Shadow Flights: America's Secret Airwar Against the Soviet Union: A Cold War History [Paperback]

Curtis Peebles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2001

In the dark days of the Cold War the American military conducted a secret air war against the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. Flown by a handful of American crews, these photographic and intelligence gathering missions were a well-kept secret and unknown to the world at large. Initially, in the 1940s and 1950s, the Americans used converted bombers and transports to carry out these dangerous operations. The price of failure was high and unsuccessful missions were hushed up or reported as 'training accidents'. Later, the US developed the famed U-2 spyplane, an aircraft designed to fly higher than any other and thus ideal for the sinister world of espionage. The downing of Francis Gary Power's U-2 however blew the lid off the supersecret aerial war and heralded a new chapter in the history of the Cold War. Curtis Peebles, having investigated both American and Soviet sources, tackles this controversial issue in a cool and methodical manner, throwing light on a still secret and intriguing aspect of Super Power relations.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Peebles recounts in eye-opening detail the history of secret reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union in the 1950s--a breach of international law exposed by the U-2 incident of May 1960 and a potentially deadly chapter of the cold war. Such was the fear of a nuclear Pearl Harbor that Truman and Eisenhower both deemed those brazen violations of secrecy-shrouded Soviet territory a dire necessity. They began in earnest, Peebles states, in late 1952 with overflights of bomber bases in Siberia. The type of plane initially used was proven vulnerable to air defense after being shot up in a 1954 air battle, and so began development of the high-flying eye-in-the-sky that was code lettered "U" for "utility plane." The letter didn't fool the Soviets, however, and they tracked most of the U-2 missions. The advent of satellite photography obviated airplane-borne and balloon-borne cameras, but hardly the interest of military-aviation buffs, who will greatly appreciate the particulars Peebles reveals in this fully researched, dramatic, now-it-can-be-told tome. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Curtis Peebles is a writer and historian specialising in aviation. His other books include Dark Eagles and Watch the Skies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press (November 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891417680
• ISBN-13: 978-0891417682
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,854,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Before There Were Spy Satellites..., February 11, 2001

By 

Ron N. Butler (Powder Springs, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadow Flights: America's Secret Air War Against the Soviet Union (Hardcover)

Over the past ten years, much of the story of aerial spying against the Soviet Union by the U.S. and allies has been declassified. "Shadow Flights" is a concise, readable compendium of this material. Some of the book is a repeat of material in the author's "Dark Eagles" (also recommended), but the emphasis of "Shadow Flights" also includes operational factors and Cold War politics for a fuller picture. In particular, Dwight Eisenhower comes across as both more intelligent and more thoughtful of the consequences of overflights of the USSR than he is usually given credit for -- and much more so than most of his military and CIA subordinates.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Insightful Look into Cold War Aerial Surveillance, August 13, 2001

By 

D. Smith "former National Security Analyst" (Durham, NC, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadow Flights: America's Secret Air War Against the Soviet Union (Hardcover)

As in "Dark Eagles," Peebles again demonstrates in "Shadow Flights" an amazing amount of research and insight into the world of classified and black-project aviation during the Cold War. Unlike "Dark Eagles," "Shadow Flights" is a much more integrated read, but is no less informative. Peebles accurately and conscisely recounts the history of Cold War reconnaissance flights and methods in a manner that is interesting to both the informed and casual reader. In so doing, Peebles covers everything from the development history of the U-2 to the shootdown of a USAF C-130A, s/n 60528, over Soviet Armenia in September 1958, including enhanced Soviet gun camera photos of the doomed ELINT aircraft.

Though the book lacks the detailed minutae of "The Price of Vigilance," it also covers a much larger subject and does so superbly. Reading this book immediately before Norman Polmar's slightly more recent U-2 history, "Spyplane," I found Peeble's style to be more accomodating to the average reader, and "Shadow Flights" in general to be more informative and accurate.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, August 13, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Shadow Flights: America's Secret Air War Against the Soviet Union (Hardcover)

I am a great reader of war and cold war books and this is quite good.

The US needed intelligence on the Soviet Union. There was no way using traditional intelligence methods that she could do this. As such she developed air reconnaissance to a new degree.

The writer write very well about this development. He gives an great history of the development of these planes. I found it fascinating.

As too the political problems that emerged around these flights. The arguments for these missions that despite the large political cost that eventually occurred (as the result of Gary Powers capture showed) were worth paying.

You can feel what the pilots on the missions felt though their stories on the missions that they flew. I felt the excitement that the pilots must have felt on their trips.

I look forward to reading more from this writer.