History 1956 Intel on Sov. Ships

Collecting Intelligence on Soviet Ships

During our Elbe river cruise Rudy Howell (7405th, 1955-57) recalled that in 1956 he was involved in an attempt to collect on a high-interest Soviet ship. Although he was an A-Flight navigator (usually flying ELINT C-54s), he had heard that a photo C-47 had been tasked to fly to Oslo, Norway, and photograph the vessel while it was on a good-will visit. He volunteered to be the C-47 navigator, and away they went. They got to Norway all right, but on all three days the vessel was in port there was a low overcast, preventing the C-47 from "doing its thing." Disappointed, the crew flew back to Wiesbaden.

One day the next week, Rudy was in a movie theater in downtown Wiesbaden and noticed that the newsreel was showing the ship on its port visit. The newsreel photo coverage, from ground & water level, was terrific, and Rudy hoped that at least this film got to the analysts! It probably did, Rudy, but the analysts would surely also have wanted the good vertical images that the 05th could have provided. They love to mensurate photography like that and get the exact dimensions as well as other technical stuff. A search through the 7499th Group histories shows that in July and August, 1956, A-Flight flew several ELINT missions against Soviet ships in the Baltic as well as enroute to Norway, under a task named "Operation SQUINT." The 05th's "Hot Pepper" photo C-54 was also successful in photographing the ships while they were in the North Sea. So, between that and the newsreel coverage, maybe the analysts were happy after all. (By John Bessette, 99th Historian)

7499th Group Reunions

Cold War Warriors throughout the European Theater