Double post

Hagen Koch would be worth a visit in his little flat in East Berlin....he could spin a few dits. Whilst we're on the subject, I have tried to research the subject of West/East incursions, but there is precious little. There are a few documented incidents, but no published work that I am aware of.
I have just acquired 'The Ugly Frontier' by Davis Shears, a veteran of the British Frontier Service, the prose is a bit dry and formal, but interesting nonetheless.

Death AT the Wall, sorry. Just looked it up on Amazon - some slightly cheaper copies available, it seems.

I saw a really good documentary a while ago. A former East Berlin resident said everyone wanted to get to West Berlin because in the East they felt surrounded. A hard concept to grasp, but it shows how oppressive the DDR must have been.

I read somewhere that there were little bits of East Germany on the Western side of the wall. i.e. the Wall didn;t exacty follow the border.

Sometime in the 1970/80s I recall a turkish gastarbeiter took over one of these bits of land as a garden. Some East german came round and told hiom not to, but he did anyway.

A month or two before the DDR announced that they were 'liberating the people from a situation of psychological pressure by legalising and simplifying migration', the BBC had a film crew out in Germany making a documentary on borders, including the IGB. As part of the filming, which included dangling a cameraman under a Lynx as we flew along the fence, they filmed a BFS chappy, who happily proclaimed that the IGB would outlast him.


I truly believe that the Politburo went for reunification to a, spite him, and b, deny me my 15 minutes of fame when I almost torched the Lynx during a hot-start, to camera.

Nobody in Germany like to discuss the war, the mohne dam has plaques explaining the history of the dam, but doesnt mention why there is patchwork on the face of it....


...Go to Berlin and they dont shut up about the war, if you want history, when your there, you can see and read tonnes on it.

Spandau prison, nextdoor to Smutz Bks RE, in old West Berlin, now a site of a NAAFI.
Demolished in 1987 after its last prisoner, Rudolph Hess, died. He was guarded by the 4 powers alternately, and this was the only reason Soviet troops were allowed into West Berlin.
Conspiracy theorists believed that Hess died much earlier, but that the Soviets replaced him with a stooge so that they could continue coming into the West, on........ A hemmm.....sight seeing trips.

Originally Posted by Nobby Sapper

[ATTACH=CONFIG]... He was guarded by the 4 powers alternately, and this was the only reason Soviet troops were allowed into West...

The Sovs also had access to the War Memorial in TierGarten, which was also in our sector.

West Berlin was an ace posting, I was at Helmstedt (Checkpoint Alpha) and Olympic Stadium throughout 1980, and travelled extensively between the two. Having said that, I didn't really give much thought to the political situation (and West Berlin was a political objective, not a military one) until after I had left, which is to my eternal shame. There is so much fascinating history surrounding the Wall, especially in the early days, with loads of sabre rattling and bluffing about rights of passage, but I just got caught up in the typical squaddy loop. Border crossing at Checkpoint Charlie, with mega cheap nosh in the (dreary) East, and on the lash in the West along the Q'Damm.

I do recall the bargaining with Sov border guards at the Marienborn crossing (DDR - FRG border) as the wrecker always had a side bin stashed with Gratton Catalogues and Zippo lighters, which we'd swap for hats and belt buckles. (They loved the catalogues, as the wives/girlfriends used to make their own clothes after the western fashion.)

I really cannot ever remember being told what might happen in the event of war. Too pissed probably. We all knew we'd be surrounded in quick order, but I'm pretty sure there wouldn't have been a Stalingrad 'fight to the last man' situation.

I've been back a few times and done the touristy bit, and I love the city, but it's not as I remembered it.

Apologies to the OP, I'm no help at all, just rambling on.

Spent a week in Berlin as a guest of 7 Flt, including a tour of East Berlin NVA barracks and railway sidings, plus a visit to the Soviet Army museum at Karlshorst. Appearing seemingly out of nowhere in our Range Rover outside the gates would have the NVA conscripts running around like headless chickens to find blankets to drape over the gates. The 'Kriegslok' engines producing steam to run electricity generators, and the sang-froid of the Soviet Army SNCO museum guide made it a fascinating trip, as did the more 'cultural' aspects.