Bald Eagles over Beijing, 1959.

Bald Eagles over Beijing, 1959.

Image: a USAF very similar Martin RB-57D-2 Model 796 53-3979 collecting atmospheric data during Juniper Nuclear bomb test; Operation Hardtack I 22 July 1958 at Bikini Atoll. United States Air Force photograph. Source: Wikipedia.

A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the WestPac Battleset and the HCCW-120614 Cold War Platform Database.

This mini-scenario is designed for play by the Taiwanese/Blue or the Chinese/Red side, to avoid spoilers is better to play first some times the Taiwanese/Blue side (But it will be very difficult for the Red human player to lose).

This more than a mini-scenario is a little divertment and a historical remembrance of the historical situation depicted.

Almost forgotten now, the RB-57D Bald Eagle was a very modified high altitude optical reconnaissance variant of the Martin B-57 Canberra (a American variant of the original English Electric Canberra pioneer and combat-proven jet bomber).

After the operational introduction of U-2, some three RB-57D were supplied under the "Diamond Lil" program run by the Central Intelligence Agency to the 4th Squadron of the Republic of China Air Force for strategic flights over mainland China flying from the Taoyuan Airbase near Taipei, mainly aimed at Beijing and to airfields, military establishments, ports, factories and other strategic installations..

With the five batteries of SA-2a (some 62 V-750 and V-750V missiles) anti-aircraft missiles very early supplied by the Soviets and introduced in the 2nd Rocket Battalion under the command of Yue Zhenhua, the Chinese developed and settled an ambush against the high flyers near Beijing, studying his approach routes of previous flights.

At last, on 7 October 1959 an RB-57 with Captain Ying Chin Wong at the controls was shot-down and the unfortunate pilot killed.

After the U-2 also replaced the RB-57 in Taiwanese service and some of them were also shoot-down and his wrecks displayed as propaganda by the Beijing government, but this first incident was kept secret and forgotten by years.

It was not only a proxy black operation through the Bamboo Curtain, it was also an historical hit, the first real kill in a combat situation by a surface-to-air missile, the first of many to follow the next decades.

Enrique Mas, January 2013.

Edited 17 January 2013: added BALD59B scenario, with a slighty chance of win by the Blue side played by the computer.