ICM: In 1965 the Mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt, announced that he was going to hold a Bundestag meeting in Berlin. Since Berlin was not part of the FDR (West Germany), this incensed the Russians. They put out a NOTAM stating that they intended to have a major exercise with the forces of the DDR (East Germany) and for flight safety reasons they were going to close the bottom 5,000 ft of the corridors for their ground attack aircraft. The Brits, the French and the Americans asked for 5,000 ft to be added to the top of the corridors (10,000 ft upper limit was laid down in the Potsdam agreement in 1945). "Niet" said the Russians so it was decided to ignore the NOTAM and to exercise our rights by flying up and down the corridors at the minimum possible level (2,500 ft on one of the corridors). 2 RAF Argosys, 2 USAF C-130s and 2 French Noratlas's would be involved. (In the end, the French stayed on the ground).
06.04.65. Got called out from standby. XR136 with Stan Brecken to Gutersloh. Briefed on arrival. Set out down the centre corridor at about 3,000 ft. Crossed the border at HLZ in cloud. Berlin Centre advised "fast moving, height unknown" which eventually was "6 o'clock, 100 yards". Popped out of cloud and their on my (right) wingtip was a Russian MIG-19 with large red star and the number 30 on the nose. I got Stan's attention. He put full power on and that got us about another 11 knots!!!! Our friend went through the intercept procedure. We declined to follow him and he broke off at the Berlin CTZ boundary. Landed Gatow, debriefed back to Gutersloh
07.04.65 We got to Gatow without being intercepted but when we got there a large flying display was in progress. MIG-19s, MIG-21s, SU-7s and YAK-28s planting sonic booms on Willy's Bundestag meeting which broke up in some disorder. When we were starting engines at Gatow, a SU-7 came across the airfield very, very low and flew past below our cockpit windows. He then pulled up and twinkle-rolled into East Germany. He was obviously having a wonderful day!
08.04.65 XR139 with Dennis Burles. Crossed at HLZ and got intercepted by MIG-19 number 10. This time he had a white missile on each side which was a bit of a worry for a time. He followed us right down a PAR approach into Gatow and eventually broke off into the East at 700 ft.
10.04.65. XR133. No intercepts. Russians had proved their point and we all went home next day.
Their were several flippant conversations about what defensive measures we could take. One idea was to load a couple of tons of gravel chippings in the freight bay. Next time Chummy was at 6 o'clock in cloud, open clam shell doors and start shovelling gravel down his intake. Another idea was to mount a 105 mm howitzer on an MSP and show him what a gun really looked like. No such attempts were made! Incidentally, we were all also Viscount trained.