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America Accidentally Attacked the Soviet Union and Other Lesser Known History Moments

Khalid Elhassan February 27, 2020 34 min

Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star - Aircraft — American F-80s in action during the Korean War. Squdron

35. “You’ll Either Get a Distinguished Service Cross Or a Court Martial Out of This Mission”

Later that evening, Alton Quanbeck and Al Diefendorf were summoned to headquarters by their commanding Major General, Earle E. Partridge. They went over the mission again, then Partridge laid out a large map, pointed to an area within the USSR southwest of Vladivostok, and asked if it was possible that they had attacked there.

There were significant terrain similarities, but while Quanbeck thought it was possible, he did not it think it was probable. He was wrong. As they left, General Partridge told the pilots: “You’ll either get a Distinguished Service Cross or a court-martial out of this mission“.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.