Hello Everyone,
I hope this question is not too far afield for this forum. (Please let me know if it is).
I was reading an article about the Soviet engineering of the Tu-4 (or reverse engineering of the B-29). The article was vague about how they acquired the B-29, stating simply that it had been forced to land in the Soviet east. This event must be lore to some of you? Can anyone fill me in?
Thanks again,
Mark
Here is what I found by typing Tu-4 in Google:
"Tu-4 Soviet Copy of the B-29
by Joe Baugher (Joseph.F.Baugher@att.com)
On July 29, 1944, B-29-5-BW serial number 42-6256 commanded by Capt. Howard R. Jarrel was damaged by flak during a raid on the Showa steel works at Anshan in Manchuria. Unable to make the trip back to its base around Chengtu in China, the crew decided to divert to Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. Since the Soviet Union was not at war with Japan at the time, both the aircraft and Capt. Jarrel’s crew were interned.
On August 20, 1944, during a raid on Yawata staged out of the Chengtu bases, B-29A-1-BN 42-93829 was forced to divert to the Soviet Union. It crashed in the foothills of Sikhote Alin Range east of Khabarovsk after the crew baled out. The crew was interned.
On the night of November 10/11, 1944, B-29 42-6365 was damaged during a raid against Omura on Kyushu and was forced to divert to Vladivostok. It was followed on November 21 by 42-6358. Again, both crews and both aircraft were interned.
The Soviets were now holding three intact B-29s and four B-29 crews. In January of 1945, it was arranged by the Soviets for these four crews to “escape” to the West via Teheran, but their B-29s remained behind."
The full article is here: http://aeroweb.lucia.it/~agretch/RAFAQ/Tu-4.html
Hope this helps
B.
Yep, that helps a lot.
Interesting story, eh? I wonder what “interned” means and why it was arranged for them to “escape to the West”, since we were allies with the Soviets. Was this a diplomatic move on the part of the Soviets to avoid problems with Japan?
I’ll look at the link you sent. Thanks a lot, B.
Intern in this case means to imprison. At this time in the war, Russia was neutral to the war against Japan. Any one wandering into the country was arrested, but not usually put in a prison camp, for violating the country’s borders. The escape was arranged because the Russians were our allies, but they didn’t want to give the Japanese an excuse for more armed conflict while they were fighting the Germans. Damaged bombers in Europe that couldn’t make it back to base, usually tried to get to Switzerland for the safety of being interned, and usually getting out of the war.
Thanks, Wayne. Things seem to have worked out well for the Soviets on this one.
Take care,
Mark