Grostenquin France

The Russian Incidents

We have been able to accumulate some detail pertaining to aircraft of NATO forces that became "Casualties of the Cold War". It is doubtful that the detail provided below is 100% comprehensive, but it does manage to provide some information on the occurrences that took place in the area that would have been "close enough to be concerned" for the RCAF.

Comments by Maurice Seymour - A little bit of history, which somehow has been overlooked or forgotten concerning 2 (F) Wing, Grostenquin. In March 1953, an American F-84 and an RAF Lincoln were shot down by Russian MIG-15's after the NATO aircraft strayed off of their flight plan. The only operational aircraft capable of combat with Russian MIG-15's were the F-86's. The USAF had a number of squadrons in England, however we, the RCAF had the only operational F-86's in Europe. The USAF were not ready to deploy their F-86's to Europe and NATO ordered the RCAF to supply aircraft to await the arrival of the Americans. As a result, 421 Squadron with eight aircraft was ordered to fly to Furstenfeldbruck airbase, outside of Munich and to literally hold the fort until the Americans arrived from England. The RCAF ground crew were flown to Furstenfeldbruk by a Bristol Freighter. On our arrival in Furstenfeldbruck we surprised and shocked many of the USAF with our aircraft and our combat ready status. We stayed there about three or four days and returned to GT after the USAF F-86's arrived. I don't believe we flew any combat missions. Our role was to let the Russians know that we were there and ready. As a side note, I recall the USAF, when they arrived had beautiful looking Sabres. Clean, shiny and with about three-hundred ground crew for 12 aircraft. They even had men assigned to clean windshields. Our Sabres were sooty, but operational and we only had tweve ground crew. Oh well. On reflection it was a proud moment. Compare that to to-days Armed Forces.

Comments by Alex Johnson - The political situation between "east vs west" resulted in a TD trip to Furstenfeldbruck which was close to the Iron Curtain in March 1953. I recall that we were there for some time to patrol the Iron Curtain because the Russians had shot down a couple of aircraft. The RCAF, at that time, were the only Air Force with aircraft that could stand up to the Russian made MiG. We eventually returned to Grostenquin after the USAF brought in their F-86 Sabres. This was an interesting trip for me as I managed to visit the German concentration camp at Dachau which was relatively close to Furstenfeldbruck. The year was 1953 - just eight years after the end of World War II.