207 SQUADRON ROYAL AIR FORCE HISTORY
Wg Cdr Russ Jeffs AFC, UK Air Attaché in Denmark
page to be completed: last updated 3 Nov 06
UK Air Attache, Denmark, early 1950s: source Jeffs
family
MiG 15 defection
On March 5 1953 Polish Air Force Lt Franciszek Jarecki flew from the Polish Air Force Base at Slupsk to Rønne Airfield on Bornholm Island, Denmark in a MiG-15bis, serial 346, a modern Soviet fighter. Western air specialists inspected the aircraft before it was returned by ship to Poland on March 22, 1953. Jarecki went to the United States where he provided much important information about modern Soviet aircraft and air tactics. Another source says was a naturalised Dane and was killed in a flying accident in Denmark in 1965.
source: http://www.acig.org/
Source: Brian Jeffs, Russ's second son 19 Oct 2006
Regarding the MiG incident, my father had related that
event to me. He became aware that a Polish pilot was going to
defect to the West with a MiG. This would be quite an
intelligence coup of course as the Russian MiG was proving
its worth over the skies of the Korean Peninsula at this
time.
My father was the first Western representative to meet the pilot who crash-landed on a Danish island off the coast of Denmark. After much consideration, he turned the aircraft over to the American authorities. This did not endear him to the RAF or British Authorities however, my father felt at the time, that a page in history was turning and that the Americans were going to clearly become the primary guardians of democracy for the remainder of the 20th Century.
He also was gravely concerned about the British intentions for the aircraft and the intelligence information which it would ultimately render. We now know that British Intelligence had been severely penetrated by the Russians at that time (Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt).
This event precipitated my mother's return to Canada with their two children Jim, and Margaret, as there was a strong sense that the Russians were going to exact their revenge upon my father and his family. The American authorities made no secret of their eternal gratitude to my father over this event.
INFORMATION, Tirsdag 10 marts 1953
translation (more to come)
Officielt engelsk forsvag
for mr. Jeffs besøg i Rønne
Official English defence of Mr. Jeff’s visit
to Rønne - part of his job as an air force attaché
London. The British Foreign Secretary today defends
the Brit, Mr. Jeff, who went to Bornholm to take photos of
the jet today after being notified of the message yesterday,
where the Polish minister in Denmark, Dr. Stanislaw
Kelloskraus, gave the permission to the Danish Foreign
ministry, and where it said that Jeff had the possibility to
inspect and photograph the Polish jet.
Polen opbringer 6 danske ..
Poland holds up 6 Danish fishing boats
Retained since Sunday in a port by Danzig (now Gdansk) - in
reprisal for the jet affair
Western allies wish to investigate the MiG jet, but
the Danish reject. There is a continuous development in the
affair around the Russian built MiG that landed at Rønne
airport the other day with the defected Polish air force
lieutenant. At the same time as it has been informed today
that the western allies wish for technicians to be given
access to investigate the jet and that the Danish government
has turned down this request. It has been reported that the
Polish are retaining 6 Danish fishing boats at the entrance
of the bay of Danzig (now Gdansk).