RAAF Woomera, South Australia, Australia - October 11, 1965
For the men of the Indonesian Il-28, it had been a restful weekend, the former navigator recalls:
"They decided to put us in lodgings at the RAAF base at Edinburgh, near Adelaide, for the weekend. It was a welcome change from Woomera and we got a great guided tour of Adelaide. We were able to get some clean civilian clothes and beds were certainly more comfortable than the ones we slept on at Darwin and Woomera the week before.
On Monday morning, we had breakfast at the RAAF Edinburgh mess. After breakfast, we were taken to a hangar with a RAAF Dakota transport prepared for flight sitting outside.
In the hangar, we were briefly introduced to a "Mr. Nowak" and told he would be going with us on the flight back to Woomera that morning.
During the flight, we got a chance to get better acquainted with Mr. Nowak. He quickly let us know that we were free to call him by his first name, Stan. As it turned out, he had fled to Australia from his native Poland a few years before.
Stan had been a technician on the Il-28 in the Polish air force and was familiar with a number of systems on the aircraft, including the reconnaissance pack.
Clearly, he was there to fill in some gaps about the Il-28 that were best left to groundcrew to explain."
The Dakota landed at Woomera just prior to the noon hour. After lunch, the Il-28 crew and Stan Nowak were escorted to the hangar where the Il-28 was being kept.
Stan Nowak recalls:
"I left Poland in 1962. I had nothing to hold me to the country and took the opportunity to defect while my squadron was in Bulgaria on joint excercises with the air force there. Our squadron was hosted at Ravnets air base, near Burgas, on the Black Sea coast.
The only border crossing from Bulgaria into Turkey was on the highway that ran through Burgas and eventually into Turkey. I decided to take the risk of trying to get to Turkey from Burgas. I had heard stories of other people defecting that way so I had some idea of what to expect.
Fortunately, but with difficulty, I made it into Turkey. I made my way to Greece and got on a ship headed for Australia.
Due to my service in a Warsaw Pact military, the Australian military took an interest in me while my naturalization papers were still in process.
Military intelligence interviewed me as much as the immigration authorities did. The trade off was that my Australian citizenship application was expedited."
"Bold Beagle"
Stan Nowak, the Il-28 crew and a number of ARDU and other RAAF personnel gathered in a medium sized briefing room to one side of the main hangar area.
The various people took seats facing a blackboard that had only the phrase "Bold Beagle" written on it.
Once everyone was in their seats, the commanding officer of ARDU addressed the room and announced that "Bold Beagle" was to be the project name for anything the unit did connected to the Il-28 sitting in the hangar.
The RAAF officer appointed as commander of "Bold Beagle" took the place of the ARDU commander at the front of the room and introduced himself before pulling down a projection screen and beginning a presentation of overhead projector slides that outlined "Bold Beagle" and the scope of its initial stages.
The former "Bold Beagle" commander:
"Our Indonesian guests might have had a relaxing weekend, but I can assure you that many ARDU people put in many long hours from the day the IL-28 arrived at Woomera in order to makes sure we had the start of a testing program on Monday morning.
The information from the interviews with the Indonesian crew, any technical documents they had aboard the aircraft, as well as from transcripts of interviews we did with Mr. Nowak about the Il-28 shortly after he arrived in Australia, were used to create the official documentation for "Bold Beagle".
The briefing lasted for around two hours, after which the group made their way to the Il-28.
Stan Nowak:
"I must say, it was good to see an Il-28 again. Most of my time in the Polish air force was spent working on the type and I enjoyed working on them. In spite of defecting from Poland, I did miss the Il-28 a bit.
It was great to be able to talk to the crew about the aircraft, it's certainly different to discuss a particular aircraft with people who have first hand knowledge of working with it. The navigator's name was Chandra, the pilot was Edi and the gunner's name was Tim.
The ARDU had contacted me primarily for my knowledge of the aircraft's reconnaissance pack. Before I could tell them anything, the aircraft systems needed to be powered up enough for the bomb bay doors to be opened and the camera position that was halfway between the bomb bay and the tail gunner station opened.
All of those things were controlled from a panel in the navigator's position. Chandra and Edi took their respective stations in the aircraft to monitor the powering up process.
As soon as the needed power was reached, Chandra opened the bomb bay doors and rear fuselage camera station.
Once I got a look at the setup, I was happy to tell the ADRU people that it was a standard daytime camera fit that was described in the technical information they had on hand.
Removing it wouldn't be difficult, it was just a matter of removing some bolts and disconnecting a few cables, but they would certainly need some sort of supporting frames to take the weight of the cameras before the bolts could be undone.
Happily, the technical manuals provided accurate weights for the cameras and the ARDU crews were able to find something that worked.
By the early evening, the cameras had been removed and were on their way by road to RAAF Edinburgh.
Myself, Chandra, Edi, Tim and some ARDU people got onto a Dakota transport for the flight back to Edinburgh."
