Nuclear target?
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Nuclear target?
Well over thirty years have passed, so would this place have been on the target list? Or were they successful in masking its purpose? Or is the target list still secret?
BBC News - A Soviet missile base in Germany that spy planes never saw
BBC News - A Soviet missile base in Germany that spy planes never saw
Pretty sure there was an RAFG target folder...
Declassified CIA document on the SS-3 Shyster missiles in East Germany.
http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_000...0001264256.pdf
The title of the BBC report is a bit misleading. Aerial reconnaissance and satellite imagery of Vogelsang is highlighted in the following book.
Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA, and Cold War Aerial Espionage - Dino A. Brugioni - Google Books
http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_000...0001264256.pdf
The title of the BBC report is a bit misleading. Aerial reconnaissance and satellite imagery of Vogelsang is highlighted in the following book.
Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA, and Cold War Aerial Espionage - Dino A. Brugioni - Google Books
In August and September 1958, HUMINT reports indicated that the Soviet army's 72nd Engineer Brigade was constructing missile bases near the towns of Vogelsang and Furtesnberg-Havel, forty-three and fifty-two miles, respectively, north of Berlin. They immediately became high-priority targets for reconnaissance. In September and October a special covert aircraft with a 100-inch camera captured extensive construction under way at the installation, which became known in NATO circles as Vogelsang 4823. The Furstenberg-Havel area was beyond the range of the camera. At the time, the only missiles in the Soviet' arsenal capable of reacing the Thor bases in England were the SS-3 Shyster MRBM and the SS-6 ICBM. The increasing tensions between East and West were futher aggravated when Khrushchev announced that he planned a peace treaty with East Germany.
Additional reconnaissance in 1959 indicated three key structures at Vogelsang and later at Furstenberg-Havel, but no missiles. Communciations intelligence indicated that the Soviet 72nd Engineer Brigade, previously recorded as being at Kapustin Yar, the Soviets' main testing sites for MRBMs and IRBMs, had indeed been in East Germay. A defector, Col. Oleg Penkovsky, also indicated that there were missile brigades in East Germany. There were reports of rail fuel tankers there as well.
In a Joint Chiefs of Staff presentation before a House committee on January 13, 1960, General Twining reported "indications" of Shyster missiles in East Germany and noted tht National Intelligence Estimate 11-4-60 of December 1959 referred to "evidence" that nuclear missiles with a range of seven hundred nautical miles had been deployed in East Germany. The SS-3 deployment may have been a stopgap measure until the Soviets could deploy SS-4 and SS-5 missiles in the western USSR in 1961. I was the division chief responsible for the Warsaw Pact countries. When we received higher-resolution satellite images, a very competent analyst named Charles Tuten showed me photographic evidence that SS-3 missiles had probably been deployed in East Germany for a short period at the sites previously mentioned.
Additional reconnaissance in 1959 indicated three key structures at Vogelsang and later at Furstenberg-Havel, but no missiles. Communciations intelligence indicated that the Soviet 72nd Engineer Brigade, previously recorded as being at Kapustin Yar, the Soviets' main testing sites for MRBMs and IRBMs, had indeed been in East Germay. A defector, Col. Oleg Penkovsky, also indicated that there were missile brigades in East Germany. There were reports of rail fuel tankers there as well.
In a Joint Chiefs of Staff presentation before a House committee on January 13, 1960, General Twining reported "indications" of Shyster missiles in East Germany and noted tht National Intelligence Estimate 11-4-60 of December 1959 referred to "evidence" that nuclear missiles with a range of seven hundred nautical miles had been deployed in East Germany. The SS-3 deployment may have been a stopgap measure until the Soviets could deploy SS-4 and SS-5 missiles in the western USSR in 1961. I was the division chief responsible for the Warsaw Pact countries. When we received higher-resolution satellite images, a very competent analyst named Charles Tuten showed me photographic evidence that SS-3 missiles had probably been deployed in East Germany for a short period at the sites previously mentioned.
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From the self same BBC report:
Nothing to see here. Move along please.
But intelligence agencies in West Germany, the US, the UK and France had a good idea what was going on.
