nuclear weapons, especially the test of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb in 1953, as well as reports by military attaches on the creation of the M-4 strategic bomber. In addition, an attempt by the British in the first half of 1953 to photograph a Soviet missile test site at Kapustin Yar with the help of a modernized high-altitude Canberra failed - the pilots barely "took their feet off." Work on the U-2 was started by Lockheed in 1954 by order of the CIA and went under great secret. The aircraft was developed by prominent aircraft designer Clarence L. Johnson (Clarence Leonard Johnson, 1910 – 1990).

The U-2 project received personal approval from President Eisenhower and became one of the priorities. In August, 1956, pilot Tony Vier, lifted the first prototype into the air, the next year, the car went into series. The Lockheed company built 25 machines of the head series, they were distributed between the USAF, CIA and NASA.

U-2 was subsonic (maximum flight speed at 18 300 m - 855 km / h, cruising - 740 km / h) unarmed strategic reconnaissance aircraft capable of flying at an “out of reach” height for the fighters of that time - more than 20 km. The aircraft was equipped with a J-57-P-7 turbojet with powerful superchargers and a 4763 kg bollard. The midrange wing of a large span (24,38 meter with the length of the 15,11 m plane) and lengthening not only made the plane resemble a sports glider, but made it possible to plan with the engine off. This contributed to the exceptional flight range. For the same purpose, the construction was maximally facilitated, and the fuel supply was brought to the maximum possible - apart from the internal tanks with a capacity of 2970 l, the plane carried two underwing tanks for 395 l, which were dropped at the first stage of flight.

The chassis looked curious - there were two retractable stands under the fuselage in tandem. Two more racks were placed under the wing planes and were dropped at the beginning of the run - at first, the technicians fled alongside the aircraft, pulled out the fastening of the racks with cables, and later automated the process. When landing, when with the loss of speed the wing sagged, it rested on the ground with curved down tips. The U-2 practical flight ceiling reached 21 350 m, the range was 3540 kilometers without overhead tanks and 4185 km with overhead tanks, the maximum flight range was 6435 km.

To reduce the visibility of the U-2 had a smoothed polished surface. He was nicknamed “black lady spying” for a black little glare (derived from the original nickname U-2 - “Dragon Lady”). The spy plane, of course, carried no identifying marks. The work of the U-2 pilot — not even considering his dubious status — was not easy: up to 8 – 9 there were hours in a high-altitude suit and pressure mask, without the right of radio communications, alone with a very demanding machine, especially when planning a flight. When landing, the pilot saw the lane poorly, so a high-speed car was simultaneously launched, from which another pilot gave instructions on the radio.


Clarence L. Johnson has led Lockheed’s research department for more than forty years, earning a reputation as an “organizational genius.” Photo: US Air Force

U-2C, shot down over Sverdlovsk, carried in the nose of the fuselage equipment for recording radio and radar radiation. The car was equipped with autopilot A-10, compass MR-1, radio stations ARN-6 and APC-34UHF, retractable camera.

The loss of U-2 near Sverdlovsk stimulated work in the USA on the SR-71 supersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the same Lockheed. But neither this loss nor the Taiwanese U-2 shot down by the Chinese Air Force in the Nanchang 9 area on September 1962 of the year (the Chinese later shot down three more U-2), nor the American C-75 shot down over the Soviet Union’s 27 Cuba in October of the same year (pilot died), did not put an end to the career of U-2. They underwent several upgrades (modifications of U-2R, TR-1A and others) and continued their service in the 1990-e.

"Hunter"

20 November 1953 of the Year The Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the establishment of a transported air defense system, designated C-75 (“System-75”). The tactical and technical requirements were approved by 4, the General Directorate of the Ministry of Defense at the beginning of 1954. The very task of creating a medium-range mobile complex with a high reach in height was quite bold for those times. Taking into account the tight deadlines and the unresolved number of issues, we had to abandon such tempting qualities of the complex as multichannel (the possibility of simultaneously firing several targets) and homing the missile at the target.

The complex was created as a single-channel, but with the defeat of the target from any direction and from any angle, with radio command missile guidance. It included a radar station with a linear scanning of space and six rotating launchers, one rocket each. We applied a new mathematical model of targeting missiles at the target - the “half-flattening method”: based on the flight data of the target, obtained from the radar, the missile was sent to an intermediate calculated point located between the current target position and the calculated meeting point. This made it possible, on the one hand, to minimize errors caused by the inaccuracy of determining the meeting point, and on the other hand, to avoid overloading the missile near the target, arising when aiming at its actual position.


The C-75 anti-aircraft missile system could hit targets at a distance of up to 43 km at speeds up to 2300 km / h. It was the most widely used air defense system for the entire history Soviet air defense forces. Photo from the archive US DoD

KB-1 (“Almaz”) of the Ministry of Radio Industry under the direction of Alexander Andreyevich Raspletin (1908 – 1967) and Grigori Vasilievich Kisunko (1918 – 1998), was directly involved in the development of Boris Vasilievich Bunkin, who was directly involved in the development of the guidance station, autopilot, transponder, radio control equipment. 1922). We began the development of the 2007-centimeter radar with the selection of moving targets (SCD), but in order to accelerate, we first decided to adopt a simplified version with the 6-centimeter range locator on the already developed devices and without the SAD.

The development of the rocket was conducted by the OKB-2 (Torch) headed by Pyotr Dmitrievich Grushin (1906 – 1993) of the State Committee for Aeronautical Engineering, the propulsion engine for it was developed by A. F. Isaev in OKB-2 NII-88; 504, high-explosive fragmentation warhead - NII-6 of the Ministry of Agricultural Engineering. Launchers were developed by B. S. Korobov at TsKB-34, ground equipment was developed by the State Special Design Bureau.

A simplified version of the complex with a rocket 1D (B-750) was adopted by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers and the Central Committee of the CPSU from 11 December 1957 of the year under the designation CA-75 "Dvina". And in May 1959 of the year, the C-75 “Desna” anti-aircraft missile system with a B-750BH (13D) missile, 6-centimeter radar was put into service.

The anti-aircraft guided missile is a two-stage, with a solid-fuel starting accelerator and a liquid sustainer engine, which combined the high availability and thrust-to-weight ratio at the start with the engine efficiency at the main segment, and together with the selected method of guidance reduced the flight time to the target. Accompanying the goal was carried out automatically or manually, or automatically by the angular coordinates and manually - by distance.

Three missiles were pointing at the same target station at the same time. The rotation of the antenna station of the guidance station and launchers was coordinated so that the rocket after launch would fall into the sector of space scanned by the radar. The CA-75 Dvina hit targets flying at speeds up to 1100 km / h, at distances from 7 to 22 – 29 kilometers and altitudes from 3 to 22 kilometers. The first C-75 regiment was put on combat duty in the 1958 year, and by the 1960 year of such regiments 80 was already deployed. But they covered only the most important objects of the USSR. For such a large country, this was not enough, and U-2S Powers managed to penetrate far into the Soviet Union before he was within the reach of the new complex.


Radar installation of C-75 ADMS in the Egyptian desert. The USSR sold C-75 not only to socialist camp states, but also to third world countries. In particular, Egypt, Libya and India. Photo: Sgt. Stan Tarver / US DoD

By the way, U-2 was not the first CA-75 trophy. Another 7 of October 1959, the Dvina complex, transferred to the “Chinese comrades,” under the guidance of Soviet specialists, was shot down by Taiwanese reconnaissance RB-57D. And in 1965, C-75 opened their glorious account in Vietnam. In the following years, a whole family of C-75 anti-aircraft missile systems (CA-75M, C-75D, C-75M Volkhov, C-75 Volga, and others), which served in the USSR and abroad, was formed.


From heaven to earth

27 April 1960, in accordance with the order of the commander of the 10 – 10 Squad, Colonel Shelton Powers, another pilot and a fairly large group of technical personnel flew to the Pakistani Peshawar airbase. The reconnaissance aircraft was delivered there a little later. A number of CIA experts already advocated the cessation of U-2 flights over the USSR, pointing to the appearance of the newest air defense systems and high-altitude fighter-interceptors for that, but in Washington they urgently requested information on the Plesetsk range and the uranium enrichment plant near Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), and The CIA had no choice but to send a spy plane again.

Early in the morning 1 May Powers raised the alarm, after which he received a task. The reconnaissance flight of U-2 ° C ran from the Peshawar base through the territory of Afghanistan, a significant part of the USSR - the Aral Sea, Sverdlovsk, Kirov and Plesetsk - and was completed at the Bodø air base in Norway. It was already Powers' 28 flight on U-2, and therefore it didn’t cause much excitement to him.

Powers crossed the Soviet border at 5 h 36 mines Moscow time southeast of Kirovabad (Pyanj) of the Tajik SSR and, according to domestic sources, from that moment until it was shot down under Sverdlovsk, was constantly accompanied by radar stations of the air defense forces. 6.00 morning 1 May, when the most conscious Soviet citizens were already preparing for the festive demonstrations, the USSR air defense forces were put on alert, and a group of high-ranking military commanders headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Semenovich Biryuzov arrived at the command post of the air defense troops ( 1904 – 1964). Khrushchev, who was immediately informed about the flight, set the task firmly — in any way to shoot down the spy plane, even a ram was allowed if necessary!

But time after time, attempts to intercept U-2 ended in failure. Powers had already passed Tyuratam, walked along the Aral Sea, left Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk behind, almost approached Sverdlovsk, and the air defense could not do anything with it - the Americans were justified: the planes did not have enough height, and land-based anti-aircraft missiles were almost nowhere to be found. Eyewitnesses, who were then at the command post of the air defense, recalled that calls from Khrushchev and Marshal of the Soviet Union Defense Minister Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (1894 – 1964) followed one after the other. "A shame! The country provided the air defense system with everything necessary, but you cannot shoot down a subsonic plane! ” Marshal Biryuzov’s answer is also known: “If I could have become a rocket, I’d have flown myself and shot down that damned violator!” It was clear to everyone - if even on this festive day U-2 is not shot down, not one general will lose his epaulettes.


Mig-Xnumx. In the 19s, aircraft of this model repeatedly shot down reconnaissance aircraft over the territory of the USSR. But especially they had to work hard in East Germany, where the activity of Western intelligence was much higher. Photos from the archive of Sergei Tsvetkov

When Powers approached Sverdlovsk, the high-altitude fighter-interceptor Su-9, which happened to be there, was raised from the Koltsovo airfield located nearby. However, he was without missiles - the plane was distilled from the factory to the place of service, and there were no guns on this fighter, while the pilot, captain Igor Mentiukov, was without a high-altitude compensating suit. Nevertheless, the plane was lifted into the air, and the commander of the air defense aviation, Lieutenant-General Yevgeny Yakovlevich Savitsky (1910 – 1990), gave the task: “Destroy the target, ram it”. The plane was placed in the zone of the location of the intruder, but the interception failed. But Mentyukov later came under fire from his anti-aircraft missile division, miraculously survived.

Going round Sverdlovsk and starting the photography of the Mayak chemical plant, where uranium enrichment was carried out and weapons-grade plutonium were produced, Powers entered the 2 division of the 57 anti-aircraft missile brigade of the S-75 air defense missile system, then commanded by the head of the head of the head of the head of the head of the head of the head of the head of the head of the head of the head of the head of the head . Interestingly, even here the calculation of the Americans almost failed: on a holiday, the spies were not “waited” and the Voronov division engaged in an incomplete composition. But this did not prevent the fulfillment of the combat mission, even with excessive effectiveness.

Major Voronov gives the command: “Destroy!”. The first rocket goes to the sky - and already after it - and the second and third do not leave the guides. In 8 h 53 min, the first missile approaches U-2 from behind, but the radio-fuse is activated prematurely. The explosion tears off the tail of the aircraft, and the car, pecking nose, rushes to the ground.

Powers, not even trying to activate the system for the liquidation of the aircraft and not using the ejection seat (he later claimed that there was an explosive device in it that was supposed to work during the ejection), hardly got out of the car falling apart and in a free fall opened parachute. At this time, the second volley on the target gave the neighboring division of Captain Nikolai Sheludko - numerous marks appeared on the locator screens at the target site, which were perceived as interference from a spy plane, and therefore it was decided to work on U-2 further. One of the missiles of the second volley almost hit Su-9 captain Mentyukov. And the second one was also pulled by Senior Lieutenant Sergey Safronov, who was pursuing Powers MiG-19 aircraft.

It was one of two MiGs sent to a hopeless pursuit of a spy plane. The first was the more experienced captain Boris Ayvazyan, the plane Sergey Safronov was the second. Later, Aivazian explained the reasons for the tragedy:

I did not understand that Powers was shot down, and they didn’t understand on the ground that the fragments were flying ... and here we crawl out of these fragments, I’m ahead, my responder [the "friend-foe" signal] is off, it can be interpreted as a target, behind Safronov, his respondent is working, so this is an interceptor, and here we are crawling with such a gut. And from that moment we were perceived as an enemy, as a goal that changed the height to 11 thousands of meters.

So it happened. The commander of the 4 anti-aircraft missile battalion of the 57 anti-aircraft missile brigade, Major Alexei Shugaev, reported to the command post of the head of the anti-aircraft missile forces grouping that he sees the target at an altitude of 11 km. Despite the statement of the duty officer on the command post, that it is impossible to open fire, since Major General Ivan Solodovnikov, who was in the command post, took the microphone in the air and personally gave the order: “Destroy the target!” After the volley, the more experienced Ayvazyan managed to maneuver, and Safronov's plane fell ten kilometers from the airfield. Not far from him, the pilot himself descended by parachute - already dead, with a large wound on his side.


C-75 battery in Cuba, 1962 year. The symmetrical arrangement of the rocket complexes will show its vulnerability during the Vietnam War. In this case, pilots attacking the battery, it is easier to direct missiles at the target. Photo: US Air Force

“1 May 1960, during the parade on Red Square, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev was nervous. Now and then the military approached him. After the next report, Khrushchev suddenly pulled his hat off his head and smiled broadly, ”recalled Alexey Adzhubey (1924 – 1993), Khrushchev's son-in-law. The holiday was not spoiled, but the price was very high. And soon Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (1906 – 1982), who had already become chairman of the USSR Supreme Council, signed a decree awarding servicemen who had distinguished themselves in the operation to destroy the spy plane. Twenty-one people received orders and medals, senior lieutenant Sergey Safronov and captain Nikolai Sheludko, commanders of anti-aircraft missile battalions, and major Mikhail Voronov were awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Marshal Biryuzov later recalled that he twice wrote to Voronov for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but both times he had already broken the signed document - after all, the story ended tragically, the pilot Safronov died, the pay for success was too high.

Captivity

Powers landed near the Ural village, where he was captured by Soviet collective farmers. Vladimir Surin, Leonid Chuzhakin, Peter Asabin and Anatoly Cheremisin were the first to land on the pilot's landing site. They helped put out the parachute and put the limping Powers in the car, taking away a pistol with a silencer and a knife as he went along. Already on the board where Powers was delivered, bundles of money, gold coins were confiscated from him, and a little later a bag was brought there, which fell elsewhere and contained a hacksaw, pliers, fishing tackle, mosquito nets, pants, cap, socks and various convolutions - emergency stock combined with a completely spy set. Collective farmers who found Powers, who later testified as witnesses at the trial, also received government awards.

Later, during a personal search, Powers showed that a silver dollar was sewn into the collar of his overalls, and a needle with a strong poison was inserted into it. The coin was seized, and at three in the afternoon Powers was taken by helicopter to the airfield in Koltsovo and then sent to Lubyanka.

The wreckage of the U-2 was scattered over a huge area, but almost all were collected — including a relatively well-preserved front of the fuselage with a center section and a pilot's cabin with equipment, a turbojet and a tail fuselage with a keel. Later, an exhibition of trophies was organized in the Moscow Gorky Park of Culture and Recreation, which was allegedly visited by 320 thousand Soviet and more 20 thousand foreign citizens. Almost all units and assemblies were marked by American firms, and the reconnaissance equipment, the unit for undermining the aircraft and the pilot’s personal weapons indisputably testified to the military purpose of the aircraft.

Realizing that something had happened to U-2, the military and political leadership of the United States attempted to otmazatsya. Under the heading "top secret" appeared a document, which set out the legend of the flight, which 3 of May and announced by the representative of NASA:

The U-2 flew a meteorological flight, taking off from Adana Air Base, Turkey. The main task is to study the processes of turbulence. Being over the southeastern part of the territory of Turkey, the pilot reported on the problems with the oxygen system. The last message was received at 7.00 on the emergency frequency. U-2 did not land at the appointed time in Adana and is considered to have crashed. Currently, a search and rescue operation is being conducted in the Lake Van region.


The only U-2 aircraft was made available to NASA as part of the cover operation. Most of these aircraft were used by the CIA for reconnaissance flights. Photo: NASA / DFRC

However, on May 7, Khrushchev officially announced that the pilot of the downed spy plane was alive, taken prisoner and gives testimony to the competent authorities. This shocked Americans so much that at a press conference on 11 in May 1960, Eisenhower could not shy away from openly acknowledging the fact of espionage flights in the airspace of the USSR. And he then stated that the flights of American reconnaissance planes over the territory of the USSR are one of the elements of the system for collecting information about the Soviet Union and are being carried out systematically for a number of years, and also to inform everyone that he, as president of the United States,

he gave orders to collect, by any means possible, the information necessary to protect the US and the free world from a surprise attack and to enable them to make effective defense preparations.

All rise, the court is in session!

I must say that Powers lived in captivity relatively well. In the inner prison on Lubyanka, he was provided with a separate room, with upholstered furniture, and fed him food from the general's canteen. The investigators did not even have to raise a voice on Powers - he willingly answered all the questions, and in sufficient detail.

The trial of the U-2 pilot took place during 17 — 19 in August 1960 of the year, in the Column Hall of the House of Unions, and the USSR Prosecutor-General Acting Legal Adviser of Justice Roman Rudenko (1907 – 1981) personally spoke in 1946 in the year the main prosecutor from the USSR at the Nuremberg trial against the Nazi criminals, and in 1953-m led the investigation into the case of Lawrence Beria (1899 – 1953).

No one question arose about what and how the accused would be judged, even the most “frantic anti-Soviet” and without a legal education was clear: the evidence presented and the “evidence” collected at the scene of events - photographs of Soviet secret objects, intelligence equipment, found in the wreckage of the aircraft, the pilot’s personal weapons and the elements of his equipment, including ampoules with poison in case of failure of the operation, and finally the remains of the reconnaissance aircraft itself that fell from the sky deep in the territory of the Soviet Union are all this pulls Powers to a very specific article of the Soviet Criminal Code, which provides for the shooting of espionage.

The state prosecutor Rudenko asked for the defendant 15 years in prison, the court gave Powers 10 years - three years in prison, the rest - in the camp. Moreover, in the latter case, the wife was allowed to live near the camp. The Soviet court really was "the most humane court in the world."

However, in conclusion, Powers spent the entire 21 month, and 10 February 1962 of the year on the Gliniki Bridge connecting Berlin and Potsdam and then a kind of “watershed” between the Warsaw Pact and NATO, he was exchanged for the famous Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel (the real name is William Fisher , 1903 – 1971) arrested and convicted in the United States in September 1957.


Debris U-2, exhibited in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Moscow. Soviet propaganda claimed that the plane was shot down by the first rocket. In fact, they took eight, and according to some information - twelve. Photo: Oleg Sendyurev / "Around the World"

Finale

9 May 1960 of the year, just two days after Khrushchev released information that the pilot Powers was alive and testifying, Washington officially announced the termination of reconnaissance flights of spy planes in the airspace of the USSR. However, in reality this did not happen, and on July 1 of the year 1960 was shot down by a reconnaissance plane RB-47, whose crew did not want to obey and board our airfield. One crew member died, two others — Lieutenants D. McCone and F. Olmsted — were captured and subsequently transferred to the United States. Only after this wave of spy flights subsided, and 25 January 1961, the new US President John F. Kennedy (John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917 – 1963) stated at a press conference that he gave the order not to resume flights of spy planes over the USSR. And soon the need for this disappeared altogether - the satellites assumed the role of the main means of optical intelligence.

Telegraph "Around the World": The mission of U2 not fulfilled
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3 comments
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  1. Sergebor
    0
    10 November 2011 14: 42
    http://giacco.ru/index.php?newsid=1028
    Here everything is more convincingly described and disassembled by bones.
  2. 0
    19 October 2016 08: 50
    Great article and very informative! Thank.
  3. 0
    23 February 2017 11: 56
    Not by topic. Yes, when will you learn the basic rules for writing a particle "not" !!

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