In the years before
the construction of the Berlin Wall, there were frequent incidents of
territorial violations on both sides of the Iron Curtain. A great number of
these violations occurred in Germany, due to the close promixity of the German
Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany. It was recorded that on
average two NATO aircraft would stray across the border violating East German
airspace each month. In contrast to this, Soviet military aircraft would stray
across the border into West Germany at a much greater frequency than their NATO
adversaries. In a four week period alone in late August and early September,
there were 38 violations of West Germany's airspace by Soviet pilots. Some
airspace violations were deliberate attempts to provoke the West into
responding and testing their resolve to launch and intercept the intruders and
yet others were accidental caused by the inherent difficulty of determining the
border line of East and West from the air.
Due to the Potsdam
Agreement and later the Four Powers Agreement, West German military elements
were not allowed to enter West Berlin. Only military forces of the victorious
former western allies were permitted to enter West Berlin. This actually
applied to not only West German military forces but also West German civil
airliners and aviation services as they would have to cross the territory of
the German Democratic Republic. In the aviation realm, the only authorized
entry corridors into West Berlin across East German territory were three air
corridors. One of these corridors was to be flown from Bremen or Hamburg then
to Tegel Airport in the French sector of West Berlin. This corridor was the
Northern Corridor. The Central Corridor consisted of Hanover, Düsseldorf, Köln
or Bonn before entering Gatow in the British sector of West Berlin. The final
corridor or Southern Corridor could be flown from Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich
or Nuremberg before flying into Tempelhof Airport in the American sector of
West Berlin.
Cold War tensions
greatly intensified with the Berlin Crisis of 1961 when Soviet Premier Nikita
Khrushchev initiated a series of threats towards the Western Allies. His goal
was to force the western Allies and their military forces out of Berlin and
thus effectively end the Allied presence deep in the heart of Communist
territory. On Saturday 12 August 1961, members of the East German Volkspolizei
and soldiers of the Nationale Volksarmee began tearing up roads and emplacing
barriers around West Berlin as they began construction of the Berlin Wall.
During this period, military forces of the Soviet Union were present as they
faced off against Allied military forces to prevent intervention in their
activities. This action immediately caused a new wave of difficulties in
relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic
Republic. A month later with the world still holding its breath with the
situation in Berlin, there would be yet another incident that could potentially
set off a war in Germany.
The date was 14
September 1961 a month after the construction of the Berlin Wall, and NATO
military planners mobilized military forces of France, Belgium, Denmark, the
Netherlands and West Germany for a military exercise it called Exercise
Checkmate. The West German Luftwaffe's Jagdbombergeschwader 32 or '32nd Fighter
Bomber Wing' stationed at Lechfeld Airbase near Augsburg, West Germany was to
send fighter bombers on a triangular flight path from Würzburg to Laon, and
Memmingen before returning to base. Two Republic F-84F Thunderstreak fighter
bombers flown by Feldwebel Peter Pfefferkorn and Stabsunteroffizier Hans Eberl
took off from Lechfeld and proceeded on the assigned flight course. Somewhere
along this route, Pfefferkorn's magnetic compass malfunctioned, misreading his
actual position by between 40 to 60 degrees. Additional problems were
encountered by a stronger westerly wind than had been reported by weather
reports. The pilots began so disoriented while navigating their flight course
that the misidentified Liège, Belgium for Reims, France.
The pilots were soon
tracked by Allied radar near the town of Warburg in southern Westphalia heading
east towards the Inner German Border and the town of Königs Wusterhausen near
Berlin. In the process of communicating with one another and trying to pinpoint
their exact location, the disoriented pilots missed radio calls from Allied
radar stations attempting to notify them of the impending violation of East
German airspace. It wasn't until reaching a position north of Leipzig, that the
pilots initiated a mayday call which was picked up by French controllers at the
Tegel Airport in West Berlin. Immediately the controller authorized the
Luftwaffe pilots permission to land their planes at the airports facilities.
The planes had gone unnoticed by American controllers at Tempelhof Airport due
to a focus on a Pan Am Airlines DC-6 operating in the Southern Air Corridor.
When American
controllers picked up the pair of West German aircraft in East Germany, the
controllers noted a large force of Soviet fighter aircraft pursuing them all
but unsuccessfully. In risk of a potential shoot down and inciting an
international incident, the American controller radioed to both pilots ordering
them not to turn around and heading back into the intercepting Soviet force but
to continue heading for West Berlin. The decision was made for the pilots to
land at Tegel Airport in the French zone of West Berlin rather than Tempelhof
in the American zone because Tegel had a longer runway than Tempelhof and was
better suited for accommodating jet aircraft. Following the orders of the
American controller at Tempelhof, the pilots continued on their course and were
able to locate a cloud bank. Utilizing the heavy cloud cover, the aircraft
evaded their pursuers and successfully landed at Tegel without further
incident.
With both Luftwaffe
F-84s secured upon landing at Tegel, the French authorities began the process
of justifying their actions to the Soviets in East Berlin stating that
technical difficulties required both aircraft to make an emergency landing at
the airport. As a result, West German Minister of Defense Franz-Josef Strauß in
accordance with West Germany's standing foreign policy of not acknowledging the
German Democratic Republic, issued an apology to Soviet representatives in West
Germany's capital of Bonn. The Soviet response was initially mulled before they
sent a response protesting what it stated was West German provocation and
threatened to shoot down any aircraft that violated East German airspace in any
future incidents.
Immediately following the
incident, Defense Minister Strauß and Luftwaffe Inspector General Josef
Kammhuber had the commanding officer of Jagdgeschwader 32 transferred and they
initiated a policy where any commander who's aircraft violated international
borders would be immediately relieved of their commands and replaced. Both
pilots that had partaken in the incident Feldwebel Peter Pfefferkorn and
Stabsunteroffizier Hans Eberl were grounded and their flight status cancelled.
Both pilots were then transferred to a Luftwaffe ground unit at Lechfeld.
As for the two
Luftwaffe F-84s, upon their arrival at Tegel Airport they were placed in
secured hangars out of view and access to the aircraft was severly restricted.
Members of the media were forbidden to take pictures of the aircraft.
Initially, it was believed that the two fighters were smuggled out of West
Berlin having had their Luftwaffe schemes stripped from the fuselage of each
aircraft and being repainted in United States Air Force livery before being
flown from Tegel and returned to the Luftwaffe in West Germany. Another account
stated that both aircraft had been disassembled by American crews and flown
back to West Germany in American transports piece by piece. This theory was
substantiated by the arrival of two United States Air Force Douglas C-124
Globemaster transports at Tegel Airport from Rhein Main airbase near Frankfurt
am Main.
In reality, the French authorities in the French sector of West Berlin ordered that the two West German fighters remain hidden at Tegel and that they 'disappear'. Both aircraft were then buried on the grounds of Tegel Airport. In the years following the burial of the two fighter planes, the incident was generally forgotten and the Cold War carried on. Lost and for the most part forgotten it wasn't until years later that the aircraft were accidentally rediscovered during expansion and upgrade programs to Tegel Airport during the late 1970s.
In reality, the French authorities in the French sector of West Berlin ordered that the two West German fighters remain hidden at Tegel and that they 'disappear'. Both aircraft were then buried on the grounds of Tegel Airport. In the years following the burial of the two fighter planes, the incident was generally forgotten and the Cold War carried on. Lost and for the most part forgotten it wasn't until years later that the aircraft were accidentally rediscovered during expansion and upgrade programs to Tegel Airport during the late 1970s.
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