THE BRITISH U-2 PILOTS – THEIR PERSONAL STORIES

This is the third time that I have tackled the story of the RAF pilots who flew the U-2 from 1958 to 1960. The first time was here. The second time was here, including a link to the full article, as it appeared in Journal 77 of the RAF Historical Society (RAFHS).

The RAFHS subsequently invited me to make a presentation at its Annual General Meeting, which took place last September in the RAF Club in London. For this, I decided to concentrate on the personal recollections of those pilots. I gathered these from my own interviews with them; their unpublished memoirs; one previously-published article(1); and their reports to the MOD in London, as found in the declassified files in the UK National Archives (2).

This presentation has now been published by the RAFHS in Journal 79. Here is a link to the article. Enjoy!

RAF Historical Society talk to AGM Sep21 layout

1. “Spy Flights of the Cold War” by Paul Lashmar, Sutton Publishing, 1996
2. AIR40/2734 through 2755