| RB-47 shootdown incident of 1960 | |
|---|---|
| Part of theCold War | |
| Type | Aircraft shot down |
| Location | |
| Objective | Intercept AmericanRB-47H spy aircraft |
| Date | 1 July 1960 |
| Executed by | Soviet Air Defense Forces |
| Casualties | 4 killed |
On 1 July 1960, a United StatesRB-47Hreconnaissance plane was shot down by theSoviet Air Defence Forces while performingsignals intelligence in theBarents Sea, near theKola Peninsula, off the Arctic coast of theSoviet Union. Four of the six crew members died.[1] The shootdown occurred exactly two months after the far better knownU-2 shootdown involvingFrancis Gary Powers, and added to the tensions created by that incident.
The plane was part of the55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and took off fromRAF Brize Norton airbase in theUK. It was shot down by Soviet pilot Vasily Polyakov in aMiG-19. The US position was that the plane was in international waters, and this was later corroborated by information provided by spyOleg Penkovsky.[2]
Three of the crewmen (reconnaissance officers Capt. Oscar Goforth, Capt. Dean Phillips, and Capt. Eugene Posa) were missing in action, and the remains of one other (aircraft commander Maj. Willard Palm) was recovered.[3][4] The two survivors, navigator Captain John R. McKone and co-pilot Captain Freeman "Bruce" Olmstead, were picked up by Soviet fishing trawlers and held inLubyanka prison inMoscow until immediately after theinauguration of newly elected US President Kennedy on 20 January 1961, when they were released by Soviet leaderNikita Khrushchev as a goodwill gesture.[5][6]
McKone and Olmstead appeared on the cover of the 3 February 1961 issue ofTime magazine.[7] In his news conference on 21 April 1961,President Kennedy was asked if the dropping of charges against an accused Soviet spy was in exchange for the release of the RB-47 aviators. The president denied this.[8]
As a result of their involvement in the incident, Olmstead and McKone receivedPOW medals in 1996 andSilver Star medals in 2004, as well as theDistinguished Flying Cross.[3][4]
General:
Analogous incidents:
White, William Lindsay (1962).The Little Toy Dog: The story of the two RB-47 flyers, Captain John R. McKone and Captain Freeman B. Olmstead. E.P. Dutton & Co.LCCN 62007801.OL 25622095M.
