Catalina affair

The Catalina affair (Template:Langx) was a military confrontation and Cold War-era diplomatic crisis in June 1952, in which Soviet Air Force fighter jets shot down two Swedish aircraft over international waters in the Baltic Sea.

The first aircraft to be shot down was an unarmed Swedish Air Force Tp 79, a derivative of the Douglas DC-3, carrying out radio and radar signals intelligence-gathering for the National Defence Radio Establishment (Försvarets radioanstalt, FRA). None of the crew of eight survived.

The second aircraft to be shot down was a Swedish Air Force Tp 47, a Catalina flying boat, involved in the search and rescue operation for the missing DC-3. The Catalina's crew of seven were saved.

The Soviet Union publicly denied involvement until its dissolution in 1991. Both aircraft were located in 2003; the DC-3 was salvaged.

Aircraft and crew

DC-3

The first aircraft involved was a Swedish Air Force Douglas DC-3A-360 Skytrain,<ref name="Magnusson 2007, p. 9"/> a military transport derivative of the DC-3 known in Swedish service as Tp 79. It carried the serial number 79001.

The aircraft was manufactured in 1943 with original US serial number 42-5694, and was delivered to USAAF 15th Troop Carrier Squadron (61st Troop Carrier Group). It saw action in northern Africa before being stationed at RAF Barkston Heath. It was flown on 5 February 1946, from Orly Air Base via Hanau Army Airfield to Bromma and was registered as SE-APZ on 18 May 1946 as a civil aircraft to Skandinaviska Aero AB.<ref>Magnusson 2007, pp. 9, 46</ref><ref name="RZJets">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File:DC-3 wreck at the Swedish Air Force Museum (starboard propeller and front).jpg

DC-3 wreckage exhibited at the Swedish Air Force Museum

On 13 June 1952, it disappeared east of the isle of Gotska Sandön while carrying out signals intelligence-gathering operations for FRA.<ref name="Magnusson 2007, p. 11">Magnusson 2007, p. 11</ref> The aircraft was lost with its entire crew of eight in the incident. Three of the eight crew members were military personnel from the Swedish Air Force, and the other five were civilian signals intelligence (SIGINT) operators from the FRA.<ref>Magnusson 2007, pp. 42–43</ref>

Catalina

File:Catalina TP 47 Mattias B.JPG

Tp 47 Canso (Catalina) at the Swedish Air Force Museum

Three days after the initial incident, on 16 June 1952, two Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina flying boats, known in Swedish service as Tp 47, searched for the DC-3 north of Estonia. One of the aircraft, carrying airframe serial No. 47002,<ref name="Magnusson 2007, p. 11"/> was shot down by Soviet aircraft, but the crew of seven ditched near the West German freighter Münsterland and were rescued.<ref name="BBC">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="SwedishAirForceMuseum1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ASN19520616-1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Aftermath

Sweden maintained for nearly 40 years that the DC-3 was undertaking a navigation training flight.<ref name="Grisell 2007, p. 3">Grisell 2007, p. 3</ref>

Only after pressure from crewmembers' families<ref name="Almeberg2008">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> did Swedish authorities confirm that the DC-3 was equipped with British equipment and had been conducting surveillance for NATO.<ref name="Lovgren2003">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1991, General Template:Ill, a colonel of the Soviet Air Forces in the early 1950s, admitted he had ordered the DC-3 shot down in 1952 by scrambling a MiG-15bis to intercept it.<ref name="Magnusson 2007, p. 12">Magnusson 2007, p. 12</ref>

Recovery

On 10 June 2003, airline captain and former Swedish Air Force pilot Anders Jallai and historian Carl Douglas with the Swedish company Marin Mätteknik AB found the remains of the downed DC-3 by using sonar at Template:Cvt depth.<ref name="Magnusson 2007, p. 9"/><ref name="Lovgren2003"/><ref>FRA 2003, p. 3</ref><ref name="DN2003">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After 52 years, the remains of the DC-3 were lifted to the surface on 19 March 2004. Debris from the area was also recovered by freeze dredging—Template:Cvt of surrounding sediment was frozen and lifted together with the object on and in it.<ref name="FriGeo">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The wreck was transferred to Muskö Naval Base for investigation and preservation; it was finally put on display at the Swedish Air Force Museum, Linköping on 13 May 2009.<ref name="SwedishAirForceMuseum2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A 1:12 scale model of 79001 was loaned to the Air Force Museum on 5 May 2009.<ref name="ÖSF2009">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Conclusion

Bullet holes on 79001 showed that the DC-3 was shot down by a MiG-15bis fighter. The exact splashdown time was also determined, as one of the clocks in the cockpit had stopped at 11:28:40 CET.<ref>Magnusson 2007, p. 137</ref> The remains of four of the eight-man crew have been found and positively identified.<ref>Holmlund 2008, pp. 5–9</ref>

File:Galär kyrk 2009c.jpg

Memorial stone to the fallen crew at Galärvarvskyrkogården in Stockholm

See also

• "Whiskey on the rocks"

References

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Further reading

• Agrell, Wilhelm (2021). Catalinaaffären. Historiska Media.

External links

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