Photo courtesy of The Cold War Museum
"On May 1, 1960 - the traditional May Day holiday - an American U-2 spyplane flew high above the Soviet Union photographing strategic targets. It was the twenty-fourth U-2 mission over the USSR since the first overflight almost four years earlier. The pilot of this U-2 was thirty-year-old Francis Gary Powers. A former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, Powers was the most experienced U-2 pilot in the spyplane program with about six hundred hours at the controls of a U-2. He was also one of the most respected spyplane pilots, for his airmanship and for his integrity.
"The calm sky more than seventy thousand feet above the USSR, far above the altitude of any Soviet fighter, was suddenly ripped apart as a surface-to-air missile detonated near Powers' aircraft. Heavily damaged, the plane fell out of control. Unable to use his ejection seat, with great difficulty Powers bailed out of the crippled aircraft as it spun towards earth. He landed safely and was soon captured and flown to Moscow.
"The shootdown of the U-2 piloted by Powers had a spectacular impact on the Cold War. In the late 1950s, the United States, under President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the USSR, under Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev, had been moving toward closer relations. Following a successful summit meeting of the two superpower leaders in Geneva in July 1955, there was some thawing of the Cold War. Khrushchev visited the United States in September 1959, seeing Congress and Iowa cornfields and meeting stars on a Hollywood movie set. He invited Eisenhower, his children and grandchildren to visit the Soviet Union."
President Eisenhower and Premier Khrushchev, 1959.
Photo courtesy of LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
"This superpower warming ended abruptly with the Powers shootdown. American cover stories about a weather reconnaissance plane straying off course were soon revealed to be boldfaced lies. Khrushchev himself went to New York to denounce the overflights at the United Nations. Powers was put on trial and found guilty of spying. Eisenhower, poorly served by the Central Intelligence Agency in the affair, personally took responsibility. The long-planned summit meeting in Paris in mid-May was a disaster as Khrushchev demanded an apology from the president.
"The relevations that followed about the overflights were both a triumph and an embarrassment for the Soviet Union: One of the acclaimed American spyplanes had been shot down, but for almost four years - since July 4, 1956 - the U-2s had overflown Soviet territory with impunity.
"The twenty-three successful overflights had been vital to the U.S. national security. Penetrating the "iron curtain" that had descended over the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states, the U-2 provided explicit intelligence of the Soviet manned bomber program and then of its intercontinental ballistic missile program. Further, strategic targets that had been known only from German maps of the early 1940s and even older documentation could be located with accuracy.
"In "Operation Overflight", Francis Gary Powers provided un-equaled insights into the U-2 program, the training of U-2 pilots, and of spyplane missions - over the USSR as well as over the Middle East and even certain "friendly" countries. His descriptions are vivid and his writing style engrossing.
"This book is a significant contribution to the history of aviation."
With very grateful thanks to Norman Polmar (Author, "Spyplane: The U-2 History Declassified") who has kindly let me use the Foreword that he wrote for Francis Gary Powers' book.
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FRANCIS GARY POWERS - THE U-2 INCIDENT
I've created seven different folders to tell the story.
The first folder shows various locations from Francis Gary Powers' early life, where he took his first airplane ride, where he went to college and where he did basic training in the United States Air Force.
The second folder concerns the build-up to the U-2 Incident, when Powers was based in Turkey.
The third folder deals with the fateful flight on 1 May 1960.
The fourth folder deals with Francis Gary Powers' capture, arrest and trial.
The fifth folder deals with life in prison at Vladimir, Russia.
The sixth folder details what happened after Francis Gary Powers was freed by the Russians.
The seventh, and last, folder talks about Francis Gary Powers' new life, his new family, and new jobs, up to his untimely death.
I have used
"OPERATION OVERFLIGHT - A MEMOIR OF THE U-2 INCIDENT" written by Francis Gary Powers (with Curt Gentry), as a basis for this project. Where I have copied the text exactly from the book, it will be in "quotation marks". Where I have written events in my own words, it will be based on comments in the aforementioned book.
With many thanks to
Potomac Books, Inc (formerly Brassey's, Inc) for permission to use "Operation Overflight", which was published in the United States. Copyright 2004 Brasseys', Inc..
With special thanks to Gary Powers Jr of the
Cold War Museum for the use of images and for his support during this project.
According to his son, when asked how high he was when flying on May 1, 1960,
Powers would often reply,
"not high enough"
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You've clearly put a lot of work into it, and it's a fascinating read. All the pictures really bring the story to life too.
