1964 T-39 shootdown incident

Part of the Cold War

A white-and blue twin-engined training jet

A T-39 Sabreliner of the U.S. Air Force

Date	28 January 1964
Location	Vogelsberg, East Germany
Result	One aircraft shot down

Belligerents

United States

Soviet Union

Casualties and losses

3 USAF officers killed

None

Location within East Germany

The 1964 T-39 shootdown incident occurred on 28 January 1964, when an unarmed United States Air Force T-39 Sabreliner on a training mission was shot down over Erfurt, East Germany by a Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 fighter aircraft.^[1]^[2]^[3] The occupants of the aircraft were Lieutenant Colonel Gerald K. Hannaford, Captain Donald Grant Millard and Captain John F. Lorraine. All three died,^[4] becoming some of the few US confirmed direct casualties of the Cold War in Europe.

Background

Main article: Cold War

Following the cessation of hostilities at the end of World War II, a situation which came to be known as the Cold War developed between the United States, Canada, and Western European nations on one side, and the Soviet bloc on the other.^[5] Tensions between the United States and Soviet Union were most felt in the regions bordering the Iron Curtain, notably West Germany and East Germany, and during this time relations between the two superpowers were characterized by hostile attitudes, spying, and numerous incidents resulting in loss of life and equipment. One of the most famous of these is the shooting down of a Lockheed U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, over the Soviet Union in May 1960.^[6]

Event

On 28 January 1964, an unarmed USAF T-39A-1-NO Sabreliner twin engine jet trainer, 62-4448, c/n 276-1,^[7]^[8] of the 7101st Air Base Wing, departed Wiesbaden, West Germany, at 14:10 on a routine three-hour training flight. On board the trainer were three men, Captain John F. Lorraine and students Lieutenant Colonel Gerald K. Hannaford and Captain Donald G. Millard. Lorraine was the qualified instructor, while Hannaford and Millard, both pilots with experience on other types, were being trained in order to qualify on the T-39.^[4]

The flight proceeded uneventfully until, 47 minutes after takeoff, radar at two U.S. air defense stations noticed that the trainer was heading toward East Germany at 500 miles per hour (800 km/h).^[4] Hoping to divert the T-39 back on course, each station began hailing the plane on Air Force frequencies and a Soviet-monitored international distress band. Repeated calls to the T-39 went unanswered. It appeared that the T-39's radio systems malfunctioned and the crew were unable to respond.^[4]

The T-39 crossed the border into East Germany. Within five minutes, two blips appeared near the American jet. For 11 minutes, radar blips indicated the three planes were moving eastward, then two blips suddenly veered west and the third blip disappeared. American personnel monitoring the T-39's flight could not determine what had happened, although it was later reported that residents in Vogelsberg, 50 miles (80 km) from the border, had heard machine-gun and cannon fire and had witnessed the plane crash.^[4] The incident is believed to have occurred at 15:14 hours.^[2]

At 17:00 hours on 28 January the United States Military Liaison Mission (USMLM), in Berlin, received a warning to stand by for possible search and rescue of American airmen.^[2] By 18:00 hours, a search team left Berlin for the Erfurt area of East Germany. At 19:15 hours, the chief of the USMLM met with his Soviet counterpart to request help in finding the plane and rescuing survivors (per the Huebner–Malinin Agreement).^[2]

At 20:00 hours, a second search team left Berlin. About this same time, the first team arrived at the crash site, 20 kilometers (12 mi) north of Erfurt. The first team received a report from an East German civilian that a U.S. plane had crashed and burned, and that the crew was dead.^[2] Throughout the night, the American teams tried to approach the aircraft and were repeatedly sent away by the armed Soviet forces on site.^[2] These forces denied that any aircraft had crashed, and two American search teams were detained briefly before being released at 14:00 hours on 29 January.^[2]

Aftermath

By 29 January, the United States State Department charged that the Soviet Union shot down an unarmed plane and caused the needless deaths of three officers. Secretary of State Dean Rusk called the action a "shocking and senseless act."^[9] Through the Soviet press agency, Tass, Moscow claimed that the plane had intruded over East German territory and failed to react to signals, and then a warning shot. The Soviets said they were compelled to take the measure that brought down the U.S. plane.^[4]

On 30 January, the Soviets agreed to allow US personnel access to the crash site.^[2] This occurred the following day and later the bodies of all three servicemen were returned to the United States through Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. General Curtis E. LeMay met the plane and participated in an honors ceremony.^[10]^[11] The aircraft wreckage was also recovered and was taken to Berlin, arriving there on 1 February 1964.^[2]

Memorial at the crash site near Vogelsberg

Memorial

Residents from the nearby town of Vogelsberg in Thuringia erected a memorial to the three downed pilots, after the "Iron Curtain" had been lifted.^[12]^[13]

References

Notes

↑ "Factsheets : North American T-39A Sabreliner". Nationalmuseum.af.mil. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "T-39 Aircraft Incident". Western-allies-berlin.com. 28 January 1964. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
↑ Aviation Safety Network Retrieved on 27 October 2011
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Cold War: Cold Blooded Murder". Time. 7 February 1964. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
↑ Blainey 2005, pp. 274–277
↑ Blainey 2005, pp. 344–345
↑ "ASN Aircraft accident North American CT-39A Sabreliner 62-4448 Vogelsberg village, Thüringen". Aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
↑ "1962 USAF Serial Numbers". Joebaugher.com. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
↑ "Red Attack on U.S. Jet: Three Americans Killed in Unarmed Trainer Crash". The Spokesman Review. 30 January 1964. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
↑ "US to Fly Bodies of Airmen Home". The Milwaukee Journal. 5 February 1964. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
↑ "Soviets Admit Downing U.S. Plane". St. Petersburg Times. 29 January 1964. Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
↑ "Cold War Casualties Cry Out For Commemoration". VFW Magazine. May 2004. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
↑ "A Cold Night in Erfurt". usmlm.org. Retrieved 17 April 2010.

References

Blainey, Geoffrey (2005). A Short History of the 20th century. Camberwell, Victoria: Viking. ISBN 0-670-04273-0.

Cold War

USA USSR ANZUS NATO Non-Aligned Movement SEATO Warsaw Pact

1940s	Hukbalahap Rebellion Dekemvriana Yalta Conference Operation Unthinkable Potsdam Conference Gouzenko Affair Operation Masterdom Operation Beleaguer Operation Blacklist Forty Iran crisis of 1946 Greek Civil War Corfu Channel incident Turkish Straits crisis Restatement of Policy on Germany First Indochina War Truman Doctrine Asian Relations Conference Marshall Plan 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état Tito–Stalin Split Berlin Blockade Western betrayal Iron Curtain Eastern Bloc Western Bloc Chinese Civil War (Second round) Malayan Emergency

1950s	Bamboo Curtain Korean War 1953 Iranian coup d'état Uprising of 1953 in East Germany 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Partition of Vietnam First Taiwan Strait Crisis Geneva Summit (1955) Poznań 1956 protests Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Suez Crisis Syrian Crisis of 1957 Sputnik crisis Second Taiwan Strait Crisis Cuban Revolution Kitchen Debate Bandung Conference Bricker Amendment McCarthyism Operation Gladio Iraqi July Revolution "We will bury you"

1960s	Congo Crisis Sino-Soviet split 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion 1960 Turkish coup d'état Soviet–Albanian split Berlin Wall Portuguese Colonial War Angolan War of Independence Guinea-Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence Cuban Missile Crisis Sino-Indian War Sarawak Communist Insurgency Iraqi Ramadan Revolution 1963 Syrian coup d'état Vietnam War 1964 Brazilian coup d'état United States occupation of the Dominican Republic (1965–66) South African Border War Transition to the New Order Domino theory ASEAN Declaration Laotian Civil War 1966 Syrian coup d'état Argentine Revolution Korean DMZ Conflict Greek military junta of 1967–74 USS Pueblo incident Six-Day War War of Attrition Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Malaysia Communist Insurgency War Invasion of Czechoslovakia Iraqi Ba'athist Revolution Goulash Communism Sino-Soviet border conflict CPP-NPA-NDF rebellion Corrective Move

1970s	Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September in Jordan Corrective Movement (Syria) Cambodian Civil War Realpolitik Ping-pong diplomacy 1971 Turkish military memorandum Corrective Revolution (Egypt) Four Power Agreement on Berlin Bangladesh Liberation War 1972 Nixon visit to China 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War Carnation Revolution Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War Mozambican Civil War Ogaden War Ethiopian Civil War Lebanese Civil War Sino-Albanian split Cambodian–Vietnamese War Sino-Vietnamese War Iranian Revolution Operation Condor Dirty War Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Seven Days to the River Rhine Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union

1980s	Soviet–Afghan War 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts 1980 Turkish coup d'état 1986 Black Sea incident 1988 Black Sea bumping incident Solidarity Soviet reaction Contras Central American crisis RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 Able Archer 83 Star Wars Invasion of Grenada People Power Revolution Nagorno-Karabakh War Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Revolutions of 1989 Glasnost Perestroika

1990s	Mongolian Revolution of 1990 Breakup of Yugoslavia Dissolution of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

Frozen conflicts	Abkhazia China Korea Nagorno-Karabakh South Ossetia Transnistria Sino-Indian border dispute

Foreign policy	Truman Doctrine Marshall Plan Containment Eisenhower Doctrine Domino theory Hallstein Doctrine Kennedy Doctrine Peaceful coexistence Ostpolitik Johnson Doctrine Brezhnev Doctrine Nixon Doctrine Ulbricht Doctrine Carter Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Rollback Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War

Ideologies	Capitalism Chicago school Keynesianism Monetarism Neoclassical economics Reaganomics Supply-side economics Thatcherism Communism Marxism–Leninism Castroism Eurocommunism Guevarism Hoxhaism Juche Maoism Naxalism Stalinism Titoism Liberal democracy Social democracy

Organizations	ASEAN CIA Comecon EEC KGB Non-Aligned Movement SAARC Safari Club MI6 Stasi

Propaganda	Active measures Izvestia Pravda Crusade for Freedom Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Red Scare TASS Voice of America Voice of Russia

Races	Arms race Nuclear arms race Space Race

See also	Brinkmanship NATO–Russia relations Soviet espionage in US Russian espionage in US American espionage in the Soviet Union Soviet Union–United States relations US–Soviet summits

Category Portal Timeline List of conflicts

← 1963
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1964 (1964)
1965 →

Jan 13 Savage Mountain B-52 crash
Jan 28 T-39 shootdown
Feb 25 Eastern Air Lines Flight 304
Feb 29 British Eagle International Airlines Flight 802
Apr 5 Machida F-8 crash
May 7 Pacific Air Lines Flight 773
Jun 20 Civil Air Transport Flight 106
Jul 9 United Airlines Flight 823
Sep 2 Aeroflot Flight 721
Nov 15 Bonanza Air Lines Flight 114
Nov 20 Linjeflyg Flight 277
Nov 23 TWA Flight 800
Dec 24 Flying Tiger Line Flight 282

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