Painting by Don Connolly Watching the Russkies, by Don Connolly. CANADA’S ARCTIC SKY SPIES: THEDIRECTOR’SCUT by Sean M. Maloney Introduction Early Exploits: Preparing the Ground n 2007, Russia used two mini-submarines to place a arly Cold War RCAF activity in the Arctic became inter- I Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole. This operation E twined with several joint Canada-US northern programs was accompanied by a major aerial exercise involving that emerged between 1945 and 1950. In the immediate post-war cruise-missile-firing Tupolev Tu-95 Bear and Tu-160 period, Soviet coercive belligerence on the world stage, coupled Blackjack strategic bombers. Prior to this event, the Canadian with revelations that Moscow was covertly interfering with government had announced that global warming would western governments, led the ABC powers to plan for a Third reduce the extent of ice in the Arctic and open the region for World War. Throughout the late 1940s, all three countries exploitation in the energy sector, and the historical Canadian moved toward joint global war planning, culminating in angst over American access to the Northwest Passage 1948 with a plan called respectively Doublestar (US), was reactivated. Not to be outdone, Denmark initiated a Speedway (UK), and Bullmoose by the Canadians. These territorial challenge to Canada with respect to ownership were not merely military contingency plans – they had the of tiny Hans Island. Therefore, it is ‘back to the future’ for full backing of the foreign affairs departments from each the Canadian Forces (CF) and Arctic operations. nation and it was understood that they constituted the basis for action if necessary. In essence, the plans envisioned a Some Canadian cultural observers look to the Arctic conventional war fought with a small number of kiloton-yield as a metaphor for the Canadian experience: pure as the driven nuclear weapons, used as part of a strategic air campaign snow, uninhabited, and unsullied. The reality is that the against the USSR. All plans or their variants predicted that Arctic was a Cold War battleground and Canada was deeply the Soviets would mount a conventional campaign against involved in using it as a theatre of operations. This use was the northwest and northeast approaches to North America embodied in the DEW Line, the Mobile Striking Force, the with airborne forces to support strategic air raids against the Canadian Rangers, the intercepts of Soviet Bear bomber populated south, using nuclear, biological, and/or chemical flights, and signals intelligence collection. What remains as weapons dropped from bombers, or fired from missile sites. yet unexamined are the exploits of Canada’s Arctic ‘spies in The idea was to disrupt North America while Western Europe the sky.’ Specifically, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Middle East were being overrun.1 conducted covert aerial collection programs throughout the 1950s, which were leveraged with the tripartite American, British, and Canadian (ABC) intelligence architecture to Canada’s benefit, and they contributed to the Cold War Doctor Sean M. Maloney is the author of Learning to Love the Bomb: deterrence of the Soviet Union. These contributions have Canada’s Nuclear Weapons during the Cold War, and he is an Associate been ignored by Anglo-American scholarship with respect Professor of History at the Royal Military College of Canada. He is to Cold War intelligence operations. also currently the historical advisor to the Chief of the Land Staff. 76 Canadian Military Journal G Vol. 9, No. 1 In terms of implementation, the sovereignty.6 Indeed, the Cabinet Americans were ‘ahead of the curve’ Defence Committee received a detailed in 1945-1946. American forces were intelligence briefing during its delibera- deployed simultaneously to develop tions in 1946 on future defence policy. detailed information about the Arctic. The briefing concluded: They also refurbished Second World War air bases, built new air bases, ...[that] the present state of the world and and determined what equipment could the increased range and destructiveness of be used in extreme climates. The new air power made it necessary to reorient Strategic Air Command (SAC) needed our ideas of continental defence and information about meteorological place the emphasis on defensive measures conditions in the Arctic, as their against an attack from the north.7 projected intercontinental bomber force eventually would operate over the This activity was concurrent with the North Pole. And both naval and air establishment of joint Canada-US weather MILITARY HISTORY forces needed accurate, continuous Graphic enhanced by Christopher Johnson stations in the Arctic. Cabinet agreed to this weather information.2 initiative in March 1947, and stations at Resolute Bay, Eureka Sound, Mould Bay, Isachen, The Canadian dilemma revolved around sovereignty, and Alert were established subsequently.8 The public as it does today. The United States needed the far announcement in Canada noted that, “...the USSR... north as part of its military apparatus. Canada would maintains a large number of weather stations in the benefit strategically from the collected information, Arctic region on the other side of the North Pole,” as well as from the deterrent function, but at what and that establishment of the Canadian-US stations point did Canada lose control of the north? At the would be of benefit to “...improving our common same time, Canada received pressure from the Soviet knowledge of the North.”9 The weather station at Union, which wanted military observers to participate Resolute Bay, and later, Alert, would indeed do so, in Canadian northern operations. The Soviets also but in their manifestations as signals intelligence (SIGINT) pressured the Danish government with respect to collection stations.10 Greenland. Indeed, the Soviets had been the first to seriously mount large expeditions into the Arctic using US Navy operations in the Baffin Bay region in 1948 ships and long-range aircraft back in the late 1930s, were of some concern to the Canadian Government. and it appeared as though they were about to ramp up Indeed, the United States landed and established what operations yet again.3 eventually would become Thule Air Force Base in western Greenland, while Denmark was still in a state Canada, of course, was not neutral, and any ideas of some post-war disarray. These US Navy operations about Canada becoming ‘the new Switzerland’ were had RCAF and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) observers rapidly discarded, particularly after the Gouzenko accompanying them, but in one specific case, Canada affair of 1945. Canada also had no desire to become the deployed the aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent and new Belgium. As early as October 1945, the Canadian two destroyers for northern government understood that the first step to projecting operations to demonstrate “American forces a presence in the Arctic resided in being able to she could also operate navigate in the environment. In January 1946, independently. Subsequently, were deployed Cabinet approved an extensive mapping program the RCAF and RCN undertook simultaneously and placed the RCAF in charge of it.4 By a joint training program. to develop detailed March 1946, the RCAF and the United States Army A Lancaster and a Air Force (USAAF, the forerunner of the United Consolidated Canso from 103 information about States Air Force [USAF]) commenced joint operations Search and Rescue (SAR) the Arctic.” using B-29 Superfortresses partially crewed by Squadron conducted exercises Canadians to photograph the northernmost Arctic islands. with the task group, first This program extended until 1948, while the RCAF to search for a naval force at sea, but also to shadow the conducted more modest mapping operations with force undetected upon acquisition. As it materialized, Avro Lancasters and Noorduyn Norsemans. Another joint the Lancaster proved to be better at this job than the effort, using B-29s based in Edmonton and manned with Canso. To put this exercise in context, at that time mixed USAAF-RCAF-United States Navy (USN) crews, the USSR did not possess a true ‘blue water navy,’ explored critical navigation techniques necessary for and thus, the only possible target, if the RCAF was trans-polar flight. By the summer of 1946, USAAF B-29s actually required to mount such an operation, would have based in Alaska were conducting regular weather been the US Navy.11 flights to the North Pole and back.5 It was understood that these activities constituted contributions By 1949, the RCAF had three squadrons engaged to the Canada-US Basic Security Plan and that in photo-mapping the north – 408 and 414 Squadrons, they were not an infringement upon Canadian both based out of RCAF Station Rockcliffe in Vol. 9, No. 1 G Canadian Military Journal 77 Ottawa and equipped with the focal point for ABC scientific intelligence sharing. “The secrets that modified Lancaster bombers (the As Minister of National Defence Brooke Claxton 407 Squadron Mark 10P), and 413 Squadron, explained: which possessed a polyglot of collected, however, support aircraft. 414 Squadron’s Canada took an active part in this. The Chiefs went right to the Lancasters had a vertical and Dr. Solandt persuaded me that this was heart of the photographic capability, while the big leagues and that in order to obtain the the 408 Squadron aircraft advantages of membership, including particularly atomic weapons used a tri-camera system the exchange of information, it was necessary programs.” that was linked to a short that Canada should make a proper contribution. range navigation (SHORAN) In other words we should have some secrets to system. SHORAN, a lattice of trade ...for these and other reasons we were electronic beams transmitted from ground stations a respected member of the club.15 established by 413 Squadron, allowed for accurate photo- mapping navigation.12 These operations provided a From July 1952 onwards, 407 (MR) Squadron Canadian military presence, helped gather valuable operated from Comox, British Columbia, making it information, and developed RCAF expertise in Arctic the Pacific northwest counterpart to 408 Squadron.