Some escapes from East Berlin During the Cold War

I have Blogged about Berlin a lot since I started blogging back in 2011.  I have a connection to that city as I have for Stuttgart.  I remember walking around the city from the West Berlin part to the East Berlin part and how different they were, the vibrant West and the Dour East. 

When the Second World War was finally over, Germany was divided up into four occupation zones among the Allied forces. Berlin was also divided up into four sectors between the USA, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union. Tensions between the Soviets and America, the UK, and France grew strong over the following two years which culminated in the latter three uniting the non-Soviet controlled zones of the city into one to promote reconstruction in post-war Berlin, during this time in the 1950’s there was mass emigration from the Eastern Bloc across to the occupied Allied zones, and 3.5million East Germans managed to defect from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) before the wall was built.
The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 with the purpose of preventing any emigration and defection from East Germany to West Germany and in it’s lifetime saw approximately 5,000 people attempt escapes over, or under it. The death toll ranges from 136 to more than 200 people in and around Berlin. Some of these escape attempts were incredibly creative.

During the nights of October 3^rd and 4^th, 1964, the largest mass escape of East Berlin was conducted with 57 people managing to escape through a tunnel underneath an apartment block in Strelitzer Straße. The tunnel itself was two feet high and three feet wide, and the people making the leap could not bring any baggage or belongings with them, only their papers. They came out on Bernauer Straße, underneath a disused bakery in West Berlin.

The plaque marking Tunnel 57 in Berlin. By N-Lange.de – CC BY-SA 3.0

On the second night two men came with a group of border guards and gunfire broke out, one of the East German border guards, Egon Schultz, was killed after an escape helper, Christian Zobel, opened fire and shot him. He was then hit by friendly fire from another guard and fatally wounded.
There is a memorial plaque on the site to commemorate the escape and the death of Schultz.

A trapeze artist living in East Berlin had been banned from performing due to his beliefs being anti-communist, so went over the wall on a tightrope to escape to West Berlin. Horst Klein said he ‘couldn’t live any longer without the smell of the circus’ to newspapers in the city at the time and in December 1962 he made his brave escape over the wall.
Klein climbed an electricity pole near the Wall and went across the cable, over the infamous Death Strip in between the two walls dividing Berlin using his hands. When his arms became too tired he then inched his way across the disused power cable and then fell from the cable into West Berlin. He broke both of his arms as a result, but was free to perform again.

The Berlin Wall today, covered in graffiti. By Tony Webster – CC BY 2.0

Two brothers, Ingo and Holger, in West Germany were determined to rescue their third brother, Egbert, who was stuck in East Berlin. Ingo had escaped East Berlin in 1974 and Holger in 1983, Ingo fled through fences and minefields before floating across the Elbe river on an air matters and Holger used a zip line he created to get to West Berlin.

Their rescue mission went so far as learning how to fly planes, and then painted two ultralight planes in a Soviet style with red stars.
The daring attempt took place in May 1989, when they disguised themselves in military uniforms and flew the planes into East Berlin where they picked up their brother and brought him back. The three brothers were reunited for the first time in a decade.

The Berlin Wall death strip and a guard tower. By GeorgeLouis – CC BY-SA 3.0

Two families made a fearless attempt to escape via hot air balloon. Hans Peter Stelczyk, an aircraft mechanic, got the idea from an East German TV show on the history of ballooning and made a hot air balloon with his friend Gunter Wetzel, a bricklayer. Together they built the engine from cooking propane cylinders and an iron platform with posts for corners and handholds, and rope anchors while their wives sewed together canvas and bedsheets to make a 72-foot diameter patchwork hot air balloon of sorts.
While their first attempt failed this did not deter the families, and on September 16^th, 1979, they flew across the wall, over minefields and guard towers and crash-landed in West Germany, in a blackberry bush. The total flight time was thirty minutes and families in the town they landed in were quick to offer food and clothing to the escapees.

At 19, Richter swam for four hours across the Teltow Canal in 1966 to reach West Berlin. He said of his ordeal that he was attacked by a swan, there were times where he had to dive underwater to evade the guards and by the time he arrived he ‘had hypothermia and was exhausted’, and then passed out on the shore.
Once he was in West Germany he moved to Hamburg, and in 1971 was released from his East German citizenship. This allowed him to travel to East Germany as a West German resident without any legal consequences, and he saw an opportunity to help those who were still in need.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. By Unknown photographer, Reproduction by Lear 21 – CC BY-SA 3.0.

Richter then came to the aid of others who desperately wanted to get out by returning to East Germany and smuggling out friends in the trunk of his car. He helped more than 30 people escape this way before being caught in March 1976 when border police inspected his car and found his own sister and her boyfriend in the trunk. All three were arrested and Richter was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
West Germany bought his freedom four years later and he was released on October 2^nd, 1980.
Other escape attempts happened through Hungary and Yugoslavia, or across the Baltic Sea. By the time the Berlin Wall fell, to much celebration, in November 1989 almost 200 people had died around the wall, or along the death strip in Berlin.

Fehsenturm Berlin

I had posted this article back in 2012 while surfing for some Berlin stuff, the anniversary for the fall of the Berlin wall is coming soon so I figured it would be a pertinent post and I updated it a little.  

When I went to Berlin for the first time in 1987, I drove the  Helmstedt Berlin Autobahn with Check Point Alpha to Check Point Bravo.  We used "flag orders" that basically had a picture of the American Flag with our names on it in both English, French and Russian.  It gave us travel rights to Berlin through the corridor.  We had to stop at 2 Soviet Checkpoints on the autobahn and unless you "donated" a porn magazine to the Russians behind a wall, you waited exactly 45 minutes for them to stamp your flag orders all the while surrounded by Soviet propaganda for example "Why the American Pershing II missile was a threat to world peace, but somehow the Soviet  SS-20 was exempt, funny how that worked out with the protestors, but I digress.  After your flag order was stamped( I framed one of mine) so you can proceed to the next check point.

 Generic Flag orders.  I wouldn't use mine for

the pic because it has my SSN on it.

  You also had an opportunity to give the guard some money for a soviet military badge or something.( I have a couple laying around).  After you got to  West Berlin it was a 24 hour party.  I had an opportunity to go to East Berlin through the Famous Checkpoint Charlie.
     there were Other Berlin Border Crossings but we couldn't use them by the status of forces agreement and the 4 powers occupation of Berlin.  Berlin still was considered an "occupied" city outside the purview of West Germany and it was run by the Garrison commander of Berlin. 

We were not told to acknowledge the East German Guards since we considered East Germany not the "real" Germany...That was West Germany for us.  The Soviets had the same attitude toward the West Germans.  Once we crossed over to East Berlin, it was dour compared to West Berlin.  We saw scaffolding everywhere so it looked like it was under construction but I still saw the bullet holes in the walls where Marshall Zhukov 1st Bellerussian front crashed into the city in what the locals called Gotterdammerung. or the End of the battle in the east.  If we were hassled by the GDR, we were told to say "Ich Musche mit eine Soviet officer mit zum sprechen."  Here is one of the sights I saw in East Berlin
      
   One of the sights of East Berlin was the Fernsehturm

This is called the "Popes Revenge"  The reason for that was that the Church gave money to the East German government to repair and fix the churches in East Germany, well the East Germans being ardent Godless communist took the money and built this tower instead.
When the sun shines on the Fernsehturm's tiled stainless steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a crucifix. This effect was neither predicted nor desired by the planners. Berliners immediately named the luminous cross Rache des Papstes, or "Pope's Revenge". For the same reasons, the structure was also called "St. Walter" (from Walter Ulbricht).
U.S. President Ronald Reagan mentioned this phenomenon in his "Tear down this wall" speech on 12 June 1987:

"Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexanderplatz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw: treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that towers over all Berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed."

The Fernsehturm (German for "television tower") is a television tower in the city centre of Berlin, Germany. Close to Alexanderplatz and part of the World Federation of Great Towers (WFGT), the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) administration who intended it as a symbol of Berlin, which it remains today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. The Fernsehturm is the tallest structure in Germany.

In 1964, Walter Ulbricht, leader of the Socialist Unity Party which governed East Germany, decided to allow the construction of a television tower on Alexanderplatz, modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart. IT was intended as a show of the GDR's strength, while its location is thought to have been deliberately chosen so that it would impose on views of West Berlin's Reichstag building (when viewed from the front). The architecture traces back to an idea from Hermann Henselmann, and Jörg Streitparth. Walter Herzog and Herbert Aust later also took part in the planning. Construction began on 4 August 1965. After four years of construction, the Fernsehturm began test broadcasts on 3 October 1969, and it was officially inaugurated four days later on the GDR's National Day. It is among the best known sights in Berlin, and has around a million visitors every year.

Construction of the tower had initially begun at a site in southeast Berlin's Müggelberg. However, the project was stopped because such a tall tower in that location would have obstructed aircraft entering and leaving from the nearby Schönefeld International Airport

"Fehsenturm Berlin"

 I was doing some research for another post and I ran across this post I did back in 2012 and I thought it was worth a "Repost"....Yeah I'll see myself out

    I have an attachment to Berlin like Stuttgart where I had spent a lot of time where I was stationed at so long ago.  One day I will fly there and see how it looks.

When I went to Berlin for the first time in 1987, I drove the  Helmstedt Berlin Autobahn with Check Point Alpha to Check Point Bravo. I was attached to Field Station Berlin via Det Wobeck. We used "flag orders" that basically had a picture of the American Flag with our names on it in both English, French and Russian.  It gave us travel rights to Berlin through the corridor.  We had to stop at 2 Soviet Checkpoints on the autobahn and unless you "donated" a porn magazine to the Russians behind a wall, you waited exactly 45 minutes for them to stamp your flag orders all the while surrounded by Soviet propaganda for example "Why the American Pershing II missile was a threat to world peace, but somehow the Soviet  SS-20 was exempt, funny how that worked out with the protestors, but I digress.  After your flag order was stamped( I framed one of mine) so you can proceed to the next check point.

 Generic Flag orders.  I wouldn't use mine for

the pic because it has my SSN on it.

  You also had an opportunity to give the guard some money for a soviet military badge or something.( I have a couple laying around).  After you got to  West Berlin it was a 24 hour party.  I had an opportunity to go to East Berlin through the Famous Checkpoint Charlie.
     there were Other Berlin Border Crossings but we couldn't use them by the status of forces agreement and the 4 powers occupation of Berlin.  Berlin still was considered an "occupied" city outside the purview of West Germany and it was run by the Garrison commander of Berlin. 

We were not told to acknowledge the East German Guards since we considered East Germany not the "real" Germany...That was West Germany for us.  The Soviets had the same attitude toward the West Germans.  Once we crossed over to East Berlin, it was dour compared to West Berlin.  We saw scaffolding everywhere so it looked like it was under construction but I still saw the bullet holes in the walls where Marshall Zhukov 1st Bellerussian front crashed into the city in what the locals called Gotterdammerung. or the End of the battle in the east.  If we were hassled by the GDR, we were told to say "Ich Musche mit eine Soviet officer mit zum sprechen."  Here is one of the sights I saw in East Berlin
      
   One of the sights of East Berlin was the Fernsehturm

This is called the "Popes Revenge"  The reason for that was that the Church gave money to the East German government to repair and fix the churches in East Germany, well the East Germans being ardent Godless communist took the money and built this tower instead.
When the sun shines on the Fernsehturm's tiled stainless steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a crucifix. This effect was neither predicted nor desired by the planners. Berliners immediately named the luminous cross Rache des Papstes, or "Pope's Revenge". For the same reasons, the structure was also called "St. Walter" (from Walter Ulbricht).
U.S. President Ronald Reagan mentioned this phenomenon in his "Tear down this wall" speech on 12 June 1987:

"Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexanderplatz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw: treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that towers over all Berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed."

The Fernsehturm (German for "television tower") is a television tower in the city centre of Berlin, Germany. Close to Alexanderplatz and part of the World Federation of Great Towers (WFGT), the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) administration who intended it as a symbol of Berlin, which it remains today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. The Fernsehturm is the tallest structure in Germany.

In 1964, Walter Ulbricht, leader of the Socialist Unity Party which governed East Germany, decided to allow the construction of a television tower on Alexanderplatz, modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart. IT was intended as a show of the GDR's strength, while its location is thought to have been deliberately chosen so that it would impose on views of West Berlin's Reichstag building (when viewed from the front). The architecture traces back to an idea from Hermann Henselmann, and Jörg Streitparth. Walter Herzog and Herbert Aust later also took part in the planning. Construction began on 4 August 1965. After four years of construction, the Fernsehturm began test broadcasts on 3 October 1969, and it was officially inaugurated four days later on the GDR's National Day. It is among the best known sights in Berlin, and has around a million visitors every year.

Construction of the tower had initially begun at a site in southeast Berlin's Müggelberg. However, the project was stopped because such a tall tower in that location would have obstructed aircraft entering and leaving from the nearby Schönefeld International Airport

Fernsehturm Berlin

When I went to Berlin for the first time in 1987, I drove the  Helmstedt Berlin Autobahn with Check Point Alpha to Check Point Bravo.  We used "flag orders" that basically had a picture of the American Flag with our names on it in both English, French and Russian.  It gave us travel rights to Berlin through the corridor.  We had to stop at 2 Soviet Checkpoints on the autobahn and unless you "donated" a porn magazine to the Russians behind a wall, you waited exactly 45 minutes for them to stamp your flag orders( I framed one of mine) so you can proceed to the next check point.  You also had an opportunity to give the guard some money for a soviet military badge or something.( I have a couple laying around).  After you got to  West Berlin it was a 24 hour party.  I had an opportunity to go to East Berlin through the Famous Checkpoint Charlie.
     there were Other Berlin Border Crossings but we couldn't use them by the status of forces agreement and the 4 powers occupation of Berlin.  Berlin still was considered an "occupied" city outside the purview of West Germany and it was run by the Garrison commander of Berlin. 

We were not told to acknowledge the East German Guards since we considered East Germany not the "real" Germany...That was West Germany for us.  The Soviets had the same attitude toward the West Germans.  Once we crossed over to East Berlin, it was dour compared to West Berlin.  We saw scaffolding everywhere so it looked like it was under construction but I still saw the bullet holes in the walls where Marshall Zhukov 1st Bellerussian front crashed into the city in what the locals called Gotterdammerung. or the End of the battle in the east 
      
   One of the sights of East Berlin was the Fernsehturm

This is called the "Popes Revenge"
When the sun shines on the Fernsehturm's tiled stainless steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a crucifix. This effect was neither predicted nor desired by the planners. Berliners immediately named the luminous cross Rache des Papstes, or "Pope's Revenge". For the same reasons, the structure was also called "St. Walter" (from Walter Ulbricht).
U.S. President Ronald Reagan mentioned this phenomenon in his "Tear down this wall" speech on 12 June 1987:^[3]

"Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexanderplatz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw: treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that towers over all Berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed."

The Fernsehturm (German for "television tower") is a television tower in the city centre of Berlin, Germany. Close to Alexanderplatz and part of the World Federation of Great Towers (WFGT), the tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) administration who intended it as a symbol of Berlin, which it remains today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. The Fernsehturm is the tallest structure in Germany.

In 1964, Walter Ulbricht, leader of the Socialist Unity Party which governed East Germany, decided to allow the construction of a television tower on Alexanderplatz, modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart. IT was intended as a show of the GDR's strength, while its location is thought to have been deliberately chosen so that it would impose on views of West Berlin's Reichstag building (when viewed from the front). The architecture traces back to an idea from Hermann Henselmann, and Jörg Streitparth. Walter Herzog and Herbert Aust later also took part in the planning. Construction began on 4 August 1965. After four years of construction, the Fernsehturm began test broadcasts on 3 October 1969, and it was officially inaugurated four days later on the GDR's National Day. It is among the best known sights in Berlin, and has around a million visitors every year.

Construction of the tower had initially begun at a site in southeast Berlin's Müggelberg. However, the project was stopped because such a tall tower in that location would have obstructed aircraft entering and leaving from the nearby Schönefeld International Airport

Germany bans "U.S Soldiers" from Checkpoint Charlie

When I first saw this article I was thinking "What the hell...?" until I got reading into it.  Apparently they are "Impersonators" The first thing I thought was "Damm, those uniforms look like crap and they guys have no military bearing".until I realized that they are "Civilians".   I have blogged in the past extensively about Berlin.  the only city that I like better than Berlin was Stuttgart, but I was stationed in that area for 5 years and have fond memories of the city and well most all of my experiences in Germany.  

   I would have loved to have gone through there and have those clowns try to shake me down for money...I remember going through it for real and on the other side were Soviet Soldiers and east German Vopo's. 

Actors have impersonated US soldiers at the site for nearly 20 years. GETTY

Actors wearing US Army uniforms have been banned from posing at Checkpoint Charlie, the famous crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

According to authorities in the Mille district of Berlin, the actors were demanding money from tourists for photographs at the historic site where Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse meet.
East and West Berlin were separated by the Berlin Wall from 1961 to 1989. Checkpoint Charlie was one of three crossing points in and around the city during that time.
The others were Checkpoint Alpha and Checkpoint Bravo. The three sites were named for the first three letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Checkpoint Charlie connected the American Zone with East Berlin. The American Zone was one of three Allied-controlled zones in West Berlin. Charlie was the only point for foreigners visiting Berlin could cross between the two sides of the wall.
Charlie was famous for a standoff in October 1961 between US and Soviet tanks. It was dismantled in June, 1990, when German reunification was nearly complete. Now it is one of the prime tourist attractions in Berlin.
Germany is celebrating 30 years since the dismantling of the Wall which had been designed to keep residents of communist East Berlin from moving to the democratic West Berlin.
Authorities revoked the performing license for Dance Factory, the group of performers who posed at the checkpoint.
According to the actors, they only accepted voluntary payments for photos and souvenir passport stamps.

Barrack, house in the checkpoint Charlie, middle, Berlin, Germany, Baracke, Haus am Checkpoint Charlie. GETTY.

But the city received numerous complaints from tourists about the tactics of the Dance Factory performers. An undercover operation consisting of police officers posing as tourists found that the actors were demanding a €4 ($4.5; £3.5) fee and being verbally abusive to anyone who refused to pay.

The wall came down in November 9th, 1989. GETTY

According to Stefanie Kunze, a spokesperson for the Mille district, actors were literally forcing people to pay for pictures with the performers.
Kunze said that the group was never authorized to pose as US soldiers and that police had merely tolerated them until now. She said that the authorities will be monitoring the site and will intervene id any imposter soldiers try to continue working at the checkpoint.

GETTY

Berlin requires groups that charge money to obtain a permit for their performances.
For over 20 years, actors have posed as US soldiers at the site. Many in Berlin have expressed dissatisfaction with turning the site into a tourist trap. Among other things for sale in the area are fake Soviet Red Army fur hats, gas masks, and pieces of the Berlin Wall.
The location of Checkpoint Charlie today consists of a row of bricks which mark the path of the Wall. A replica of the booth and sign are there but the original booth and sign are now in the Allied Museum in Berlin-Dahlem.

Tom Luszeit, the head of Dance Factory, disputes that figure. He told CBS News that he would be a millionaire if they made that kind of money. He also disputed that any of the performers abused visitors to the site.

The Berlin Wall and my experiences

This  is a repost of a post that I did back in 2014, it did talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall and my experiences.  When I was talking about the petulant "Boy King" I was referring to President Obama who was president in 2014 not to President Trump who is president now in 2018

I have Blogged about Berlin a lot since I started blogging back in 2011.  I have a connection to that city as I have for Stuttgart.  I remember walking around the city from the West Berlin part to the East Berlin part and how different they were, the vibrant West and the Dour East. 

When the Second World War was finally over, Germany was divided up into four occupation zones among the Allied forces. Berlin was also divided up into four sectors between the USA, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union. Tensions between the Soviets and America, the UK, and France grew strong over the following two years which culminated in the latter three uniting the non-Soviet controlled zones of the city into one to promote reconstruction in post-war Berlin

   As many of y'all that visit my little corner of the internet know that I spent 5 years in Germany, I got there in mid 1986, and DEROS's back to the world in 1991 where I mustered out.  I spent the first 18 months attached to the 1st Infantry Division (FWD) at Cooke Barracks in Geoppingen Germany.  I then transferred to a corp level asset in 1988 at Echterdingen or SAAF(Stuttgart Army Airfield). That is where I was when we got deployed to the Persian Gulf for Desert Shield then Desert Storm.  But I was stationed in Germany when they unified in 1989.
     I will intersperse my experiences with some photo's I took of my souvenirs.  You know what they say about G.I's...."We souvenir anything long time".  My first time in Berlin was in 1987 while I was attached to Wobeck a station near Helmstedt a part of Field Station Berlin.  I took my Mustang down the Helmstedt autobahn, The Helmstedt Autobahn is the only land route that we as Americans can drive through East Germany to Berlin.  We have to use "Flag Orders" to traverse the Autobahn to Berlin.  We would have to stop at 2 Soviet checkpoints.  We would be in class "A's" uniform, get out of the vehicle, present our flag orders to the soviet representative  at Magneburg and at Potsdam.

 This is a copy of a set of flag orders, Mine has my SSN on it and for obvious reasons, I ain't posting that one......

 Well when I went to Berlin, it was  a surreal experience, this is a link of my travels and various postings, West Berlin was a 24 hour party and east Germany was very subdued.  We exercised our rights of travel in East Berlin on a regular basis.  I would walk around and explore the sights.  I saw scaffolding everywhere, like they were rebuilding, but the wood for the scaffolding was dry rotted.  the buildings still had bullet pock marks in the wall when the Soviets took the city in 1945.  If we were hassled by the east Germans we would ask or demand "Ich murste mit eine Soviet Officer mit zum sprechen".  I want to speak to a Soviet officer.  Since the Soviets were in charge of East Berlin and the Western powers were responsible for West Berlin.
     I remembered President Reagan speech in 1987 in West Berlin.

   This is when we had a President that behaved like a President rather than the petulant boy-king we have now.  But when the East Germans were going through Czechoslovakia and Hungary to get to the West and the East German Government started cracking down and we increased out alert status because we had doubts on what the Soviets will do, for in the past they did interfere with protest like they did in East Germany in 1953, Hungary in 1956, and Czechoslovakia in 1968.  Poland almost got invaded by the "Warsaw Pact" in the early 80's during the Solidarity Protest but the Polish government declared martial law and other draconian measures to basically placate the soviets so they didn't get the "assistance" from the Warsaw pact like the other places did.

        When the unrest grew, we increased our surveillance  to see what the Soviets would do.  when the wall started to come down, we were confined to garrison for 2 reasons, one to prevent an incident with an American near the border and in case the Soviets attacked, we would be able to ramp up to a wartime footing.   Luckily such things didn't happen.  But watching the party and celebration on AFN was like being in the twilight zone, we were watching history before our eyes and all we could do was hold on for the ride and hope for the best.

       We started seeing the ""Trabbi's" on the autobahns and nothing like doing 130 MPH's and seeing a trabbi doing 50 mph packed full of "Osters" going to the west to see the sights.
     Well I did collect some souvenirs of my time after the wall fell.

Beer Stein

My flag orders and a "DDR" country tag

A picture of the Brandenburg Tor with British Tanks in front of it.  A "SMLM" ID tag in front of it.

A bunch of my Soviet and East German hats, I got a lot of stuff with some dollars and Western Pron magazines.

The Sector sign that is immortalized.

 East German hat and helmets.

Yes that is a Soviet and East German flag.   My "man-cave" has a lot of stuff from my travels.

    I do want to go back to Berlin and Germany to  see how things have changed.   I hope to do this journey fairly soon and take my son with me and he can see how things were and how things have changed.   We saw some exciting times and were on the fore front of history

The Wall Came Down 30 years ago.

Hard to believe that it has been 30 years ago that the wall came down.  It was surreal experience for us.  We were watching TV and it felt like the "Twilight Zone".

Closeup of my Picture

Map of Wall Location

Piece of Wall

This  is a repost of a post that I did back in 2014, it did talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall and my experiences.  When I was talking about the petulant "Boy King" I was referring to President Obama who was president in 2014 not to President Trump who is president now in 2019

I have Blogged about Berlin a lot since I started blogging back in 2011.  I have a connection to that city as I have for Stuttgart.  I remember walking around the city from the West Berlin part to the East Berlin part and how different they were, the vibrant West and the Dour East. 

When the Second World War was finally over, Germany was divided up into four occupation zones among the Allied forces. Berlin was also divided up into four sectors between the USA, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union. Tensions between the Soviets and America, the UK, and France grew strong over the following two years which culminated in the latter three uniting the non-Soviet controlled zones of the city into one to promote reconstruction in post-war Berlin

   As many of y'all that visit my little corner of the internet know that I spent 5 years in Germany, I got there in mid 1986, and DEROS's back to the world in 1991 where I mustered out.  I spent the first 18 months attached to the 1st Infantry Division (FWD) at Cooke Barracks in Geoppingen Germany.  I then transferred to a corp level asset in 1988 at Echterdingen or SAAF(Stuttgart Army Airfield). That is where I was when we got deployed to the Persian Gulf for Desert Shield then Desert Storm.  But I was stationed in Germany when they unified in 1989.
     I will intersperse my experiences with some photo's I took of my souvenirs.  You know what they say about G.I's...."We souvenir anything long time".  My first time in Berlin was in 1987 while I was attached to Wobeck a station near Helmstedt a part of Field Station Berlin.  I took my Mustang down the Helmstedt autobahn, The Helmstedt Autobahn is the only land route that we as Americans can drive through East Germany to Berlin.  We have to use "Flag Orders" to traverse the Autobahn to Berlin.  We would have to stop at 2 Soviet checkpoints.  We would be in class "A's" uniform, get out of the vehicle, present our flag orders to the soviet representative  at Magneburg and at Potsdam.

 This is a copy of a set of flag orders, Mine has my SSN on it and for obvious reasons, I ain't posting that one......

 Well when I went to Berlin, it was  a surreal experience, this is a link of my travels and various postings, West Berlin was a 24 hour party and east Germany was very subdued.  We exercised our rights of travel in East Berlin on a regular basis.  I would walk around and explore the sights.  I saw scaffolding everywhere, like they were rebuilding, but the wood for the scaffolding was dry rotted.  the buildings still had bullet pock marks in the wall when the Soviets took the city in 1945.  If we were hassled by the east Germans we would ask or demand "Ich murste mit eine Soviet Officer mit zum sprechen".  I want to speak to a Soviet officer.  Since the Soviets were in charge of East Berlin and the Western powers were responsible for West Berlin.

     I remembered President Reagan speech in 1987 in West Berlin.

   This is when we had a President that behaved like a President rather than the petulant boy-king we have now.  But when the East Germans were going through Czechoslovakia and Hungary to get to the West and the East German Government started cracking down and we increased out alert status because we had doubts on what the Soviets will do, for in the past they did interfere with protest like they did in East Germany in 1953, Hungary in 1956, and Czechoslovakia in 1968.  Poland almost got invaded by the "Warsaw Pact" in the early 80's during the Solidarity Protest but the Polish government declared martial law and other draconian measures to basically placate the soviets so they didn't get the "assistance" from the Warsaw pact like the other places did.

        When the unrest grew, we increased our surveillance  to see what the Soviets would do.  when the wall started to come down, we were confined to garrison for 2 reasons, one to prevent an incident with an American near the border and in case the Soviets attacked, we would be able to ramp up to a wartime footing.   Luckily such things didn't happen.  But watching the party and celebration on AFN was like being in the twilight zone, we were watching history before our eyes and all we could do was hold on for the ride and hope for the best.

       We started seeing the ""Trabbi's" on the autobahns and nothing like doing 130 MPH's and seeing a trabbi doing 50 mph packed full of "Osters" going to the west to see the sights.
     Well I did collect some souvenirs of my time after the wall fell.

Beer Stein

My flag orders and a "DDR" country tag

A picture of the Brandenburg Tor with British Tanks in front of it.  A "SMLM" ID tag in front of it.

A bunch of my Soviet and East German hats, I got a lot of stuff with some dollars and Western Pron magazines.

The Sector sign that is immortalized.

 East German hat and helmets.

Yes that is a Soviet and East German flag.   My "man-cave" has a lot of stuff from my travels.

    I do want to go back to Berlin and Germany to  see how things have changed.   I hope to do this journey fairly soon and take my son with me and he can see how things were and how things have changed.   We saw some exciting times and were on the fore front of history

The First time the Soviets blinked...

 I wanted to get away from current events for a bit and go back to the historical post that I normally do on my blog because the current event stuff really pisses me off so to save my blood pressure, I changed up a bit, LOL


I have blogged a lot about Berlin, I was attached to one of the communities associated with Berlin during the cold war.  Next to my love of Stuttgart,  I have a keen attachment to that city.  One day I want to return to Berlin and Stuttgart and see how thing have changed.   Now for some background.
    After the war, Germany and Berlin was partitioned into 4 areas of responsibility by the victors of the war, The Soviets got the eastern half of Germany and the eastern half of Berlin and according to the agreement at Yalta, I believe they got the honor of capturing Berlin, Eisenhower was fine with that idea, from what I have read, he didn't want to sacrifice American lives in a symbolic gestures of capturing the German capital,  Stalin wanted that feather, he didn't care about casualties, just the bragging rights.  Eisenhower had the mindset that "sure, capture the capital, then have to give half of it back to the rest of the allies"  George Patton of course incensed that we let the Godless communist capture the capital.but I digress. Well anyway in my mind this factored in the attitude about forcing the allies out of Berlin in 1948 in Stalin's mind, the Red Army paid for for it, anyway they the Soviets already owned it. 

 I clipped the following article off one of the history magazines I have in my bookmarks.

June 25, 1948, the Soviet Union, flush with the success of driving the Nazis out of Russia, was becoming piqued at the US and British. Relations were rotten. The Soviet Communists had imported their dictatorial politics to East Germany and were losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the Germans. You see, the Germans had seen years of Allied generosity and a willingness to restore democratic freedoms that Hitler had removed since the 1930s. Given a choice, the Germans were choosing the Western ideals.

The Soviets would have no part of it. Or should I say the Communists since the resistance to the West did not come from the Russian people, it came from the Communist Party which saw the clash in Berlin as a PR disaster in the making.

Soon the Communists decided that they were simply going to elbow the Americans French and the British out of Berlin altogether. ‘The transport division of the Soviet military administration is ordered to halt all passenger and freight traffic to and from Berlin tomorrow at 0600 hours because of technical difficulties. West Berlin will receive electricity only between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m….’

It escalated to April 1st, 1948, when U.S. authorities had refused to submit to Soviet inspection of military rail shipments. A fight was avoided by negotiations. But a passive aggressive stance became the tactic of the day when on June 15th, Communist forces shut down the autobahn. Their claim was that it needed repairs.

U.S. Navy Douglas R4D and U.S. Air Force C-47 aircraft unload at Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Airlift. The first aircraft is a C-47A-90-DL (s/n 43-15672).

Although Douglas C-47 Skytrains from the 60th and 61st Troop Carrier Groups at Kaufbeuren and Rhein-Main were flying trips daily West Berlin and Royal Air Force were also flying daily trips, it was on June 26th that the so-called Berlin Airlift officially commenced.

The East Berlin authorities banned all land river and rail service to re-supply the Eastern portion of the city. The Allied occupational forces had managed to keep three 20-mile-wide air corridors into East Germany open. Give someone an inch; they’ll take a mile. In this case, it was three airstrips, and the amount of tonnage flown in this effort is to this day still nothing short of phenomenal.

One of the biggest games of chicken between the US and Russia began here. The Communists made a few miscalculations. First, they thought they would win the cooperation of the East Germans by punishing them with an embargo. Then they thought that we would stand by idly while they acted just like the dictator everyone had just been subjected to. Finally, they misjudged the airlift capacity of the Allied forces and the will to implement the plan. It was called “Operation Vittles.”

General Lucius D. Clay was the highest ranking American officer in West Germany contacted called Lt. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, the commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe.

Berliners watch a Douglas C-54 Skymaster land at Tempelhof Airport, 1946

General LeMay’s staff calculated what a resupply mission of this sort would require with the aircraft available in the theater. The 2,000 tons of coal and 1,439 tons of food per day to for 2 million inhabitants was not possible with the C-47s sitting around.

Berlin’s Lord Mayor-Elect Ernst was ready to capitulate, but was talked out of it by Americans who basically said: “have a little faith.”

All C-47s in Western Europe were ordered to stage into Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, where two large American bases sat near the East German border.

Also, four-engine Douglas C-54 Gooney Bird transports that could carry 10 tons each were ordered from Central America, the Pacific theater, Alaska, and the continental United States. Ground crews, mostly out of work German civilians loaded supplies. The RAF offered 58 Douglas C-47 Dakotas, a few Handley Page Hastings, and 40 Avro York aircraft. They used Gatow in the British sector as a base of operations.

Within days, a C-47 was landing at Tempelhof every eight minutes; well over 150 planeloads a day, but it was a fraction of what was needed. Berliners were already beginning to dig into their pantries.

A classic propaganda war ensued and this one the Soviet press could not win. The evil Communists try and starve their unwilling constituents, and the West comes to the rescue. Tempelhof Airbase in East Berlin had become ground zero at the beginning of the Cold War. It had gone from winding down to one or two flights a day to constant air traffic in and out. Reporters from the west and the east milled about watching what the Germans were calling Die Luftbrücke or air bridge.

Inside West Germany, technically skilled Russians, engineers, and equipment operators were forcibly deported to areas of need in Russia. Did they think that after the suffering of the previous years there wouldn’t be a network of people to leak this information? These people had been silently resisting for so long that it was in their blood to stand up against tyranny.

Did they think the neighbors of the Germans who were forcibly relocated would sit by and do nothing? Stalin was a one trick pony: he screwed everyone before they could screw him. Stalin thought that the tactics he used to shove competitors out of the way in post-Tsarist Russia would work in a post-WWII multi-national alliance. He thought he could force the Allies out of Germany, and he wanted a united German capital thriving under Communist rule, and eventually a united Germany under his thumb.

A U. S. Air Force C-74 Globemaster plane touched down at Gatow airfield located in southwestern Berlin, Germany on Tuesday with more than 20 tons of flour from the United States. “Operation Vittles” otherwise known as the Berlin Airlift (June 24, 1948-May 12, 1949) was a combined effort of the western allies against the Soviet Union’s blockade of all land routes into Berlin. The German children look on as the flour bags are lowered on August 19, 1948

There is a psychology behind his instincts. The Germans went after Stalingrad because it was his namesake. He would try and turn the tables on Hitler and end up ruling all of Germany instead.

Only one thing stood in his way: The US and Allied airlift capability.

In August, Allies lifted 121,000 tons and West Berliners were gradually getting enough to live on comfortably. Seeing that two airfields could not carry the load, a new airport Tegel, was steamrolled in the French sector. The steamrollers had to be cut into sections and re-assembled in East Berlin because they were too large for the C-54s.

Eventually veteran Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner, a World War II who organized the re-supply operations from India to China was called on. Soon he was named commander of the Combined Airlift Task Force. The first thing he did was schedule regular heavy maintenance. Engines were maintained by the Navy machine shops at Alameda Naval Air Station, California.

The bitter winter weather also strained operations. Icing was a huge problem because the volume of the supplies allowed little time for maintenance on runways.

Tunner said in an interview ‘What I found was badly needed was better timing of the flying operation….Valuable time was wasted in Berlin as crews landed, parked, shut off engines, took off for the snack bar and then strolled over to Operations to make out their return clearances. I laid down an order: No crew member was to leave the side of his aircraft while the Germans unloaded it.

Each plane would be met by an operations officer who would hand the pilot his return clearance all filled out, and a weather officer would give him the latest weather back at his home base. Mobile snack bars tended by ladies in Berlin would move to the side of each plane. Turn-around time was cut in half to 30 minutes.’

Tunner’s changes made the flights much more efficient. He forced crews to make instrument landings to avoid delays due to the weather. Plus the total route was 120 miles often through bad weather. Most of the Air Force pilots were 30 to 60 days away from home. They were mostly part-time and reserve force pilots.

‘Things like poor mail service, no curtains on the windows so crews could sleep in the daytime, and poor washing facilities took on huge proportions,’ Tunner said. He created a competition and published loading times to see if he could motivate crews to outperform each other. Remember people were still exhausted from the clean up of central Germany after the war. It’s not like there wasn’t a ton to do around airfields of a country that is trying to rebuild itself. In 1949 a 12-man crew C-54 loading crew loaded 20,000 pounds in five minutes and 45 seconds.

 

There was a shortage of trained aircraft maintenance people and crews trained for a rigorous full load take-offs day and night. At Great Falls Air Force Base in Montana, replacement pilots were trained. The narrow air corridors, the approach to the three bases inside West Germany, and the instrument landings were duplicated exactly for practice. C-54s were loaded with 64,000 pounds of sand for practice flights, and flying these re-supply missions was so strenuous and exacting that three landings were required at 70,000 pounds before a pilot qualified.

An RAF Short Sunderland moored on the Havel near Berlin unloading salt during the airlift

By the end of September, the Dakotas were taken off line and 225 C-54s were doing the hard work. An East German spy, stationed in an apartment house and noting the unloading of every plane at Tempelhof, was reportedly punished by authorities who thought he was just making up the tonnage totals.

Few realize how close this came to becoming a shooting war. American P-80 Shooting Stars and P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft flew escort and combat air patrols. A Soviet anti-aircraft artillery unit moved in front of the RAF field at Gatow and fired incendiary bullets at British aircraft in and around Gatow. Over 700 times Soviets made aggressive movements towards aircraft during Operation Vittles. These included dropping fake bombs, releasing barrage balloons, live firing at and near aircraft and jamming radio signals.

The airlift didn’t actually end until September 30, 1948. Total flights: 276,926, total passengers, 227,655; Total days of operation, 321; total supply tonnage 2,323,067; total taxpayer costs to Americans, $345 million, to the Brits, 17 million pounds; to the Germans, 150 million Deutschmarks; total lives: Seventy-five American and British.

By the Spring of 1949, it became obvious to the Russians that not only was the plan going to work; The Airlift was now flying in more tonnage per day than they were previously sending in by rail. During a 90 day period in 1948, the total tonnage of all US 18 domestic carriers including mail and cargo and passengers amounted to 3,119 tons. That was less than the amount of cargo carried into Berlin in one day at the operational zenith.

It was the first major loss in the Cold War for the Soviets. They had miscalculated. They couldn’t imagine the will of the Americans and British and French to spend all this time and effort just to make a point.

On May 12th, 1949, the Soviets blinked.