According to the history books, the first U-2 mission over the Soviet Union was flown on 4 July 1956 when pilot Hervey Stockman flew Mission 2013 using Article [Aircraft] 347 from Detachment A’s location in Wiesbaden AB, West Germany over the Baltic States and Leningrad (Van Hare, T. (2024) Overflight! A Solitaire Cold War Game. Historic Wings. p. 88). That, however, is what the CIA wants you to think.
Recently discovered archival records found in a loft of a non-descript home in the mid-Atlantic and declassified just today reveal an unnamed “Fighter Pilot” flew Article 341 in an earlier, unnumbered, mission in mid-June. This mission, known only in the records as “1956-01” called for take-off from Weisbaden AB with waypoints of Berlin, Poland, Kyiv, Crimea, and the West Black Sea before landing at Incirlik AB in Turkey.
The mission log reveals the flight went as follows:
“Take off from Det A was uneventful and the bird climbed gracefully to 67,000 ft. as I turned towards Berlin. Crossing into East Germany was uneventful as I inched for better altitude. No fighters rose to greet me; I guess the Soviets really can’t see this high!”
[Starting fuel of 7 gives start altitude of 67,000′ which climbs to 67,500′ with fuel expended moving into first waypoint. The Phase C.2 Roll for Events is “None” and the Phase C.3 Determine Threats is “Off Soviet Radar.”]
“I kept on into Poland and gained a bit more height. Up to Angels 68 and still no fighters seen. Monitoring the mission freq I hear the weather report for Incirlik is improving.”
[Phase C.2 event is 65 for “Milder WX” at Primary and Alternate. Incirlik had been “Cloudy” but now moves to “Clear.” The U-2 once again stays off the Soviet radars.]
“It was over Kyiv that things got ‘interesting.’ The first was a rush of four MiG-19s that zoom-climbed with one coming right at. I maneuvered away from that one and managed to dodge another. I also saw a flight of four MiG-17s try to come up to get me but all of them were too low to be a problem.”
[In the initial placement of the MiG-19s one ends up in the same row/column as the U-2 meaning a high-chance of collision or gunfire damage while another trailing fighter likely could get gunfire hits. By expending two “6th Sense” chits the U-2 ends up only having to avoid a collision check (5 or less on 2d6) to avoid damage.]
“After Kyiv flying over Crimea was a welcome respite as no fighters came up to greet me. Truth be told, I was still shaking a bit from the tangle over Kyiv. I’m a g*dd*mn fighter pilot flying this pig of a paper airplane that can barely turn and drops altitude at the slightest wiggle of the stick!”
[The C.2 event over Crimea is “Serendipity” which will cancel all threats over the NEXT three Waypoints and automatically give “Excellent” mission results over Crimea. The subsequent event is 65 is “Milder WX” at Incirlik. Once again the U-2 stays off Soviet radar so no fighters rise to meet it.]
“The rest of the flight was actually a bit boring. Passing over the Black Sea into Turkey I started my decent into Incirlik and landed uneventfully.”
[There is no C.2 event and once again Soviet radar is unable to find the U-2. The landing at Incirlik in clear weather is likewise perfect.]
“Talking to the spooky boys later I heard that the systems worked well over Berlin [“Excellent” results] but didn’t do so well over Poland [“Fair”] and only a bit better over Kyiv [“Good’]. Crimea, however, was a good take [“Excellent”] but the system seemed to go bust over the Black Sea [“Poor”].
[Mission 1956-01 has potential 100 Photo-Reconnaissance (PR) victory points (VP) and 70 signals intelligence (SIGINT) VP. The mixed results deliver 85 of 100 PR VP and only 35 of 70 SIGINT VP for a mission total of 120 VP out of 170 VP possible.]
This mission was flown using the Overlight! rule book available via Amazon and the boxed components set available from Blue Panther Press that comes with one of their very nice canvas maps.
Feature image courtesy RMN
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