Misplaced Pages

1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Cold War incident over East Germany
1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident
Part of the Cold War
Avro Lincoln aircraft similar to the one shot down over East Germany
TypeAircraft Shot-down
Locationwest of Boizenburg, East Germany
53°22′40″N 10°39′40″E / 53.37778°N 10.66111°E / 53.37778; 10.66111
ObjectiveIntercept RAF Avro Lincoln aircraft
Date12 March 1953
Executed bySoviet Air Forces
Casualties7 British airmen killed

The 1953 Avro Lincoln shootdown incident was the shooting down of a British Avro Lincoln four-engined bomber which had intruded into East German airspace during a training mission on 12 March 1953. While the aircraft was flying on the Hamburg-Berlin air corridor over East Germany it was shot down by a Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter.

Incident

The Avro Lincoln was operated by the Central Gunnery School at RAF Leconfield and was on a routine long-distance training flight. The aircraft was intercepted by two Soviet MiG 15 fighters and after it failed to respond to challenges it was shot down by the fighters' 23 mm cannon. The Avro Lincoln crashed east of Boizenburg, on the border of the British and Soviet zones, impacting in a wood between Vierkrug and Horst in the Soviet Zone. It was initially reported that six of the seven crew had been killed and one wounded; the wounded airman was one of three who had bailed out, but later died in hospital. German civilians on the ground reported that two British airmen bailed out from the doomed aircraft, only to be strafed and killed by one of the MiG 15s.

Aftermath

The British government represented by the United Kingdom High Commissioner in Germany protested to the Soviet High Commissioner in Germany against the attack on a British aircraft and death of British servicemen. The Soviet news agency stated that the Lincoln had been flying over the German Democratic Republic and had failed to respond to lawful commands to land at the nearest airfield and had shot at the fighters. The British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden described it as a "barbaric" act. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemned the attack in a statement to parliament and emphasised the Avro Lincoln was not armed and within the agreed air corridor. British historian Richard Aldrich claims that while the bomber was not directly involved in airborne intelligence gathering, "its progress was being carefully tracked by a British 'sigint' unit on the ground at RAF Scharfoldendorf in the British Zone of Germany".

References

  1. ^ "British Bomber Shot Down by Russian Fighters". The Times. No. 52569. London. 13 March 1953. p. 8.
  2. ^ "Historian clears clouds over spying and shot-down bomber". www.yorkshirepost.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  3. "Airmen's Bodies Recovered". The Times. No. 52571. London. 16 March 1953. p. 8.
  4. "Wanton Attack on RAF Lincoln". The Times. No. 52573. London. 18 March 1953. p. 8.
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1953 (1953)
Jan 5 Nutts Corner Viking accidentJan 7 Associated Air Transport Trip 1-6-6AJan 15 RAF Mediterranean Sea mid-air collisionFeb 2 Skyways Avro YorkFeb 14 National Airlines Flight 470Mar 12 Avro Lincoln shootdown incidentMar 20 Transocean Air Lines Flight 942Apr 20 Western Air Lines Flight 636May 2 BOAC Flight 783May 17 Delta Air Lines Flight 318May 27 Kemerovo mid-air collisionJun 14 Aeroflot Flight 229Jun 18 Tachikawa air disasterJul 12 Transocean Air Lines Flight 512Jul 17 USMC R4Q NROTC crashAug 3 Air France Flight 152Sep 1 Air France Flight 178Sep 16 American Airlines Flight 723Oct 14 Sabena Convair CrashOct 27 Aeroflot Flight 783Oct 29 BCPA Flight 304Nov 23 Felix Moncla
1952   ◄    ►   1954
Categories: