After we finished with the stories of the nuclear spies, we enter the middle of the Cold War, and the day of 15 April, of the year 1961, and a military operation that history has preserved for us under the name "Bay of Pigs Invasion".
The story is that American intelligence picked up a group of activists and opponents of the Cuban regime loyal to the Soviet Union under the leadership of "Fidel Castro".. and trained them and armed them, and supplied them with squads of mercenaries, and then carried out a land landing for them with their light and heavy weapons on the coasts of Cuba, on the mentioned date.
And shortly before the landing, the American bombers took off, to bomb the airports of Cuba and the bases of the Cuban army in Havana and Santiago.. and after that the landing on the beaches began, and the American armoured vehicles, led by the Cuban "opposition", set off towards the capital, followed by troop carriers carrying nearly 2000 fighters, from the commandos and the mercenaries.
But the truth is that these groups were surprised by units of the Cuban army bombing them from the air and swooping down on them from the land.. The secret is that the Cuban army had received Soviet intelligence, before the American air strike, so it moved its aircraft to reserve airports, and changed the positions of its soldiers at the last moment.
The Americans try to cover these elements with new air strikes, but the air defence and the Cuban air force shoot them down, and in the face of crushing Cuban strikes, for consecutive days.. the attackers retreat once again to the coast.. and there.. the American ships try to approach and evacuate them, but the Soviet attack boats suddenly emerge in the heart of the darkness like sharks, and begin to circle around the Cuban coast, so the American ships are forced to withdraw, and abandon their men, whom the Cuban army takes all prisoner, after killing nearly 900 attackers.
And the operation of the "Bay of Pigs Invasion" ended in utter failure, but with the rise of the star of a Soviet intelligence man.. who was one of the engineers who caused the failure of the American attack, with the information he provided to the Cubans.. and his orders to move the Soviet naval units at the right time.
The Soviet colonel and military intelligence officer "Oleg Vladimirovich Penkovsky".. the one in the picture in the comment.
And "Oleg" had only one loyalty, to the Soviet Union.. he fought for it and received high military medals and decorations.. but at the same time, he bitterly resented the regime of "Krotseyev".. whom we insist on calling "Khrushchev".. and he began to feel that it was in the interest of the Soviet Union to change this regime at any price.
And this was the beginning that pushed "Oleg" towards betrayal.
Before the "Bay of Pigs", "Oleg" tried to contact American intelligence, through some American students.. and the message did reach the Americans indeed.. but they postponed contacting "Oleg" in worry and caution, given that his position made them believe it was a trap.. in addition to the fact that at that time most American intelligence agents in Moscow were under tight surveillance by Soviet intelligence.
And one night, the businessman and English spy "Greville Wynne" was in his home in Moscow, sipping some drink on a quiet evening, when there was a knock on the door and "Oleg" walked in.. and his heart pounded in terror.. when "Oleg" told him that he knew he was an English spy.. but "Greville's" panic dissipated and turned into bewilderment.. when "Oleg" asked him to mediate for him, so that he could meet officers from English and British intelligence.. because he was willing to work for them.
And by pure coincidence, "Wynne" had been trained for several years, so that he could contact "Oleg" and recruit him in the first place.. so here, with this strange coincidence, the English believed that their plan had been exposed and that this was just a trick.
Later, with the failure of the Bay of Pigs operation and the rise of "Oleg's" star.. the Americans regretted ignoring him with bitter regret, because before this operation, had they accepted his offer, they would have discovered whether he was a liar or truthful, so they begin to contact him, and they ask him to reveal the names of the Soviet agents in America.
But "Oleg" refuses their request calmly, and tells them that his goal is not to destroy the Soviet Union.. only to remove its ruling regime.. and accordingly he gives them extremely valuable information about the Soviet nuclear arsenal, and that its size and capabilities are far less than the Americans believe.. and he gives a precious piece of information.. that the Soviets are still suffering from problems in the navigation and guidance systems in their new missiles.. and that the refuelling systems are still under development.
With the flood of information that the Americans and the English were able to verify some of.. they give their trust to "Oleg".. and they let him supply them with the information he can, whenever he wishes.
And at this very time.. the Americans deployed "Thor" missiles in Britain and "Jupiter" missiles in Turkey.. and this became a permanent threat to the Soviet Union.. that America, with these missiles and bases of hers, could now reach it in depth.. with missiles carrying nuclear warheads.
And at the same moment.. in the sky of Cuba.. American spy planes are flying.. the "U-2".. and taking pictures of Cuban territory.. some of them blurred and incomprehensible.. of places that looked more like open garages, or grain storage grounds.
The incomprehensible "U-2" pictures are thrown into the drawer, and they decide to send a second flight, which returns with pictures similar to the first.. in which it appeared that these could not possibly be Cuban airports or army camps.
And here new information arrives from "Oleg".
Information saying.. that the Soviet Union is in turn building bases for its missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba.. and that the bases have been built and the parts have already been shipped.. and are supposed to be assembled, and by the time the United States finds out, it will be too late.
And "Oleg" specifies the locations of the bases and their areas with extreme precision.. and with the terrifying message, the hair on the head of one of the American intelligence men stands on end, and he rushes to his safe and pulls out of it the pictures of the American spy planes, and the hair on the heads of the rest stands on end, and the faded pictures now look to them clear and plain.
These are missile bases without any doubt.
And it is clear that they are already ready to receive the Soviet missiles.
And this means that the Soviet Union can, from Cuba, bomb America with missiles carrying nuclear warheads and turn it into a heap of ashes within hours.
And it seems that time has stolen us today and the story has grown long, so we postpone our talk about what happened after that to later.
And the talk will have.. a remainder.
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- A real picture from the Bay of Pigs invasion operation.
- The previous posts are in the first comment.