Jay Honeck wrote:
3. Did word of the Soviet incursions into German air space ever leak
out at the time? ?I don't remember reading anything about this, back
then -- and you'd think it would have been big news.

Sigh, there were Soviet incursions into just about every part of
European airspace, Asian airspace, and American airspace.

They would turn around as soon as someone came out to greet them.

It was all a game and both sides played.

There were occasional pictures of Bear crews waving to the US fighters
published in the military oriented aviation mags; it was no secret.

Sure, those intercepts were all over the periodicals at the time --
but they were usually up near Alaska, or off the coast near Cuba.
Never, to my recollection, did we hear about any along the highly
sensitive, highly defended East/West German border -- as the OP
discusses.

What makes you think there is anything special about Germany?

Soviet Bloc aircraft routinely played the game with most of Western
Europe as well as Asia.

I tracked North Korean Migs playing the game on a regular basis while
in Korea.

Conversations with others who had been stationed in other places left
no doubt that it was the status quo around the world.

Soviet Bloc aircraft have been known to shadow airliners inbound to the
east coast out of the Atlantic to see how far they could get.

That would have been awfully big news, methinks.

All this was hardly a secret but neither was it big news.

You probably never heard about the time I directed the ROK Navy to
a North Korean patrol boat in South Korean waters, which the ROK
Navy promptly sunk either. Not a secret but who in the world would
care about the incident?

--
Jim Pennino

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