Roy was there

On May 1, 1960, a U-2 flight piloted by Captain Francis Gary Powers disappeared while on a reconnaissance flight over Russia.

A U-2 reconnaissance aircraft

The Central Intelligence Agency who developed the U-2, reassured the US president that, even if the plane had been shot down, it was equipped with self-destruct mechanisms that would render any wreckage unrecognizable and the pilot was instructed to kill himself in such a situation. Based on this information, the U.S. government issued a cover statement indicating that a weather plane had veered off course and supposedly crashed somewhere in the Soviet Union.

U-2 flight plan on 1 May 1960

With no small degree of pleasure, USSR president Khrushchev pulled off one of the most dramatic moments of the Cold War by producing not only the mostly-intact wreckage of the U-2, but also the captured pilot - very much alive.

Click HERE to read more.

What do these remarkable events have to do with the Renaissance Retirement Village in Bela Bela, Limpopo?

One of our residents, Roy Derbyshire (Unit 10), was a bystander when the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by a Soviet missile 54 years ago, that's what.

Roy Derbyshire

At the time Roy worked as an electro-mechanical specialist in the Royal Air Force and was posted to N.A.T.O. Norway.

After arriving in Oslo, Norway’s capital he was taken to his place of work at a place named Kolsås, a few kilometres from the small town of Sandvika which, in turn, was a few kilometres west of Oslo.

Kolsås is named after a mountain which dominates the area.

Mount Kolsås

"Head Quarters Allied Air Forces Northern Europe, where I would be working," Roy explained, "was actually located inside this mountain, with administration offices outside the entrance. Engineers had designed the location to be H-bomb proof."

The two floors of the Head Quarters were carved out of solid rock towards the centre of the mountain, forming an incredible bunker. 

"There I discovered that I would be working not only with the Army, Navy and Air Force of the United Kingdom but also those of the United States of America, Denmark and Norway, with a smattering of Germans and Italians added to the mix," Roy explained.

He was told that the purpose of this HQ was to monitor the test firing of Soviet missiles, which, at the time, were not in missile silos as in the U.S.A., but on heavy rail trucks that moved around the Soviet Union.

Flights of aircraft both over the Soviet Union and the West’s territory were also kept and eye on, while yet another objective was to give the West a possible three minute warning should the Soviet Union fire any of their weapons in anger.

The HQ was manned 24/7 and a shift system was in place.

"A friend of mine worked in the so-called 'War Headquarters'”, Roy continued, "and I often visited him during his evening shift. He showed me a giant transparent board on which a map of our surveillance area appeared. Girls, on one side of the board, moved flight indicators and wrote backwards so that senior officers on the other side could keep abreast of goings-on. He, in turn, often visited me at my workplace" 

Soviet missiles and aircraft were often reported attempting to intercept overflying U-2 aircraft. His friend told him that this was not an unusual occurrence. However, the aircraft and missiles were unable to reach the high-flying U-2 aircraft.

Roy said that he took only a passing interest in the board other than ogling one of the attractive girls who worked there! 

On the evening of May 1, 1960, panic and confusion unexpectedly arose. Telephones rang and people rushed about. His friend went to enquire what had happened. He returned and told Roy that an aircraft was shot down by a Russian missile. He urged him to return to his work-station.

"It was only later," Roy concluded, "that I found out that the incident was the downing by the first of three Soviet SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Captain Francis Gary Powers.”


Captain Francis Gary Powers