Revealed: secret plot to steal a soviet jet from behind enemy lines

After 70 years the full story of the role played by the Royal Navy in a mission to salvage a state-of-the-art Soviet fighter jet can now be told.  Six months after the outbreak of the

conflict in 1950, Josef Stalin sent hundreds of his most advanced fighter jets, the MiG 15, to North Korea to aid his communist allies, who were losing the air war with US and British

forces.  Keeping Russia’s involvement hidden, the aircraft carried Korean markings while pilots wore local uniforms and were taught a few Korean phrases.  So effective were they in shooting

down American B29 bombers that British Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sir John Slessor, declared: “Not only is it faster than anything we are building today, but it is already being

produced in very large numbers. The Russians have a four-year lead over British development in respect of the vitally important interceptor fighter.”  A plan was hatched by the Allies to get

their hands on a jet so they could carry out an in-depth analysis.  But opportunities were scarce as Russia’s pilots were ordered to fly in pairs and never over the sea.  So when in July

1951 British airmen spotted the wreck of a crashed MiG 15 off the North Korean coast, a risky operation was launched.  A naval task force was assembled to snatch the jet from under the noses

of the North Koreans, code-named “Crown Jewels”. RUSSIAN ARMY DESTROY 'GHOST TOWN' FROM COLD WAR Commanded by Captain WLM Brown and headed by his ship, the frigate Cardigan Bay,

it also included the aircraft carrier Glory and a US landing craft with a crane attached.  The jet lay partially submerged on mudflats 100 miles behind enemy lines, and could only be reached

by a narrow 40-mile channel protected by North Korean shore batteries.  Reaching the crash site on July 22, a 50-strong party of naval ratings used buoys to raise the wreck then hoisted it

out of the water with the crane.  “They were very brave and worked as calmly as if they had been playing with their children on Margate Sands,” commented Captain Brown. As the mission was

completed they were spotted by a North Korean shore battery and Allied planes were scrambled to give cover.  Insights into the workings of the MiG allowed the Allies to devise tactics that

would bring them air superiority in Korea.