Part Two
Kukk’s and Toomla’s mission in Estonia was "locating, assessing, recruiting, and briefing several qualified and useful legal residents to have them communicate with us and furnish intelligence on a long term basis. Having accomplished this, the agents will then attempt to exfiltrate, along with a knowledgeable, legal resident whom we could debrief, train and return within the shortest time."
Their specific targets included:
Warning of Soviet offensive or defensive preparedness:
· Trends in active or passive air-defense readiness
Tallinn Airfield at Lasnamae:
· number and type of aircraft using the field;
· length, direction, and surfacing of runways;
· location of radio and radar stations;
· location and type of anti-aircraft defenses;
· location and type of fuel storage.
They were trained by CIA’s DOB in the United States as penetration agents I July 1953-April 26, 1954 (9 months, 26 Days) and August 1953-April 26, 1954 (8 months, 19 days), respectively.
They were then flown to Germany for final training and dispatching. On May 6-7, 1954, an unmarked C-54 transport plane took off from the Frankfurt-am-Main airport with Kukk and Toomla on board. Kukk and Toomla parachuted into southern Estonia near Auksaar Village, moving into Kergu Village near Vändra, where Toomla's mother Liis Toomla lived with his sister Helgi Noormaa.
On June 30, 1954, they made their first broadcast from a farmhouse. The KGB put the farm under surveillance. On July 11, 1954, they made their last radio contact as the KGB attempted to arrest both of them. Toomla resisted and was shot. Kukk was arrested, imprisoned, and confessed.
Kukk’s and Toomla’s mission in Estonia was "locating, assessing, recruiting, and briefing several qualified and useful legal residents to have them communicate with us and furnish intelligence on a long term basis. Having accomplished this, the agents will then attempt to exfiltrate, along with a knowledgeable, legal resident whom we could debrief, train and return within the shortest time."
Their specific targets included:
Warning of Soviet offensive or defensive preparedness:
· Trends in active or passive air-defense readiness
Tallinn Airfield at Lasnamae:
· number and type of aircraft using the field;
· length, direction, and surfacing of runways;
· location of radio and radar stations;
· location and type of anti-aircraft defenses;
· location and type of fuel storage.
They were trained by CIA’s DOB in the United States as penetration agents I July 1953-April 26, 1954 (9 months, 26 Days) and August 1953-April 26, 1954 (8 months, 19 days), respectively.
They were then flown to Germany for final training and dispatching. On May 6-7, 1954, an unmarked C-54 transport plane took off from the Frankfurt-am-Main airport with Kukk and Toomla on board. Kukk and Toomla parachuted into southern Estonia near Auksaar Village, moving into Kergu Village near Vändra, where Toomla's mother Liis Toomla lived with his sister Helgi Noormaa.
On June 30, 1954, they made their first broadcast from a farmhouse. The KGB put the farm under surveillance. On July 11, 1954, they made their last radio contact as the KGB attempted to arrest both of them. Toomla resisted and was shot. Kukk was arrested, imprisoned, and confessed.
The KGB played a short counterespionage radio game until January 2, 1955, but eventually, that failed due to Kukk’s not playing along. He then was put on trial and sentenced to death. Kukk was executed in Butõrka Prison in Moscow on June 27, 1955The USSR Council of Ministers' Committee for State Security (KGB) issued a statement that was carried in Soviet newspapers Pravda and Izvestia on January 15, 1955, and reported by various major and grassroots newspapers in the United States:
"In the summer of 1954, two American agents were dropped by parachute into the Estonian Republic from an American plane that had violated the Soviet border. Through the steps taken by state security agencies, these spies were discovered sometime later in a forest in one of the districts of the Estonian Republic. One of the spies put up armed resistance to arrest and was killed in an exchange of shots. The second was captured. The detained American spy proved to be Kaliu Kukk; the one killed was Hans Toomla."
The statement went on to list what Kukk and Toomla had in their possession
· A machine gun with ammunition,
· two portable transmitters,
· ciphers and codes,
· two portable transmitters,
· ciphers and codes,
A later report of the “2nd Counter-Intelligence Department of the State Security Committee of the Council of Ministers of the Estonian SSR” contained this critical remark: “The pursuit of the spies KUKK and TOOMLA lasted almost two and a half months, and although the spies were arrested, an analysis of the course of the pursuit showed that some agency and operational links were poorly organized, especially service both on trains and in groups.”
According to the terms of the agents' CIA contracts, “the death benefits were to be paid if no information regarding their existence was brought to the U.S. Government's attention for two years after the date of the agents' last contact with appropriate Government representatives.” $20,000 for payment of death benefits to the beneficiaries designated by Kukk and Toomla was approved.
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