States bombed the USSR back in 1950

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

That autumn, the war on the Korean Peninsula was already raging with might and main. Volleys roared very close to our common state border with the Koreans. In addition, the Americans and their allies did not stand on ceremony with respect to international law. The potential enemy's combat aircraft made systematic flights near Soviet cities and military bases. Although the USSR did not officially participate in the war, it came to armed clashes.

On the night of June 26, 1950, in international waters, South Korean warships fired at the Plastun cable ship, which was part of the 5th Soviet Navy (now the Pacific Fleet). The commander of the Plastun, Lieutenant-Commander Kolesnikov, was mortally wounded, the assistant commander, Lieutenant Kovalev, the helmsman and the signalman were wounded. The enemy ships withdrew only after the Plastun sailors returned fire from a 45-mm cannon and a DShK heavy machine gun.

On September 4 of the same year, the crew of the Soviet reconnaissance aircraft A-20ZH "Boston", senior lieutenant Konstantin Korpayev, was raised by alarm to observe the actions of an unidentified destroyer, which approached at a distance of 26 kilometers to the port of Dalny (formerly Port Arthur). He was accompanied by two of our fighters. On the way to the target, the Soviet planes were immediately attacked by 11 American fighters. As a result of a short air battle, the Boston caught fire and fell into the ocean. All three of its crew members were killed.

This was the military-political background at that time in the Far East. It is not surprising that the units and formations of the Soviet Armed Forces in those parts were in constant tension. Alarms, orders for immediate dispersal followed one after another. On October 7, 1950, this was exactly what came to the 821st Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 190th Fighter Air Division, armed with old American piston Kingcobras obtained under Lend-Lease during the Great Patriotic War. The pilots had to urgently fly to the field airfield of the Pacific Fleet Sukhaya Rechka in the Khasansky region of the Primorsky Territory, 100 kilometers from the Soviet-Korean border. By the morning of October 8, all three squadrons of the regiment were already at their new location. Then something almost incredible began.

On Sunday, at 4:17 pm local time, two jet planes suddenly appeared over Sukhaya Rechka. On low level flight, they passed over the airfield, then turned around and opened fire. No one had time to understand anything, as six Soviet aircraft were damaged, and one burned down. There is not a word in the archival documents about whether there were killed and wounded in the 821st Aviation Regiment. But more on that below.

It turned out that the American F-80 Schuting Star fighters had stormed Sukhaya Rechka. The pilots of the 821st Aviation Regiment did not even try to chase the F-80 jet. It would have been impossible on their piston Kingcobras.

The next day, in Moscow, U. Barbour, Counselor-Envoy of the US Embassy in the USSR, was summoned to the office of First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. He was handed a note of protest demanding an investigation of the most dangerous incident and strict punishment of those responsible for the attack on the Sukhaya Rechka airfield. Ten days later, the United States government on the same occasion sent an official letter to the UN Secretary General. In it, it reported that the attack on the territory of the Soviet Union was "the result of a navigational error and poor calculation" of the pilots. And also - that the commander of the aviation unit, which included the F-80, was removed from office, disciplinary sanctions were imposed on the pilots.

The participants in these events from the Soviet side believe that there could be no talk of any navigational error. In their opinion, there was a sheer provocation. For example, the former pilot of the 821st air regiment V. Zabelin is sure of this. According to him, “the Americans clearly saw where they were flying. We flew 100 kilometers from our border with Korea. They knew everything perfectly. It was invented that the young pilots got lost."

In addition, Zabelin recalled that the commander of the disgraced fighter regiment, Colonel Savelyev and his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Vinogradov, who failed to organize a rebuff to the Americans, were put on trial and demoted. To strengthen the state border from the Moscow region to the Far East, the Air Force command urgently transferred the 303rd Fighter Aviation Division, armed with jet MiG-15s. Such combat vehicles could fight on an equal footing with the Americans. Perhaps it was for this reason that the F-80 did not appear in the Soviet sky again. Although in the ongoing war on the Korean Peninsula, "Shusting stary" fought with MiGs, and more than once.

It is curious that in the United States this story was remembered only when the Cold War ended - in 1990. The Washington Post has an article titled "My Short War with Russia." Its author is Alton Kwonbeck, a former CIA and Senate Intelligence Officer. And also - a former pilot of one of two American fighters that stormed the Sukhaya Rechka airfield in 1950. Kwonbek again defended the version of the navigation error, which allegedly led to a serious international incident, which even the UN had to settle. Allegedly, low cloudiness and strong wind are to blame. The American ace's article says: “I didn't know where we were. Through a gap in the clouds, I saw that we were above a river in a valley surrounded by mountains … A truck was going west along the dusty road. " Kwonbek, according to him, decided to catch up with the car. She also led to the airfield. The author of the article claims that he thought it was the North Korean military airfield Chongjin. “There were a lot of planes at the airfield - the dream of any pilot,” he continues. “There were big red stars with a white rim on the dark green fuselages. There was almost no time to make a decision, the fuel was also running out … I entered on the left, fired several bursts, my partner Allen Diefendorf did as I did. " “For the Russians it was like Pearl Harbor,” Kwonbek did not deny himself a strong exaggeration.

Unfortunately, one of our heroes of the Korean War, Lieutenant General Georgy Lobov, who commanded the 64th Aviation Corps at that time, is no longer alive. But the general's memories remained. He did not believe that the Americans bombed the Soviet airfield by mistake. According to Lobov, there was no low cloud cover over Sukhaya Rechka that day. On the contrary, the sun was shining brightly, which excluded the loss of orientation by the F-80 pilots. According to the Soviet general, the outlines of the Pacific coast on the approach to the target were perfectly distinguishable from the air, and they are not at all similar to those near the Korean Chongjin airfield. This circumstance, as well as the post-war track record of Alton Kwonbeck, cast doubt on Washington's version and the sincerity of his apologies to the Soviet Union.

However, in any case, this is not the only secret of those events. As already mentioned, the archival documents of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR speak only of Soviet aircraft broken and damaged as a result of a sudden attack. And not a word - about human losses. However, there were, apparently, and they. At least, in the list of monuments of the Khasansky district of Primorsky Krai, number 106 is "the brotherly unmarked grave of pilots who died during the repulsion of American bombers in 1950". It also indicates that the grave is located near the village of Perevoznoye, the former territory of the military town of Sukhaya Rechka.

It is strange, of course, that the grave is unmarked. It is strange that the military archives are silent about her. Or maybe it's an old Soviet tradition? The main thing is to recount the broken technique. And women still give birth to men. Here and in the Great Patriotic War, the fallen were buried wherever and at random, without caring about the mark on the map. For the seventh decade, search detachments have been wandering around the battlefield. And they will wander for a long time.