Holedigger wrote:
Interesting, would that be considered reconnaissance or spying?
Rian J @ Hyperscale said,
"Also used in the first ELINT missions. . .
In 1946, Yugoslavian Yak 3's shot down two USAF C-47 courier planes that had strayed into Yugoslavian airspace due to bad weather on a flight from Austria to Rome. The first crew crash landed safely the second crew was killed. Tensions with Tito's communist government were high. The USAF wanted to know how the Yugoslavs could detect, intercept and shoot down the C-47's in bad weather. They outfitted two B-17's
left over from the 303's mapping missions with radar detection devices and flew ferret missions just outside of Yugoslavian airspace. The unit was the 7499th Group. The Yugoslavs graciously lit up their radar stations and the B-17 Ferrets discovered the distinctive 570 MHz signals of a World War II German Würzburg radar, giving the ferrets a very nice picture of Yugoslavian air defenses, mainly . The ferrets then flew 3-4 missions a week along Soviet occupied territories mapping the Soviet radar capabilities and preparing corridors for air attacks in the event of war with the Soviet Union. During the Berlin Air Lift, the 7499th B-17's flew night mission along the Berlin corridor, masquerading as C-54's. They would arrive at Berlin and declare a landing gear problem and not land, returning to base, all the while probing Soviet radar along the corridor. It was the beginning of a long cold war game of cat and mouse with the Ruskies..."
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