After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the United States’ entry into World War II, the Americans asked Stalin to provide them with Soviet Far Eastern airfields for shuttle bombing of Japan and, if possible, to deploy a second front in East Asia. This was stated in an interview with Lenta.ru by Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Mikhail Suprun.
But Stalin responded to the USA with a categorical refusal, since this would inevitably lead to the beginning of a war between the USSR and Japan. Therefore, American pilots who were forced to land on Soviet territory were subject to internment.
As Suprun explained, the opening of the air route “Alsib” in 1942 proved the possibility of cooperation between the USSR and the USA in the air in the Far East, and the Western allies of the anti-Hitler coalition made a real attempt to organize such cooperation in Europe during the preparation for the first meeting of the “Big Three” in Tehran.
In October-November 1943, at the Moscow and Tehran conferences, which with the opening of the second front in Europe marked a fundamental change in the strategy of the anti-Hitler coalition, the American side put forward the idea of shuttle flights to the USSR from the territory of Great Britain and Italy.
During the discussion of this proposal, the commander of the US Air Force, General Henry Arnold, taking into account the experience of Soviet-American cooperation on the Alsib, offered the USSR up to 400 of the most advanced bombers under Lend-Lease, which would be flown by Soviet pilots who, like those in Alaska, had undergone training in the USA. As a result, Stalin agreed to provide Soviet airfields in Ukraine, in the Poltava region, for the US Air Force’s shuttle operations, but categorically refused to send Soviet pilots for training in the United States.
“Baseball” with “Uncle Joe”
As the source of Lenta.ru explained, Stalin also refused the American proposal to deploy the latest air defense system with long-range radars at Soviet airfields. Suprun suggested that this may be another reason why the original name of Operation Baseball was changed to Frantic Joe. But since this name was clearly ironic towards Stalin, who was called Uncle Joe in the US, the operation was eventually given its abbreviated name, Frantic.
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Answering a question about the relationship between Soviet and American military personnel during Operation Frantic, the historian noted that until August 1944 they were comradely, although with a degree of caution.
By this time, our Western allies had opened a second front in Normandy, and Soviet troops were successfully advancing in Belarus and Karelia. Pilots from both countries were closely following the news from the front, celebrating their joint victories.
“The Americans showed off their equipment at airfields without hindrance, providing the USSR with radars, anti-radar systems, and even their super-secret Norden bombsight,” the scientist said. “Meanwhile, orders were already in effect in Soviet units that strictly limited communication with foreigners.”
The political situation could not help but affect relations between people.
With the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, our allies in the anti-Hitler coalition tried to use airfields in Ukraine to supply the Polish Home Armywhich Stalin really didn’t like.
Joseph Stalin
Photo: RIA Novosti
In addition, the Soviet side often disagreed with the choice of targets for Allied air strikes, especially in those regions that the Red Army was approaching during its offensive.
According to the historian, as a result, tension, suspicion, and spy mania increased in relations between pilots and technicians of our countries from August 1944.
Cases of Soviet anti-aircraft gunners firing on American aircraft have become more frequent
Such mistakes with “friendly fire” were made not only by ground air defense services, but also by Soviet fighter pilots, citing the violation of corridors, altitudes and time windows by the Americans. “Such mistakes were often caused by ignorance of the language, inconsistency of the frequencies of the homing beacons, and the desire to play it safe,” Suprun summed up. As a result, all these factors led to the curtailment of the American Air Force mission on the territory of the Soviet Union.
Operation Frantic was a series of shuttle sorties by US bomber aircraft during World War II (spring–fall 1944) from air bases in Great Britain and southern Italy with refueling and maintenance at three Soviet airfields in the USSR (Poltava, Pyriatyn, Mirgorod). From there, the aircraft carried out bombing raids on Hungary, Romania, and Germany en route to their bases in southern and western Europe.
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