AUSTRIA: Ramming Tactics

In World War II Soviet fighter pilots boasted of a maneuver called taran, i.e., ramming an enemy plane when ammunition was exhausted and parachuting out. In the absence of reliable witnesses of such tactics, Western air-force men were apt to suspect the Russians of "shooting a line." Last week a startled group of Westerners saw a Soviet pilot perform the taran and live to lie about it.

Inhabitants of the Austrian village of Pamhagen on the Hungarian border were just finishing lunch when four MIG jets came screaming across into Austria from Hungary. The two planes in front, bearing...

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