PLAN TO CONVERT BOMBERS IN FRANCE REVEALED AT TRIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300510069-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 1999
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: September 30, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000300510069-1
Pl an fo Convert tom ers
In France Revealed at Trial
B-26s Flown Abroad to Be Adapted
For Executive Uses, Witness Says
CPYRGHT
ift
By RON MASELKA
nth conspiring to unlawfully ex
ort seven B-26 bombers to Port
hng the bombers to France fo
1ced the bombers which landed
anada during the summer
1965.
fendant, Gregory R. Board, t
plane deal.
"Forget. About It"
Mr. Dolgaard said he receive
a. telephone call from Haw
from Newfoundland in which "
would be leaving tomorrow.
When he asked Board about
the "Hawke-Sparrow business,"
Mr. Dolgaard testified: "Board
said Sparrow was a code name
for the bombers and to forget
about it."
A government witness testified
earlier that he made an unsuc-
cessful attempt to sell some B-26
bombers to the Portuguese gov-
ernment in September 1965.
He is Gordon B. Hamilton, a
Tucson, Ariz., businessman.
Rebuild Old Planes
The defendants are: Woodrow
W. Roderick, 47, a Winnipeg,
Man., businessman; John R.
Hawke, 28, a former Royal Air
Force. pilot, and Henri Marie,
Francois de Marin de Mont-
marin, 58, a French business-
man.
Mr. Hanfiilton's company had
a contract with the missing de-
fendant in the case, Gregory R.
Board, 45, to rebuild 20 of the
World War II planes.
After seven planes were. de-
livered to Board's company
(Aero Associates Inc.), Mr.;
Hamilton testified that. in mid-'
September 1965 he, himself,
tried to sell the others to
Portugal.
Limits on Use .
"We -had done considerable,
work on at least three of the air-
craft and had a substantial in-
vestment in them, Mr. Hamil-
ton added.
He said that he talked to State
Department officials in Wash-
ington who set a condition on
exporting the B-26s to Portugal
"that use of. the aircraft would
be limited to Portuguese Euro-
pean territory."
He said negotiations were
broken off with Portuguese offi-
cials when they would not agree
I
"They wanted to use them' in
Angola :in their African colonies, j
I guess," -Mr. Hamilton said.
Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDPT5-00149RO6030051`0069-1