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1 16 FIGHTING THE ELECTRONIC WAR
dangerous areas of Cold War signals intelligence activity.
However, London and Washington were not deterred. By the
early 1950s, British and American sigint submarines were regular
visitors to the headquarters of the Soviet fleet. 28
Elint flights over the open sea were also sensitive and risky.
On 8 April 1950 a US Navy elint aircraft, a PBY-42 Privateer,
launched from Bremerhaven in northern Germany, was shot
down while trying to identify new Soviet missile bases along
the Baltic coast. The crew of four, who had named their aircraft
the Turbulent Turtle, all perished. The Soviets later salvaged the
Privateer's elint equipment from the waters of the Baltic, and
were in no doubt about the nature of the mission. Further
missions were postponed. 29 Within a month of the shootdown
of the Privateer, General Omar Bradley, then Chairman of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, set out the case for resuming the flights,
insisting that the intelligence they gathered was of the 'utmost
importance'. President Truman finally agreed to a resumption
when told that US aircraft close to Soviet-controlled territory
would be armed' and instructed to shoot in self -defense'. Truman
minuted, 'Good sense, it seems to me: The President's green
light was received on 6 June 1950, but after the outbreak of
the Korean War later that month the flights were suspended
for another few weeks due to 'current hyper-tension and fear
of further shoot-downs'. By the end of 1950, regular operations
with RB-50Gs, 'special mission' elint aircraft adapted from an
upgraded Superfortress bomber, were operating out of RAF
Lakenheath airbase in East Anglia. 30
Norway was an early partner in all types of sigint operations.
In 1952, Rear Admiral Anthony Buzzard, Britain's Director of
Naval Intelligence, paid a secretive visit to Norway. His requests
were so sensitive that only handwritten notes were taken at
the meetings. Buzzard asked for permission to launch special
reconnaissance flights from Norway into Russian airspace using
the RAP's new Canberra aircraft, and also to run elint flights
conducted within Norwegian airspace. However, the fate of the
USS Cochino and then of the American Privateer had alerted the