Letter from Campbell to Davis

Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Campbell, Air Officer Commanding, 1 Air Division, Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) sent a letter to T. C. Davis, Canadian Ambassador to West Germany, describing an incident that occurred the week before involving four RCAF pilots. While participating in a mid-afternoon (13:40 Zulu Time) NATO exercise over West Germany on July 29, four RCAF aircraft were directed by the American Mobile Control Centre to intercept an “unidentified radar plot”. Due to an effect colloquially known as “radar fade”, the location of the Canadian fighters was temporarily lost. When the RCAF aircraft were once again located, they were 30 miles east of the Czechoslovakian border. 

The US Air Force (USAF) radar site at Holzhausen, Germany, immediately recalled the fighters. The Canadian aircraft crossed back over the Iron Curtain without incident. Still, the RCAF considered this use of their aircraft by the Americans to be totally unacceptable, as an understanding had already been reached that Canadian fighters were not to be used “to intercept for identification purposes over occupied Germany”. 

On August 18, two copies of this letter were forwarded by the Canadian Embassy in Bonn to the Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs in Ottawa (CDEX01212). One copy was to be forwarded to the Canadian Embassy in Prague in the event that Czech authorities caught wind of the incident and required diplomatic soothing. 

Tim Sayle previously wrote about this event in the Canada Declassified newsletter.