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RAF Greenham Common The 1980's
In January 1986 a British Member of Parliament, Sir Peter Blaker,
asked the Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, whether she had
seen an article in the magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly stating
that Soviet-trained agents had infiltrated the ranks of the
women picketing outside Greenham Common, one of the two
acknowledged UK bases for Tomahawk ground-launched cruise
missiles. Mrs Thatcher replied that ‘government bodies’ were
aware of the ‘implications of special forces operations’
‘The Soviet Union has maintained a secret detachment of female
Spetsnaz special forces in the area of Britain’s Greenham Common
Air Base since December 1983.
‘Soviet defectors have disclosed that three to six trained
agents, from Warsaw Pact and West European countries, including
the UK infiltrated women’s protest groups at Greenham Common and
were present “at all times”.’
His report continued to say that ‘There has been a regular
rotation of agents to enable a large number to gain field
experience. ‘The women agents are trained in camps situated in
the Rovno-L’vov-Lutsk area of the Carpathian and the Ural and
Volga military districts. They contain mock-ups of elements of
the Greenham Common camp like the heavily defended inner defence
zone’. There the women are trained to attack the missile sites
under war or surprise conditions in a pre-emptive strike. They
will act as “beacons” for other Spetsnaz and airborne troops who
would be used to attack the missiles in war.
‘T hese
Spetsnaz women receive emergency cash via “dead drop.” when
needed or they travel abroad to meet their paymasters. ‘The
initial purpose is to incite protesters to mount protests and
demonstrations to test the defending forces’ reaction times and
to monitor security arrangements and timings of cruise missile
convoys leaving Greenham Common.’
Naturally, the Greenham women denied these allegations as a slur
to discredit them, and the police have said hat despite all the
arrests they have made, they have not discovered anyone carrying
an Eastern Bloc passport. This course, is no more than you would
expect; no Soviet operative is going to give himself or herself
away so obviously. But Soviet involvement with CND and other
Western peace organizations goes back a long way. |
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Painting inside one of the hangers (Dog Flight)
I was sent this picture but I have lost the details, however RAF
Regt and American Troops at GC
Thanks to Luther Redwine (MSgt USAF Retired) for these 2 Regt
and USAF pictures below.
Pictures I found
Not a very tactical paint job The peace women had decided to
paint this "TEL"
That was then ...this is now
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Pictures from Glen Beavis
1: Back Row: Fat Cat 9(smiling) second in from the left Blondie
center me looking miserable to his right and Rick Fanning behind
me with his head cut off..Sorry, Front Row: Middle Steve Cowan
(note the right arm forward to show his wings) and to his right
is the guy who had a clapped out old Ford. and a few yanks in
here as well !!
2: Rick Fanning Digging and Simon Cope is the one with the M60.
not forgetting the Cruise Missile Launcher hiding in the
background
1: The women...
2: I know Nige Sheldon, Side Step Sid, Winston and Andy Leonard,
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The RAF Regiment.net web
© site and The RAF Regiment from
1984 © Web site have been created by
Glen Beavis, both sites contain pictures and information gathered from
many sources, including my own personal knowledge.
Where possible I have given credit to the originators of
the information, if I have infringed any copyright laws then please
contact me
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