l4sfdrx

7
The Voyages of HMS Turpin
Depth charging continued for longer than I care to remember
. ..
Tony Beasley, HMS Turpin, off the Soviet coast,
March 1955 1
By early 1953 the Americans had lost a submarine and an
aircraft during perilous short-range sigint missions. Their human
losses were already in double figures. By contrast, the British
were increasingly confident, having flown many missions
without incident. The lumbering RB-29 Washington aircraft of
the RAF's 192 Squadron regularly flew their routes around the
Baltic, and were often 'intercepted' by Soviet fighters, but were
never fired upon. This may have been because the British used
a small number of experienced and specialised units for forward
sigint collection who were dedicated to covert missions, working
under the direction of GCHQ. Equally it could have been sheer
good luck. However, in 1953 that luck was to change.
The first serious British 'flap' was the loss of an RAF Avro
Lincoln on 12 March 1953. The Lincoln was effectively an
improved version of the Lancaster bomber that had entered
service just as the Second World War ended. It saw active service
against insurgents in Malaya and Kenya during the 1950s, and
although it remained Britain's heavy bomber until the arrival
of the first V-bombers in 1955, a number were transferred to
intelligence duties. Some were allocated to 199 Squadron, the
radio warfare unit that operated out of RAF Watton. Armed
with a powerful carcinotron, they were capable of a formidable
barrage of jamming, and were often called on to disrupt the