Francis Gary Powers (August 17, 1929 – August 1, 1977) was an American pilot who flew intelligence missions for the CIA. The U-2 spy plane piloted by Powers was shot down during a flight near Sverdlovsk on May 1, 1960. Powers survived, was sentenced by a Soviet court to 10 years in prison for espionage, but was later exchanged for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel, exposed in the United States.
American spy pilot Francis Harry Powers, whose Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile near Sverdlovsk. Russia, Moscow. November 16, 1960
Born in Jenkins, Kentucky, the son of a miner (later a shoemaker). He graduated from Milligan College near Johnson City, Tennessee.
In May 1950, he voluntarily enlisted in the US Army, studied at the Air Force School in Greenville, Mississippi, and then at an air force base near Phoenix, Arizona. During his studies, he flew on T-6 and T-33 aircraft, as well as on an F-80 aircraft. After graduation, he served as a pilot at various US air force bases, holding the rank of first lieutenant. Flew on the F-84 fighter-bomber. He was supposed to participate in the Korean War, but before being sent to the theater of operations he developed appendicitis, and after his recovery, Powers was recruited by the CIA as an experienced pilot and never made it to Korea. In 1956, with the rank of captain, he left the Air Force and went full-time to work for the CIA, where he was assigned to the U-2 spy plane program. As Powers testified during the investigation, he was given a monthly salary of $2,500 for carrying out intelligence missions, while while serving in the US Air Force he was paid $700 a month.
Francis Gary Powers is undergoing flight training. 1956
After being recruited to cooperate with American intelligence, he was sent to undergo special training at an airfield located in the Nevada desert. At this airfield, which was also part of a nuclear test site, for two and a half months he studied the Lockheed U-2 high-altitude aircraft and mastered the control of equipment designed to intercept radio signals and radar signals. Powers flew this type of aircraft for high-altitude and long-distance training flights over California, Texas, and the northern United States. After special training, Powers was sent to the American-Turkish military air base Incirlik, located near the city of Adana. On instructions from the command of the 10-10 unit, Powers, since 1956, systematically made reconnaissance flights on a U-2 aircraft along the borders of the Soviet Union with Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.
On May 1, 1960, Powers performed another flight over the USSR. The purpose of the flight was to photograph military and industrial facilities of the Soviet Union and record signals from Soviet radar stations. The intended flight route began at the air force base in Peshawar, passed over the territory of Afghanistan, over the territory of the USSR from south to north at an altitude of 20,000 meters along the route Aral Sea - Sverdlovsk - Kirov - Arkhangelsk - Murmansk and ended at the military air base in Bodø, Norway.
Francis Gary Powers in special equipment for long flights in the stratosphere
The U-2 piloted by Powers crossed the state border of the USSR at 5:36 Moscow time, twenty kilometers southeast of the city of Kirovabad, Tajik SSR, at an altitude of 20 km. At 8:53, near Sverdlovsk, the plane was shot down by surface-to-air missiles from the S-75 air defense system. The first missile fired (the second and third did not leave the guides) of the S-75 air defense system hit the U-2 near Degtyarsk, tore off the wing of Powers’ plane, and damaged the engine and tail section. To ensure reliable destruction, several more anti-aircraft missiles were fired (a total of 8 missiles were fired that day, which was not mentioned in the official Soviet version of events). As a result, a Soviet MiG-19 fighter was accidentally shot down, which was flying below, unable to reach the U-2's flight altitude. The pilot of the Soviet aircraft, Senior Lieutenant Sergei Safronov, died and was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Remains of a downed plane
In addition, a single Su-9 was scrambled to intercept the intruder. This plane was being transported from the factory to the unit and did not carry weapons, so its pilot Igor Mentyukov received an order to ram the enemy (he had no chance to escape - due to the urgency of the flight, he did not put on a high-altitude compensation suit and could not eject safely), however, he failed to cope with the task.
The U-2 was shot down by an S-75 missile at extreme range while firing at the plane in pursuit. A non-contact detonation of the warhead occurred from behind the aircraft. As a result, the tail section of the aircraft was destroyed, but the pressurized cabin with the pilot remained intact. The plane began to fall randomly from a height of over 20 kilometers. The pilot did not panic, waited until the altitude was 10 thousand meters and got out of the car. Then, at five kilometers, the parachute was activated; upon landing, he was detained by local residents near the village of Kosulino, not far from the wreckage of the downed plane. According to the version heard during the trial of Powers, according to the instructions, he was supposed to use the ejection seat, but did not do this, and at an altitude of about 10 km, in conditions of a disorderly fall of the car, he left the plane on his own.
At the site of the plane crash
As soon as it became known about the destruction of the plane, US President Eisenhower officially announced that the pilot had gotten lost while carrying out a meteorological mission, but the Soviet side quickly refuted these allegations, presenting the world with fragments of special equipment and the testimony of the pilot himself.
Soviet official Andrei Gromyko speaks at a press conference regarding the U-2 incident
During the press conference
Exhibition of the remains of the downed American U-2 spy plane. Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after Gorky. Russia Moscow
Khrushchev is shown the wreckage of a downed U-2
Khrushchev visiting the exhibition
Military attaches of foreign embassies at the exhibition of the remains of the American U-2 spy plane, shot down on May 1, 1960 near Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after Gorky. Russia Moscow
One of the parts of an automatic radio compass
Lenses of an aerial camera mounted on an airplane
The engine of the downed American Lockheed U-2 aircraft, flown by spy pilot Francis Gary Powers, on display in Gorky Park. Russia, Moscow
Money and bribery items supplied to Francis Gary Powers
American intelligence equipment
On August 19, 1960, Gary Powers was sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR under Article 2 “On criminal liability for state crimes” to 10 years in prison, with the first three years to be served in prison.
At the Powers trial
Powers during the trial
On February 10, 1962, in Berlin on the Glienicke Bridge, Powers was exchanged for the Soviet intelligence officer William Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel). The exchange took place through the mediation of East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel.
Upon his return to the United States, Powers received a cold reception. Initially, Powers was accused of failing to perform his duty as a pilot to detonate the AFA reconnaissance explosive device, the footage and secret equipment, and also for failing to commit suicide using a special poisoned needle that was given to him by a CIA officer. However, a military inquiry and an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee cleared him of all charges.
Francis Gary Powers holds a model of the U-2 before testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 10, 1962.
Francis Gary Powers testifies before a Senate committee.
Powers continued to work in military aviation, but there is no information about his further cooperation with intelligence. Between 1963 and 1970, Powers worked for Lockheed as a test pilot. In 1970, he co-authored the book Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident. Rumor has it that this led to his dismissal from Lockheed due to negative information about the CIA in the book.
Aircraft designer K. Johnson and G. Powers in front of the U-2
He then became a radio commentator for KGIL and then a helicopter pilot for KNBC in Los Angeles. On August 1, 1977, he died in a helicopter crash while returning from filming a fire in the Santa Barbara area. The probable cause of the crash was lack of fuel. Along with Powers, television cameraman George Spears died. Buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Despite the failure of his famous reconnaissance flight, Powers was posthumously awarded for it in 2000. (received the Prisoner of War Medal, Distinguished Service Cross, National Defense Commemorative Medal). On June 12, 2012, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz presented Powers' grandson and granddaughter with the Silver Star, the third-highest U.S. military award, for "steadfastly rejecting all attempts to obtain vital defense information or to be exploited for propaganda purposes." »
Events around the trial in photographs by Karl Mydans
The wife of an American pilot arrived in Moscow
Members of the Powers family arrived in Moscow
Members of the Powers family outside the American Embassy
Barbara Powers' mother, American Consul Richard Snyder, the pilot's parents, Barbara, Powers' wife during the trial
The Powers couple, parents of an American pilot
Oliver Powers, father of an American pilot accused of spying for the Soviets
Oliver Powers talks with family friend Saul Curry and an unknown Soviet official
The courthouse where the trial took place
Francis Gary Powers on Soviet television on the day the trial began
The parents of an American pilot relax in a hotel room during a break in the espionage process.
People near the building where the trial of the American pilot took place
Muscovites on the street during the trial of an American pilot
Oliver Powers at a press conference appealed to the Soviet authorities with a request to pardon his son
The Powers in their hotel room after a press conference
HOW POWERS WAS KILLED
On May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over the territory of the USSR. This event received enormous resonance throughout the world and became one of the milestones in the history of the Cold War. However, for thirty years the secret was the fact that after the destruction of the U-2, the missilemen shot down the Soviet MIG-19 fighter. Reserve Colonel Mikhail Voronov, whose missile battalion shot down the U-2, talks about this tragic event and other little-known details of what happened.
“On the first of May at 5.30, an American Lockheed U-2 spy plane, taking off from the Peshawar airfield in Pakistan, crossed the border of the USSR. Its thirty-year-old pilot, Francis G. Powers, was supposed to cross the country from the Pamirs to the Kola Peninsula, photographing military and industrial installations.
In the fall, our division received a new anti-aircraft missile system. Until February 1960, he was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Shishov, but then he was sent to study for a long period. I, at that time a major, was entrusted with the performance of his duties.
On the eve of May 1, 1960, we were relieved of combat duty. I sent several officers home to their families.
The morning turned out to be warm and sunny. I left the house, began to clean my boots, getting ready to go to the barracks and congratulate the soldiers on the holiday. Suddenly a siren and a cry from the orderly:
- Anxiety!
He ran straight to the position. There was an idea that on a holiday they simply decided to carry out an inspection. But then they got there and turned on all the equipment. I report that the division is ready for battle. The unit commander reports in response that the intruder plane is heading towards the Urals. Be prepared to destroy him if he enters the zone.
The plane was still far away, in the Aral Sea area. I asked permission to feed the soldiers. He gave ten minutes. As soon as we sat down at the table, the alarm sounded again. Moreover, the command: “Equipment in combat mode!” This is a very rare command, it is given in exceptional cases. This means this is an extremely serious matter. Everyone concentrated and pulled themselves together.
I admit, I was pretty worried: what kind of plane was it? What's on board? Maybe an atomic bomb?
During the Second World War, when I commanded a battery, I had to shoot down German planes. But then they flew at an altitude of no higher than 10 kilometers. This one was already at a height of 20 thousand. And this was the first time that it was going to be launched for a combat purpose rather than a training one.
Having photographed the object on the shore of Lake Irtysh, Powers began to go around Sverdlovsk.
The holiday day was chosen for the reconnaissance flight, apparently, not by chance. Its organizers expected that the rocket scientists would need a lot of time to coordinate their actions with Moscow. And Moscow at that time was busy with a military parade on Red Square.
- There is a goal! – Sergeant Yagushkin reports.
Preparations are underway for the rocket launch. And suddenly the plane, having passed Chelyabinsk and not reaching our division’s zone, turned to the right and began to fly away to the east. I already thought: “That’s it, he left us.” But after a while he turned again and began to approach from the southeast. And here is the goal in the division zone. I command: “Start!”
The guidance officer, Senior Lieutenant Eduard Feldblyum, hesitated - apparently some kind of psychological barrier had arisen. I told him again: “Let’s go, motherfucker!” and the rocket went to the target. And if the senior lieutenant had waited a little longer, the plane would have left the affected area.
The first missile went towards the target. The second and third are refusal. The automation worked: the plane was already out of our reach. They, however, were not needed. The first missile reached the U-2 and exploded in its rear hemisphere. This happened at 8.53 Moscow time.
In Moscow on Red Square, Nikita Khrushchev greeted the festive demonstration from the Lenin Mausoleum. He already knew about Powers' flight and ordered him to be shot down. But only when Marshal Biryuzov, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense Forces, went up to the Mausoleum and reported that the intruder had been shot down by the first missile, did the prime minister’s heart ease.
At the same time, Boris Yeltsin, then a student at the Ural Polytechnic Institute, was walking in a column of demonstrators along the main square of Sverdlovsk and, like many, saw a bright spot high in the sky. It was a rocket explosion that interrupted the flight of the U-2.
An error occurred with the evaluation of the shooting results. We clearly observed on the screen the approach of the marks from our missile and from the intruder aircraft, but when they converged, the screen turned out to be clogged with marks from the debris. Feldblum mistook them for interference. I duplicated his report at the command post.
Ten minutes later we realized that Powers had been shot down - I left the cockpit and saw a parachute high in the sky. I reported this too, but at the command post they don’t believe me: the enemy, they say, continues to fly. The fact is that the radio engineering unit that was tracking the target considered its disappearance on the screens to be temporary and continued to display a fictitious course plot.
Captain Boris Ayvazyan and senior lieutenant Sergei Safonov arrived at Sverdlovsk Koltsovo airport at 7.35 on a combat alert, but took off in their MIG-19s to intercept the target only more than an hour later. Soon after, Ayvazyan noticed the explosion of Powers' plane, but mistook it for the self-destruction of a missile.
The anti-aircraft missile division of Major Shugaev, one of Voronov’s neighbors, discovered the fighters and sent a request “I’m one of them.” They were silent: for some reason the pilots did not turn on answering machines during takeoff. The MiGs were mistaken for an enemy target and missiles were fired at them.
Boris Ayvazyan noticed a strange cloud in the sky and dived sharply. It saved his life. Senior Lieutenant Sergei Safonov, who was not even thirty years old, died.
Powers was flying at an altitude of 20 kilometers, and the ceiling of the MIG-19 was 2-3 thousand meters less. The tragic departure of Sergei Safonov was an unnecessary safety net.
There could have been another tragic flight. Another Su-9 ferry plane, without any weapons, accidentally ended up at Koltsovo airport. The aircraft commander was ordered to intercept the intruder and ram it. This was an order for certain death, but while they were refueling the ferryman, everything was decided in the sky.
As already mentioned, the rocket exploded in the rear hemisphere, and this saved Powers' life. Together with the plane, he fell 11 thousand meters, and then manually opened the canopy and jumped out with a parachute.
Later, when examining the wreckage of the plane, 200 kilograms of explosives were found under the pilot’s seat.
As soon as he pressed the catapult, an explosion would occur. Powers knew about this and therefore did not eject. (The Americans have their own point of view on this: the explosive under the seat was not connected with the catapult, but belonged to the mechanism for eliminating the aircraft. Powers did not activate it, since he assumed that in this case not only the liquidation of the aircraft, but also himself would occur .)
When Powers almost descended by parachute, he was seen by two residents of the village of Kokulino, Kuzhakin and Asabin, who were driving a state farm Moskvich. They drove up and started asking what happened. The parachutist was silent. Then Asabin, a former sailor, guessed what was going on and disarmed Powers. They took him to the state farm office and there they found several gold watches, chains, and rings on him. There was a lot of foreign currency and Soviet rubles.
Soon Powers was taken to Sverdlovsk and then to Moscow.
On August 19, 1960, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced US citizen Francis G. Powers to 10 years in prison. But already on February 10, 1962, on the Glinker-Brücke bridge, connecting West Berlin with East Berlin, Powers was exchanged for the Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel (real name Fischer).
After the exchange and return to the United States, an investigation was launched against Powers, but the commission cleared him. In August 1977, Francis Power died in a helicopter accident near Los Angeles.
Immediately after the incident, NASA released a statement to the press regarding the disappearance of the U-2 aircraft, intended for studying the atmosphere. Moreover, the Americans reported that he disappeared over the territory of Turkey, in the area of Lake Van.
Four days later, on May 5, Khrushchev, speaking at a session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, casually mentioned the incident. At the same time, he deliberately kept silent about the fact that Powere was alive and captured. The State Department hastened to declare that the flight was entirely peaceful and the pilot had simply lost his way.
The fact that this was an obvious lie became known to the world on the last day of the session, when Khrushchev announced that he had deliberately refrained from mentioning that the pilot was alive and that there was wreckage of the plane. “We did this because if we had told everything how it was, the Americans would have come up with a different explanation.”
Powers' unsuccessful flight turned into a big scandal for the United States, almost leading to the resignation of CIA chief Allen Dulles. The U-2 aircraft, a good machine for those times, gained notoriety among American pilots. A certain wag from the US Air Force even noted that U-2 (Yu-tu) sounds indistinguishable in English from the phrase “you too.”
On May 7, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding distinguished military personnel appeared in all newspapers. I received the Order of the Red Banner.
First on the list of those awarded was the name of Senior Lieutenant Safonov, but there was no “posthumous” mark. Apparently, Leonid Brezhnev, who had just been elected Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, did not want such a tragic fate to be behind the first document he signed in his new capacity. And the truth was hidden for thirty years.
By the will of fate, Sergei Safonov’s wife married Boris Ayvazyan.
I continued to command the division until December 1961. In March of the following year, I was transferred to a higher headquarters and given the rank of lieutenant colonel. He worked at the headquarters for five years and retired for health reasons.
In 1978, in the reserve, he received the rank of colonel. I live in the city of Tuapse. I remember that May Day often and, apparently, will never forget.”
And now, in order to dot all the i's, let's listen to another participant in the incident with the American spy - Igor Mentyukov.
After the trial of Francis Harry Powers, a former US Air Force pilot and hired CIA pilot, an interesting note appeared in one of the Soviet newspapers. It reported that, upon returning to the United States, Powers’ father repeated to reporters the words spoken by his son: “Don’t believe, father, that I was hit by a missile. I was hit by a plane, I saw it with my own eyes...”
The editorial commentary said that the pilot's father made this statement, probably under pressure from the American intelligence services. And the pilot of the plane, whom Powerm “saw with his own eyes,” was waiting to be summoned to court. But he didn’t end up in court – to please the political situation. And, true to his word, pilot Igor Mentyukov remained silent for more than thirty years.
What has the Soviet ace pilot been silent about for thirty years?
Igor Andreevich did not sign a non-disclosure agreement, he simply promised to remain silent. The officer's word was believed. In recent years, as it turned out, there is no need for silence.
Igor was born in 1932 in Novoznamenka, in the Tambov region. In 1946 he moved to Tambov, graduated from the railway technical school, then entered the Chernigov “letka”, was transferred to Frunze and after graduating from the Frunze school in 1954 he ended up in Savostleyka, Gorky region. He served well, although he did not enter the academy, but everything went without a hitch.
So what happened then, in the spring of 1960?
A publication of that time, Igor says, talks about single flights of American reconnaissance aircraft over the territory of the USSR. This is wrong. Alas, the airspace over the country in 1960 was like a caftan with holes in it, and the Americans flew as they wanted - far and wide.
For example, the famous U-2 radar reconnaissance aircraft flew over our territory from Norway to Iran on April 9 with complete impunity. Filmed Kapustin Yar, Baikonur, another missile range. How many of our missiles were launched uselessly into the clear sky - this is a great mystery. After this, Khrushchev went on a rampage: “I’ll disperse everyone, tear off their heads! God forbid if this happens again!”
The air defense command decided to more thoroughly prepare for a possible repetition of American reconnaissance flights. And six pilots - including me - the captain, flight commander, were quickly retrained and transferred to the latest supersonic high-altitude ultra-long-range fighter-interceptors Su-9. They were then called T-3.
So, a few days before, the now deceased Kolya Sushko and I drove a pair of Su-9s from near Ryazan, from the plant, far to the north, beyond Murmansk, to the Norwegian border. We spent five days there on combat duty, and then went home to Savostleika.
We ask Igor Mentyukov:
– How did you end up in Novosibirsk on the first of May? After all, they were waiting for another violation of the airspace border in the West?
- Absolutely right. It was in the west, to the Belarusian city of Baranovichi, that I had to transport the brand new Su-9 from Siberia. Overtake and begin combat duty. I accepted the plane “zero”, as they say now. But, of course, without ammunition - four air-to-water missiles. And in the evening, on the eve of May Day, he landed at an intermediate airfield near Sverdlovsk. I had to refuel and wait for the slow-moving transport plane that was flying after me with technical personnel and equipment.
And in the morning the duty officer wakes me up, and I rush to answer an urgent call to the airfield. There they are already waiting for me on the phone from Novosibirsk. And the order on the phone: “Ready number 1.”
I rush to the Su-9, take a seat in the cockpit, and the commander of the Sverdlovsk Air Army, General Vovk, contacts me. He conveys the order of the “Dragon” - to destroy the real high-altitude target at any cost. The “Dragon” transmitted - ram. And “Dragon” was the call sign of the commander-in-chief of the country’s air defense aviation, general, and later air marshal Savitsky.
– And Evgeniy Yakovlevich gave such a strict order?
– Yes, Savitsky knew that I was without ammunition. And there was no chance of survival when rammed.
– What did you think about then? Or didn’t you think about it at all, did they act like an automatic machine?
- Why, just as I thought! I had the right to refuse: after all, it’s not a war to throw yourself under tanks without weapons. But I didn’t know what he was flying with. What if - with a bomb? My one life or hundreds of thousands?
- And you decided...
“I decided and said: “Point it.” My only request is to take care of your wife and mother.”
My wife was expecting a child at that time. They answered me: “Everything will be done.” And then there was no time for lyrics. Then - off we go.
“Were you the first pilot to try to get Powers?”
– Why?... Two colleagues on combat duty also tried to do this on the Su-9, but one gained 15-odd kilometers of altitude, the other a kilometer more. They fell down and left.
- How did you manage to do it?
- Well, when I was flying the MIG-19, I was striving for the “ceiling”. Several times I climbed 17 kilometers 300 meters, and American intelligence officers walked at an altitude of 19 thousand meters. What are you going to do here? It's no use shooting. True, I remember one time our pilot, Filyushkin, could not stand it, cursed and fired from all three guns. Naturally, to no avail, out of despair: the engines stopped, I went down. And I still remembered as a cadet: in order to reach the “ceiling”, you need to maintain maximum speed or near it. And the Su-9 had speed capabilities unprecedented at that time, and I was light - without missiles. Plus the temperature was suitable. That’s why I went up there, 20 kilometers.
– And they began to get closer?
- Yes. He went to the right turn, no one understood why. In a word, I hear in my headphones: “The target is in the right turn.” I look around and don’t see him. The rapprochement is neither more nor less - I’m moving 550 meters! And I jumped a little higher than him.
- What happened?
“During the investigation and at trial, Power himself said that he heard a bang and an orange flame flew in front of him. You've probably heard this kind of popping noise yourself more than once - during the flights of supersonic aircraft. When the glass in the windows shakes. And the flame—he saw the exhaust nozzle of my engine. In a word, Powers' plane fell into the wake of my plane. In it, air currents whip at a speed of 180 meters per second, plus torque - so it began to twist, the wings broke off.
- So it turns out you didn’t have to ram it? Enough conversion trail from your Sukhoi?
- It's all a matter of chance. However, he began to fall.
– What about Khrushchev’s report that Powers was shot down by a missile?
“Yes, if a missile had hit his U-2, the wood chips would have fallen to the ground.” But the pilot would not have survived, he would have died along with the plane. There was no explosion, only everything rattled as his U-2 fell apart.
“So why have we all been told for years that Powers was shot down by the valiant rocket men?”
– Everything is so banal. The situation fit very well into Khrushchev’s false idea that in the presence of missiles, aviation was not needed or was needed for parades and honorary escorts.
On the other hand, to convince enemies that the country’s air borders are now tightly closed from any encroachment. Therefore, the very fact that Powers landed in the zone of action of Captain M. Voronov’s division was interpreted in favor of Nikita Sergeevich’s theory.
And then Voronov himself did not know how to report. The collective farmers mistook Powers for an astronaut, brought him to the rocket scientists, but they knew that they had not shot him down.
Voronov kept a “pause” for half an hour, this is a known fact, and only then they reported. But when the experts realized that the rocket men had nothing to do with it, no one, naturally, dared to report the truth to Khrushchev. Thus was born the legend of Powers, “shot down by rocket men.”
- Excuse me, but if Voronov did not report about the “cosmonaut” for half an hour, then for a whole half hour it was considered that the target was not destroyed?
– Yes, and they actively worked on me from the ground, as if I were someone else’s!
– In the confusion, everyone forgot that they needed to change the “friend or foe” code, so our planes were mistaken for other people’s, real targets. That is why the divisions of Major Voronov and Major Sheludko actively fired at me in their zones. We had to maneuver to avoid the missiles. They released more than one of them for me. Three more - for pilots Ayvazyan and Safonov, who flew on MIG-19 planes to shoot down the enemy, including me. - Yes. After all, with the old code I was a stranger to the earth. By the way, they also turned out to be strangers! And Sergei Safonov was shot down... I saw that moment, and later I saw the remains of his car - cracks! Can you imagine what would have happened to Powers’ plane if it had been destroyed by a missile? And it fell in “big pieces”: wings, fuselage...
- They told me: tomorrow a car will come for you, you will talk with Savitsky. And at half past seven in the morning I was already talking on the phone with Evgeniy Yakovlevich.
“Did Savitsky understand that it wasn’t the rocket men who shot down Powers?”
- Yes, everyone understood everything. We were professionals. It was just a deal with conscience. And Savitsky asked how he was, how he was feeling.
– Why such a question to a healthy person, a pilot?
“I flew to an altitude of two dozen kilometers in almost nothing my mother gave birth to - without a pressure helmet, without an altitude-compensating suit. But even though my bones were aching, he answered that everything was fine. And then Savitsky said a phrase that is the answer to the question - did he understand everything? He said the following: “Thank you, without you he would have left!” Then I was sent to Belarus. There was a conversation with Moscow, after which I waited for a call for interrogation. Powers was being interrogated at this time. But the investigation didn’t need me, so as not to discredit our missile forces. I was waiting for a summons to appear in court, but it didn’t come. He received a Saturn wristwatch as a reward and an order to keep quiet. And only more than thirty years later publications appeared - in the Aviation and Cosmonautics magazine, in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspapers. "Top secret". But the authors there made, to put it mildly, many inaccuracies without talking to me. My future fate turned out normally. According to the law of pairing of cases, being a commander on a Su-11, he turned out to be the personal instructor of Marshal Savitsky. The very one whose order doomed me, in essence, to certain death, if not for chance. But I never held a grudge against him - we are military people. He finished his service as a lieutenant colonel, a regiment navigator, and was both a deputy and a regimental commander.
Andrey Aderekhin. "Komsomolets Kuban".
Nikolai Nikulin. "Work".
From the stories of the rocket scientist and the pilot, readers are given the right to realize the truth for themselves. The opinion of the author of the book is to award Igor Mentyukov the highest government award. He accomplished a feat!
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American pilot who flew reconnaissance missions in the 1950s. Shot down over the USSR in 1960, which led to a crisis in Soviet-American relations.
Born in Jenkins, Kentucky, the son of a miner (later a shoemaker). He graduated from Milligan College near Johnson City, Tennessee.
In May 1950, he voluntarily enlisted in the US Army, studied at the Air Force School in Greenville, Mississippi, and then at an air force base near Phoenix, Arizona. During his studies, he flew on T-6 and T-33 aircraft, as well as on an F-80 aircraft. After graduating from school, he served as a pilot at various US air force bases, being in the rank of first lieutenant. Flew on the F-84 fighter-bomber. He was supposed to participate in the Korean War, but before being sent to the theater of operations he developed appendicitis, and after his recovery, Powers was recruited by the CIA as an experienced pilot and never made it to Korea. In 1956, with the rank of captain, he left the Air Force and went full-time to work for the CIA, where he was involved in the U-2 spy plane program. As Powers testified during the investigation, he was given a monthly salary of $2,500 for carrying out intelligence missions, while while serving in the US Air Force he was paid $700 a month.
After being recruited to cooperate with American intelligence, he was sent to undergo special training at an airfield located in the Nevada desert. At this airfield, which was also part of a nuclear test site, for two and a half months he studied the Lockheed U-2 high-altitude aircraft and mastered the control of equipment designed to intercept radio signals and radar signals. Powers flew this type of aircraft for high-altitude and long-distance training flights over California, Texas, and the northern United States.
After special training, Powers was sent to the American-Turkish military air base Incirlik, located near the city of Adana. On instructions from the command of the 10-10 unit, Powers, since 1956, systematically made reconnaissance flights on a U-2 aircraft along the borders of the Soviet Union with Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.
Events of May 1, 1960
On May 1, 1960, Powers performed another flight over the USSR. The purpose of the flight was to photograph military and industrial facilities of the Soviet Union and record signals from Soviet radar stations. The intended flight route began at a military air base in Peshawar, passed over the territory of Afghanistan, over the territory of the USSR from south to north at an altitude of 20,000 meters along the route Aral Sea - Sverdlovsk - Kirov - Arkhangelsk - Murmansk and ended at a military air base in Bodø, Norway.
The U-2 plane violated the state border of the USSR at 5:36 Moscow time twenty kilometers southeast of the city of Kirovabad, Tajik SSR, at an altitude of 20 km. At 8:53, near Sverdlovsk, the plane was shot down by surface-to-air missiles from the S-75 air defense system. The first missile fired from the S-75 air defense system hit the U-2 near Degtyarsk, tore off the wing of Powers' U-2 plane, damaged the engine and tail, and several more anti-aircraft missiles were fired to ensure reliable destruction (a total of 8 missiles were fired that day, which was not mentioned in the official Soviet version of events). As a result, a Soviet MiG-19 fighter was accidentally shot down, which was flying lower, unable to rise to the flight altitude of the U-2. The pilot of the Soviet aircraft, senior lieutenant Sergei Safronov, died and was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In addition, a single Su-9 was scrambled to intercept the intruder. This plane was being transported from the factory to the unit and did not carry weapons, so its pilot Igor Mentyukov received an order to ram the enemy (he had no chance to escape - due to the urgency of the flight, he did not put on a high-altitude compensation suit and could not eject safely), however, he failed to cope with the task.
After the U-2 was hit by an anti-aircraft missile, Powers jumped out with a parachute and upon landing was detained by local residents near the village of Kosulino. According to the instructions, Powers was supposed to use the ejection seat of the aircraft's emergency escape system, but did not do this, and at a high altitude, in conditions of a disorderly fall of the car, he jumped out with a parachute. When studying the wreckage of the U-2 aircraft, it was discovered that there was a high-power explosive device in the ejection system, the command to detonate which was issued during an ejection attempt.
On August 19, 1960, Gary Powers was sentenced by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR under Article 2 “On criminal liability for state crimes” to 10 years in prison, with the first three years to be served in prison.
On February 11, 1962, in Berlin on the Glienicke Bridge, Powers was exchanged for the Soviet intelligence officer William Fisher (aka Rudolf Abel). The exchange took place through the mediation of East German lawyer Wolfgang Vogel.
Memory
For a long time, in the District House of Officers of Sverdlovsk, there was a small exhibition dedicated to the downing of Powers: fragments of the plane’s skin, the headset used to give the order to defeat, a model of the missile that shot down the intruder.
Life after returning to the USA
Upon his return to the United States, Powers was initially blamed for failing to destroy his plane's intelligence equipment or for failing to commit suicide using a special poison needle that had been issued to him. However, a military inquiry cleared him of all charges.
Powers continued to work in military aviation, but there is no information about his further cooperation with intelligence. Between 1963 and 1970, Powers worked as a test pilot for Lockheed. He then became a radio commentator for KGIL and then a helicopter pilot for KNBC in Los Angeles. On August 1, 1977, he died in a helicopter crash while returning from filming a fire in the Santa Barbara area. The probable cause of the crash was lack of fuel. Along with Powers, television cameraman George Spears died. Buried in Arlington Cemetery.
Despite the failure of his famous reconnaissance flight, Powers was posthumously awarded for it in 2000 (he received the Prisoner of War Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the National Defense Commemorative Medal).
On May 1, 1960, a parade of Soviet troops took place on Red Square in Moscow. The General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. Khrushchev was noticeably nervous, and from time to time a military man approached him and reported to him. After listening to the next report, Khrushchev suddenly pulled his hat off his head and smiled broadly, his mood clearly lifted. Only on May 5, speaking at the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR that opened in Moscow, Khrushchev announced that on May 1, 1960, an American high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft Lockheed U was shot down by an S-75 air defense missile near the village of Povarnya near Sverdlovsk (today Yekaterinburg). -2, pilot-led Harry Powers.
Political consequences of the incident
Previously, such aircraft were considered invulnerable, since they could fly at an altitude of more than 21 kilometers, inaccessible to fighters of that time.
In the United States, at first they tried to deny the fact of deliberate violation of the borders of the USSR; President Dwight Eisenhower even made an official statement that there was no spy mission at all, and the pilot simply got lost while flying over the territories bordering the USSR. However, the Soviet side presented irrefutable evidence - reconnaissance photographic equipment taken from the plane, and the testimony of the pilot Garry Powers himself.
A huge political scandal broke out, Khrushchev's official visits to the USA and Eisenhower's return to the USSR were cancelled. The Paris meeting of the leaders of the four great powers - the USSR, the USA, France and Great Britain - collapsed.
A week after the incident, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published on awarding orders and medals to those who distinguished themselves during the destruction of the plane and the detention of the spy. The Order of the Red Banner was awarded to M. Voronov, N. Sheludko and S. Safronov. The first two are rocket scientists, the third is a pilot, awarded posthumously. The described case of spy flights over the territory of the USSR was not the first and not the only one.
History of spy flights
It is known that on July 4, 1956, a U-2 aircraft made its first test flight over the USSR. Starting from the American air base in Diesbaden, which was located on the territory of the then Federal Republic of Germany, it flew over the areas of Moscow, Leningrad and the Baltic coast. The report stated that the flight was successful. The plane managed to fly over two of the most heavily defended areas in the world without the Soviet air defense system opening fire. The detailed photographs taken by the aircraft's equipment were amazing in the quality of the image; one could see the tail numbers on the bombers.
In July of the same year, several reconnaissance flights were carried out over the USSR at an altitude of over 20 kilometers. The result of the reconnaissance was data on the location of fighter-interceptor airfields, anti-aircraft artillery positions, radar stations; many elements of the Soviet air defense system and the principles of its operation were revealed.
Other important defense facilities of the USSR were also captured, for example, naval bases. Soviet air defenses recorded facts of aircraft intrusion into the airspace of the USSR, and on July 10, the USSR government sent a note demanding an end to provocative flights, in which it characterized these violations as “a deliberate action by certain US circles, designed to aggravate relations between the Soviet Union and the United States of America.
For some time, flights over the USSR were stopped. But the desire to receive new intelligence data was so great that flights resumed in the period 1957-1959. About 30 flights were carried out over the USSR, for which air bases in the mentioned Disbaden, Incirlik (Turkey), Atsu (Japan), and Peshawar (Pakistan) were used.
Powers Flight
On May 1, 1960, Francis Harry Powers, in a U-2 aircraft piloted by him, took off from the air force base in Peshawar to perform a reconnaissance flight over the USSR.
The task consisted of photographing military and industrial facilities of the Soviet Union and recording signals from Soviet radar stations.
The flight route, starting at a base in Peshawar, passing over the territory of Afghanistan, was supposed to cross the territory of the USSR from south to north at an altitude of 20 km along the route Aral Sea - Sverdlovsk - Kirov - Arkhangelsk - Murmansk, and end at a military air base in the Norwegian Bude.
The crossing of the Soviet border by U-2 Powers occurred at 5:36 Moscow time at an altitude of 20 km in an area near the city of Kirovabad, Tajik SSR.
The flight went smoothly and no incidents were expected. American intelligence did not know that by this time the outdated radar system in the USSR air defense had been replaced by a new one, which was able to detect the spy plane over Afghanistan.
The S-75 systems were deployed to cover secret nuclear facilities in the Urals. But all sorts of roughnesses, known when working with any new equipment, as well as the May Day weekend for most pilots and anti-aircraft gunners, became the reason that the plane managed to fly to the Sverdlovsk region with impunity. And here it was necessary to urgently shoot down the plane, because... modern systems were not yet sufficient to cover the entire airspace of the USSR, and outside this area a “blind” zone began.
It should be noted that at that time there was a serious struggle for priority: who should be called the main branch of the military - anti-aircraft missile units or fighter aircraft? In the area of the Aral Sea, not far from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, fighters were scrambled into the air, but in the violator’s flight area there were no fighters that could rise to Powers’ “ceiling,” and the aviators ended up somewhere far below and soon fell behind.
As Powers' plane approached the Urals, all Soviet military and civilian aircraft in the area were given the "carpet" command, according to which they were landed at the nearest airfields. The air defense forces reported that there were no aircraft of their own in the air, and now the task of destroying the intruder was assigned to anti-aircraft missiles.
The process of neutralizing a spy
A total of seven missiles were fired at the intruder aircraft. The first of them, fired by an anti-aircraft division under the command of Major M. Voronov, hit the rear of the U-2 aircraft, destroying the engine, tail section and tearing off the wing. It is curious that the missile was fired outside the zone of effective destruction of targets when firing in pursuit; this is what most likely allowed the American pilot to stay alive.
The car began an uncontrolled fall from a 20-kilometer altitude. The pilot did not take the opportunity to eject, but simply left the plane, falling over the side. There are two versions why he did this. According to one of them, after the explosion the pilot found himself sandwiched between the seat and the instrument panel, and during ejection his legs would inevitably have been torn off. According to the second, he most likely knew that the plane was loaded with an explosive device, which was sure to go off when the pilot ejected and which was later found in the wreckage of the plane.
The falling and more uncontrollable U-2 was still visible on radar, and at an altitude of 10 km it entered the kill zone of the next missile battalion, commanded by Captain N. Sheludko, where it was overtaken by three more missiles.
The death of a Soviet fighter pilot—an accident or criminal negligence?
Unfortunately, three more missiles hit the MiG-19 fighter piloted by Senior Lieutenant S. Safronov, which led to his death. The archives are silent about who exactly gave the order for two fighters to take off while the anti-aircraft batteries were operating. The leader of the pair of "instants", Captain Ayvazyan, who was following ahead, noticing the launch of missiles from the ground, instantly got his bearings and performed an anti-missile maneuver - he went into a low-altitude dive. But the wingman senior lieutenant Safronov did not have time...
And Powers safely descended from the heights onto a state farm field and, detained by a local front-line driver, was sent to the local regional center, and then to Moscow.
In case of possible capture, the pilot had the opportunity to commit suicide with a special poisoned needle, which guaranteed death by suffocation within 5 minutes, but he probably rightly judged that his own life was more valuable than all secrets.
Investigation and trial of spy Powers
From the very beginning, Powers agreed to cooperate with the investigation, answering all questions frankly. This gave him the opportunity to have decent living and food conditions in his cell at Lubyanka, and civilized methods of conducting investigations. Investigator Mikhailov, who interrogated the pilot, spoke very positively about him, noting that Powers was not a very erudite person, but technically well-versed, representing the image of an average American with excellent professional pilot skills.
On August 17, 1960, the trial of Francis Gary Powers began. Surprisingly, he was extremely honest and, at the same time, humane.
The prosecutor was the famous Roman Rudenko, a participant in the Nuremberg trials. Taking into account the voluntary confession of the defendant, his exemplary behavior, and, finally, ignorance of all the information, the prosecution did not demand execution, as one would expect, but only 15 years in prison.
By decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, Garry Powers was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with the first three years to be served in prison.
Half a century ago, on May 1, 1960, Soviet missilemen shot down an American U-2 spy plane over the Urals. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers (1929-1977), was captured and publicly tried. U-2 flights over the Soviet Union ceased as Moscow won an important victory in yet another Cold War battle, and Soviet anti-aircraft missiles proved their right to be called the best in the world. The shock that this caused among our opponents at that time was akin to the testing of the first Soviet nuclear charge in 1949 or the launch of an artificial Earth satellite in 1957.
Cold War in the air
However, the Americans understood that it would not be possible to use existing aircraft for reconnaissance flights over the territory of the USSR and its allies for a long time. In addition, a number of internal regions of the USSR remained completely outside the flight zone, and the scale of human intelligence was seriously limited thanks to well-organized border security and excellent Soviet counterintelligence. In fact, aerial reconnaissance remained the only opportunity to collect information about the Soviet army and defense industry, but this required a new, higher-altitude reconnaissance means.
Squad 10-10
The reconnaissance of objects on the territory of the USSR was entrusted to the crews of U-2 spy planes from the “Detachment 10-10”. Officially, this unit was called the 2nd (temporary) airborne weather reconnaissance squadron WRS (P)-2 and, according to legend, was subordinate to NASA. It was the U-2s from this squadron that systematically carried out reconnaissance flights along the borders of the USSR with Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, and also solved 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, radar posts and positions of missile systems for various purposes located on Soviet territory - information that was extremely important for preparing a future breakthrough of Soviet air defense.
During interrogation, Powers stated:
Every year I flew several times 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 to 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 along the southern borders of the Soviet Union. Other pilots of the 10-10 unit also flew with the same goals. We were ascending from the Incirlik airfield in the direction of the city of Van, on the shore of a lake with the same name. After that, they headed for the capital of Iran, Tehran, and after flying over Tehran, they flew in an easterly direction 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... Not far from the eastern border of Pakistan, we made a turn and returned along the same route to Incirlik airfield. Later, we began to turn earlier, after going about 200 miles into Afghanistan.
Career in the CIA
Francis Powers was an ordinary military pilot who served in the United States Air Force and flew F-84G Thunderjet fighters. However, in April 1956, to the surprise of his colleagues and acquaintances, he retired from the Air Force. But this was not a spontaneous decision; Powers was selected by “merchants” from the CIA - as it was said later at the trial, he “sold himself to American intelligence for $2,500 a month.” In May of the same year, he signed a special contract with the CIA and went to special courses to prepare to fly a new reconnaissance aircraft.
Pilots hired by the CIA, future U-2 pilots, were trained at a secret base in Nevada. Moreover, the training process, and the base itself, were so classified that during the training the “cadets” were assigned secret names. Powers became Palmer during preparation. In August 1956, after successfully passing his exams, he was cleared to fly solo on the U-2, and was soon assigned to "Detachment 10-10", where he received identification card No. AFI 288 068, which stated that he was an employee of the Ministry of Defense USA (US Department of Defense). After his capture, Powers' NASA pilot certificate was also confiscated.
Since I personally had nothing to do with NASA,- Powers said during interrogation, - I believe that this document was given to me as a cover to hide the real objectives of the 10-10 intelligence unit.
The first "combat" reconnaissance flight of the U-2, codenamed "Mission 2003" (pilot - Karl Overstreet), took place on June 20, 1956 - the route ran over the territory of East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The air defense systems of the countries over which Overstreet flew made unsuccessful attempts to intercept the intruder, but the U-2 was out of reach. The first damn thing, to the delight of the CIA, did not come out - it was the turn to test the new plane in the USSR.
On July 4, 1956, a U.S. Air Force U-2A departed for Operation Mission 2013. 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 plane, as part of “Task 2014,” went on a new flight, the main goal of which was Moscow: the pilot, Carmine Vito, managed to photograph factories in Fili, Ramenskoye, Kaliningrad and Khimki, as well as the positions of the latest stationary air defense systems S-25 "Berkut". However, the Americans no longer tempted fate, and Vito remained the only U-2 pilot to fly over the Soviet capital.
During the 10 “hot” days of July 1956 that US President Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) designated for “combat testing” of the U-2, the Wiesbaden-based squad of spy planes carried out five flights - deep incursions into airspace European part of the Soviet Union: at an altitude of 20 km and lasting 2-4 hours. Eisenhower praised the quality of the intelligence received—you could even read the numbers on the tails of the planes in the photographs. The country of the Soviets lay before the U-2 cameras in full view. From that moment on, Eisenhower authorized the continuation of U-2 flights over the Soviet Union without any restrictions - even though, as it turned out, the aircraft was quite successfully “detected” by Soviet radar stations.
In January 1957, U-2 flights over the USSR were resumed - from now on they invaded the interior of the country, “processing” the territory of Kazakhstan and Siberia. American generals and the CIA were interested in the positions of missile systems and training grounds: Kapustin Yar, as well as the discovered training grounds of Sary-Shagan, near Lake Balkhash, and Tyuratam (Baikonur). Before Powers' fateful flight in 1960, U-2s had entered Soviet airspace at least 20 times.
Shoot him down!
On April 9, 1960, an intruder aircraft was discovered at an altitude of 19-21 km, 430 km south of the city of Andijan. Having reached the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, the U-2 turned towards Lake Balkhash, where the Sary-Shagan anti-aircraft missile forces test site was located, then to Tyuratam and then went to Iran. Soviet pilots had a chance to shoot down a reconnaissance plane - not far from Semipalatinsk, at an airfield there were two Su-9s armed with air-to-air missiles. Their pilots, Major Boris Staroverov and Captain Vladimir Nazarov, had sufficient experience to solve such a problem, but “politics” intervened: in order to intercept, the Su-9 had to land at the Tu-95 airfield near the training ground - to its base they didn't have enough fuel. But the pilots did not have special clearance, and while one superior was negotiating with another superior on this matter, the American plane went out of range.
No one had any questions about what and how the accused would be tried, even to the most “rabid anti-Soviet” it was clear even without a legal background: the evidence presented and the “material evidence” collected at the scene - photographs of Soviet secret facilities, intelligence equipment, found in the wreckage of the plane, the pilot's personal weapon and elements of his equipment, including ampoules with poison in case of failure of the operation, and, finally, the remains of the reconnaissance aircraft itself, which fell from the sky deep in the territory of the Soviet Union - all this draws Powers to a very specific article Soviet Criminal Code, which provides for execution for espionage.
State prosecutor Rudenko asked for 15 years in prison for the defendant, the court gave Powers 10 years - three years in prison, the rest in a camp. Moreover, in the latter case, the wife was allowed to settle near the camp. The Soviet court truly turned out to be “the most humane court in the world.”
Photo: Oleg Sendyurev / “Around the World”Epilogue
On May 9, 1960, just two days after Khrushchev released information that pilot Powers was alive and testifying, Washington officially announced the end of reconnaissance flights of spy planes in Soviet airspace. However, in reality this did not happen, and already on July 1, 1960, an RB-47 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down, the crew of which did not want to obey and land at our airfield. One crew member was killed, two others - Lieutenants D. McCone and F. Olmsted - were captured and subsequently transferred to the United States. Only after this the wave of spy flights subsided, and on January 25, 1961, the new US President John F. Kennedy (John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917-1963) announced at a press conference that he had given the order not to resume spy plane flights over the USSR. And soon the need for this disappeared altogether - satellites took over the role of the main means of optical reconnaissance.
