Coming soon: Secret Mission

In 1948 Wiesbaden Air Base, or Lindsey Air Station, near the town of Wiesbaden on the river Rhine, was a hub supporting the Berlin Airlift “Operation Vittles” with around-the-clock flights to Tempelhof Airport. Douglas C-47 Skytrains and Douglas C-54 Skymasters of the 60th Troop Carrier Group flew missions daily to Tempelhof in the beleaguered city of Berlin. At that time Wiesbaden also became a central base from which the United States Air Force in Europe (USAFE, with HQ at Wiesbaden Air Base) conducted many reconnaissance and spy flights with converted B-29 bombers and C-54, C-118 and C-130 transport aircraft. They were used for flights along the Eastern European borders and in the Berlin air corridors. Later, dedicated reconnaissance jet planes were used, like supersonic North American RF-100s, high flying Lockheed U-2s and – from nearby Rhein-Main Air Base – long-winged RB-57s They peered and sniffed for Soviet military activities, radar stations, air bases and naval bases, and collected photographic and electronic information and were used in cloak and dagger overflight programs.

Secret Mission tells the tale of the secretive reconnaissance units assigned to the United States Air Forces in Europe that flew covert reconnaissance aircraft out of Wiesbaden and Rhein-Main during the Cold War.

Author: Jan van Waarde
Expected: December 2023