Came across this in the description for a new 1/72 plastic kit of the Percival Prentice on Hannants.co.uk;
Percival Pembroke “Cold War” These small military aircraft served as a transport and passenger aircraft, not only with the RAF but also in several NATO members´air forces and other European, African and Asian countries. One of the RAF´s transport units was 60 Squadron. During the Cold War, its Pembrokes flew between RAF Wildenrath in West Germany and West Berlin. During these ferry flights these aircraft carried out clandestine photo reconnaissance over the former DDR. One of our British contributors worked as an evaluator of photographic materials acquired by Pembrokes during these flights. After seeking permission from the British Ministry of Defence, he gave us the information and reference materials required to produce this unusual version of the Pembroke. The introduction of our kit is historic, as we are the first in the world to reveal the story of the Pembrokes´clandestine reconnaissance flights over the former DDR.
Reminds me of the Chipmunks being used as spyplanes for flying over East Berlin, and the Soviets letting them off because they were training aircraft!
By: 78to81 - 22nd April 2013 at 14:43
I was there (Gatow), 78-81, I could tell you but I would have to pull the trigger lol
By: A225HVY - 16th October 2005 at 10:02
Ag Cat
Got a copy signed by some of the last BRIXMIS guys….well worth a read. My step sister held her wedding reecption in the BRIXMIS bar in the HQ building in Berlin. There were some very interesting mementos there 😉 wonder what happend to them?? 😉
A225HVY
By: AgCat - 16th October 2005 at 06:13
BERLIN CHIPPIES
David – check out Tony Geraghty’s book “BRIXMIS – The Untold Story of Britain’s Most Daring Cold war Spy Mission” (Harper Collins 1996) – to get a handle on what the Chippies were doing in Berlin. They were not of limited use! The Chippies worked the Berlin Zone, the Pemmies the corridors between Berlin and West Germany.
By: David Burke - 15th October 2005 at 20:20
The Gatow flight Chipmunks were used to exercise our rights to the air corridor and fly the flag as such. They were and are of limited use for PR work . The use of RAF Canberra’s to probe the Soviet rocket facilities at Yapuskin Yar are quite well documented and an article appeared in AM not that long ago.
By: Atlantic1 - 15th October 2005 at 19:23
I know that there were camera apertures in the bellies 😉
Ours still has them, along with a few strange ‘protrusions’!
Tom.
By: A225HVY - 15th October 2005 at 17:40
I was at Wildparts when these flights were still taking part just before 60 disbanded and got rid of the old Pemmies, went on one flight and was never shown the front half!!
I know that there were camera apertures in the bellies 😉
Remember the old things taxying around with the brakes wheezing away….one taxies off runway and just appears to laydown on taxyway as undecarriage slowly collapses!!
A225HVY
By: Newforest - 15th October 2005 at 16:17
Why do you think so? I ask because most of the people that flew the missions, as well as those that authorised them, are still alive today, exposure could be embarrassing in some cases. Besides, the public domain has enough accessible records of nuke sniffer flights and lo-hi-lo alt PR flights to keep conspiricists happily busy for years. You won’t find much about singleton “penetrations” though, at least not for another 30 years or so.
I say ‘publicising’ meaning learning for the benefit of aviation enthusiasts and historians. I had no intention of providing any fodder for the conspiracists, they will find it anyway.
True but only if you have the time, and resources, to wade through several US databases matching a/c serials, unit numbers and flight records from one with “supposed” mission profiles and unit locations from others.
Not true as I have just finished reading ‘By Any Means Necessary’, the story of America’s Secret Air War. This provides very detailed information of the planes, crews, missions and the planning and strategy during the cold war. There is a summary of the crews and planes lost during those times which I think is a fitting memorial to those times. 🙂
By: LesB - 15th October 2005 at 15:17
I think the U.K. spy flights in the Cold War are a hidden secret which needs publicising . . .
Why do you think so? I ask because most of the people that flew the missions, as well as those that authorised them, are still alive today, exposure could be embarrassing in some cases. Besides, the public domain has enough accessible records of nuke sniffer flights and lo-hi-lo alt PR flights to keep conspiricists happily busy for years. You won’t find much about singleton “penetrations” though, at least not for another 30 years or so. :rolleyes:
. . .whereas the U.S. spy flights are very public knowledge.
True but only if you have the time, and resources, to wade through several US databases matching a/c serials, unit numbers and flight records from one with “supposed” mission profiles and unit locations from others.
By: Newforest - 15th October 2005 at 10:12
Great illumination!
I think the U.K. spy flights in the Cold War are a hidden secret which needs publicising whereas the U.S. spy flights are very public knowledge. Do not forget that this was war and many died as spies in the sky. 🙁
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October 15, 2005 at 9:05 am