The kidnapping of the newest American helicopter AN-1G "Hugh Cobra" stands apart among these special operations. It gave a new impetus to the development of the domestic helicopter industry and made it possible to successfully modernize the Strela-2M portable anti-aircraft missile system, which became a real headache for the Americans in Vietnam. Although … officially, nothing of the kind happened at all, and the leak of information about the most mysterious operation of the Soviet special services occurred only after some of its participants, before their death, decided to talk about the exploits of their youth.
Test site for new weapons
Back in 1967, Vietnam was in the midst of a fratricidal civil war. The communist North was supported by China and the USSR, and the government of South Vietnam relied on the help of the United States, which brought its own armed forces into the country.
In fact, the territory of this country has become a site for testing new types of weapons and tactics of fundamentally new military operations, one of which was the Americans' infamous "carpet bombing".
It is no secret to anyone that the fighters of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam went on the offensive after receiving new batches of Soviet and Chinese weapons, and the American paratroopers helped the Saigon army to fight back. Attack helicopters "Iroquois" inflicted accented strikes on the places of concentration of the Viet Cong guerrillas, but were very vulnerable to the Soviet MANPADS "Strela-2".
Percussion indestructible "Super Cobras"
Everything changed on New Year's Eve 1968. The powerful offensive launched by North Vietnam on American military bases literally drowned in blood. The reason for this was the newest American helicopters AN-1G "Hugh Cobra", which had just arrived from the United States the day before.
They had the best armor protection, were extremely maneuverable and easily dodged Arrow attacks, and the latest weapon systems made the Super Cobra a very serious combat unit.
Rocket attack of the AN-1G "Hugh Cobra" helicopter
To fulfill the assigned tasks, the AN-1G were equipped with missile launchers, automatic grenade launchers of 40 mm caliber, 7, 62-mm machine guns and XM-3 cluster mines. Aircraft smoke devices made it possible to hide the exact location of the helicopter, reducing the effectiveness of the use of air defense systems.
Realizing that the situation was getting out of his control, Ho Chi Minh was forced to turn to the Soviet Union for help, which itself was completely unprepared for such a development of events.
Get a trophy at any cost
It was necessary to solve the problem as soon as possible. As always in such cases, the military experts of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense were supposed to come to the rescue. By that time, several Soviet sabotage groups were already operating in the jungles of Indochina, which had an extensive spy network.
Already by the spring of 1968, it was established that on the territory of Cambodia, 30 km from the border with North Vietnam, there is a top-secret American military air base Flying Joe. The level of secrecy can be evidenced by the fact that even the Cambodian government did not know about the existence of an American air force island in the impenetrable jungle.
Flying Joe airbase was not large in size. Several light and transport helicopters, as well as 4 attack "Super Cobras" were based on it.
The main task of the pilots was the covert delivery of sabotage and sniper groups into the jungle of North Vietnam, as well as the evacuation of the fighters after completing a combat mission. The helicopter pilots did not enter into direct confrontation with the Vietnamese army. They guarded the base carelessly, being confident that nothing threatened them on the territory of sovereign Cambodia.
What a shock it was when, one day in May 1967, a group of thugs burst into the base without any identification marks on their uniforms! There were no more than 10 attackers, but 15 Americans were killed under their precise fire only in the first 20 minutes of the battle.
But the most surprising thing was that the "partisans" managed to blow up three AN-1Gs, and on the fourth helicopter … they simply flew away. On the battlefield, they left only three corpses of their comrades, who had a characteristic Asian appearance.
To classify your own shame
The American commandos who arrived at the scene were never able to identify the victims, who did not have any documents with them. Even their small arms and knives turned out to be American, and there were no characteristic tattoos on their bodies.
As veterans of the GRU later said, they were all ready for the fact that any special operation could be the last in their life for them. Therefore, in addition to weapons and explosives, they carried capsules with fast-acting poison, which they used in critical situations.
Special Forces of the Army of North Vietnam
The professionalism and lightning speed of the operation prompted the Americans that they were facing the work of the GRU special forces, but no direct evidence of the presence of Soviet military experts on the Flying Joe could be found.
The fact that the Americans themselves were illegally in Cambodia made the situation especially piquant. Nobody needed a political scandal. The dead servicemen and the burnt-out helicopters were called combat losses, and the missing Super Cobra - missing in the impenetrable jungle of North Vietnam.
Interestingly, in order to maintain secrecy, all losses were spread on different dates, and the airbase itself was soon completely liquidated. Only a few years later, through a source in the KGB, the Americans learned about the USSR's involvement in this operation, although without any particular details.
Thoughts on the topic of real events
So where did the AN-1G Super Cobra helicopter go, which has never officially arrived at any North Vietnamese base? Only a few people knew about this. Most of them have been dead for a long time.
An indirect fact that the GRU special operation was continued is the fact that just a few days after the events described, several transport aircraft flew towards the USSR. Eyewitnesses claimed that the carefully sealed boxes contained parts of some kind of aircraft structure, as well as various types of aircraft weapons.
Without a doubt, our designers carefully studied the design features of the Super Cobra that fell into their hands, and some American know-how was borrowed and used in the construction of Soviet Mi-24 helicopters. The first flight of the legendary "Crocodile" was carried out on September 19, 1970, and today the Soviet Mi-24 are considered the most widespread and effective attack helicopters in the world.
Modern Mi-24
By and large, we just have to wait until all interested parties remove the secrecy regime and open the documents on the military operation, which, officially, never took place. We will dwell on one more event that significantly influenced the course of the Vietnam war, to which the GRU special forces could have had a hand.
Superweapon against AN-1G
At the beginning of 1970, the not very effective Strela-2 MANPADS underwent a serious modernization, turning into a portable Strela-2M portable anti-aircraft missile system that terrifies the enemy. Today this is rarely spoken about, but with the appearance of the new Arrow in Vietnam in 1972, the nature of the war has completely changed.
Before that, the Americans, who felt impunity, began to suffer very serious losses. What can I say, if not very well trained fighters of the North Vietnamese army were able to destroy 204 American flying targets in the remaining years of the war! To do this, they needed to make 598 launches, which is a very good result for that time.
Perhaps this is a simple coincidence, but the best target was precisely the "Super Cobras", which were perfectly captured by the sight of the new "Strela-2M" and fell, struck in the most vulnerable places.
The losses of the Americans became extremely high, and popular protests against participation in the Vietnam war forced the Pentagon to agree to the withdrawal of troops from the territory of this long-suffering country. Left without military support, South Vietnam soon capitulated, and the country united under the leadership of the Communist Party and Comrade Ho Chi Minh.
Unknown Cold War victory
Today, only circumstantial facts speak of the Soviet attack on the Flying Joe airbase. Official information seems to be deleted from the chain of real events. But there are explanations for this, with which it is difficult to disagree.
The fact is that the USA and the USSR acted illegally on the territory of Cambodia. And even if this country did not enjoy special prestige in the world, a brazen violation of its interests could greatly shake the political positions of the parties concerned. No one wanted to quarrel with the UN, so they decided to simply hush up the little "get-together". Moreover, the American special forces themselves have repeatedly carried out such illegal operations.
All soldiers of the GRU special forces have given a lifetime nondisclosure agreement about the events at the Flying Joe airbase. It was only on their deathbed that some of the veterans, recalling the turbulent years of their youth, told their relatives about it.
