Lancaster found

[blazer91]

while looking at Bill's site, I looked for reference info on Wiki and came across an interesting chapter in the Cold War which I had known about and will share here;
I have a neighbour (later a Wing Commander at CFB Winnipeg) who was part of the "Apex Rocket Program" that filmed Soviet drift stations in the Arctic.
He was quoted in Canadian Military Journal Vol 9, no. 1 on their mission which succeeded in photographing Soviet drift station NP-3 in 1954, then there is a story about a later "Apex Rocket" mission in 1958 which became a major intelligence coup, as detailed here;

from wiki accidents 55-59

"Circa early May 1958
A Tupolev Tu-16 is forced down on an ice runway at Soviet North Pole drift station Severnyy Polyus-6, (North Pole) NP-6, where it is discovered and photographed by a RCAF Avro Lancaster of No. 408 Squadron on an Apex Rocket reconnaissance sortie, the first detailed images of the design to be made by the West. Additional photo missions find the Soviets dismantling the bomber, that its starboard main gear was missing, and that an engine had visible damage.[170]"

These mighty Lancs were flying out of RCAF Station Rockcliffe on photo recon missions and the strip is pretty short. I lived in what was then called CFB Rockcliffe (Ottawa North) from 1975 on and all that remained of those glory years were the old WW11 era hangers housing the National Aeronautical Collection which became the The Canada Aviation and Space Museum when a modern bldg was finally built.
I will always remember touring the "Collection" in those old hangers, not the same in the new bldg.
Jim

p.s. should note that CFB Rockcliffe is sadly no more, closed down and the last PMQs razed last year. Went for a walk thru there, just the streets left and now a very valuable chunk of beautiful Ottawa real estate.
I was too young to remember much of Germany but growing up on the Base in Petawawa and Rockcliffe sure was great.

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