Occupied Berlin, 1945-1990 Allied Forces (US, British, French, Soviet)
Article about: I wanted to start a thread about the Occupying Forces in the City of Berlin from 1945 up to reunification in the 1990s. There are some members here who served in the Occupied City, myself in
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Yes "Die Luftbruecke" was a very tense time for sure and one firmly set in the history of the city. I actually met many Berliners who had fond childhood memories of the "Candy Bombers".
The really relevant point was however, the Allied determination not to give in to Soviet intimidation and pressure. In the end there was only so much "middle finger" the Sovs could take before completely losing face (we all hate that but they just could not bear it) and quietly backing down as if they had "proved a point".
A long lasting knock-on effect of the situation was the Allied resolve that there would never be a repeat of such near starvation if another "siege" were imposed. In the British Sector and I believe the French and US too huge stock piles of rations and fuel were established that were designed to keep the whole city from starving over several months if the need arose.
Of course the Soviets knew this (they were supposed to) which made another blockade very unattractive.
However, such stocks have to be rotated which in the British Sector had the happy consequence of FRIS, The Family Ration Issue Scheme. This allowed the rotating stocks to be sold on a ration basis at cheaper than retail prices to all the service families (a great deal was used in cookhouses / messes for single personnel but no way could they eat it all!!). Each married quarter had a ration book which contained huge shopping lists and two aluminium "FRIS Bins". Orders were placed twice weekly in advance for delivery on the same day of the following week. The order was delivered in one FRIS Bin and the empty one which was left on the doorstep containg the next "shopping list" was taken away for use with the next delivery. At the end of each month the FRIS bill was deducted from the soldiers salary. The scheme covered canned and fresh meat, dairy, baked, frozen goods, fruit and veg as well as various grocery items.
It was fantastic. One thing I remember particulary is big 1kg tins of ground coffee with a simple plain yellow lable from a local Berlin supplier which I am sure was called Otto Boenicke. My sincere thanks go out to the Group of Soviet Forces Germany for such a great perk. Thanks guys we really enjoyed it. I only hope you enjoyed your tinned pork fat and pickled apples as much
Regards
Mark
PS this was of course on top of the Fuel, tobacco and spirits "ration" which wasn't a ration as to how much you could get but an allowance as to how much you could buy at duty free prices which in most cases was about half of the retail price. If you were that needy you could still buy more at full price.
Last edited by Watchdog; 11-06-2020 at 09:57 PM.
Reason: PS
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
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"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
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Someday I hope to go back to Berlin to see what it looks like now..
Of course most of the areas I remember are now gone or have been repurposed since the forces departed but I would like to see if I could still get around the city streets by memory..
We also had several "houses" that were I imagine quite often frequented by our troops.. What interaction with the "working ladies" I recalled was that they usually stayed away from US Soldier's for whatever reason, but I dated a US girl who was a technician at the US Army Hospital for a while and then I dated an East German girl before the Wall came down as we were permitted to go on pass into East Berlin... She worked at a restaurant at Alexander Platz.. Cooked my meal right at my table on a small stove.. Was quite impressive..
Smitty
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Last edited by Watchdog; 11-06-2020 at 11:29 PM.
Reason: Typo
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
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A few years ago I also went back to Berlin. You are right, the city is no longer like it was during the Cold War.
The wall is gone, no more passport checks, no allied occupation forces, even the smell of Lignite has disappeared.
The city has been refurbished and has become a city like all other German cities with plenty to do and to experience.
Today you have to look for remnants of the Cold War, but if you search carefully, they are sure to be found.
And what could be more fun than photographing these objects with an analogue SLR camera.
An East German-made SLR camera, a Praktica. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Flags of the Allied occupation forces (and also a NATO flag) at Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, Friedrichstrasse.
Coat of arms of the GDR. I think it comes from a former GDR border crossing.
It also decorates the facade of Haus am Checkpoint Charlie.
A lonely Trabant in the Glaschkestrasse. In my opinion they are becoming
increasingly rare in the Berlin traffic scene.
At the back of the Stasi museum, in the Magdalenenstrasse,
I photographed an East German-made sewer cover.
Haus 22 of the Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Normannenstrasse (Stasi Museum).
Remains of the Berlin Wall at the Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer, Bernauer Strasse.
Close-up.
Close-up.
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Beautiful photos.. I sure miss those days...
Smitty
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How about some R n R....golf cart tag ~1970…from my dads clubs
"Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life" - Herbert Henry Asqulth
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KatManDude,,
Excellent example...
These small but significant items are very interesting and indicative of the Occupying Powers in Berlin..
I personally didn't know these existed, although I was aware of the Golf Club,, never went though...
Thank you for sharing
Smitty
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[QUOTE=Rakkasan187;2125765]One of the methods of travel from West Berlin to West Germany by US Soldiers and dependents was the US Army Duty Train. Smitty[QUOTE]
Yes, the military trains were really far more significant than most people realised.
The US Forces ran two, one to Frankfurt and one to Bremerhaven to serve both the US Zone of Germany and the Port detachments on the Northern coast which were actually at the top of the British Zone. They both travelled overnight as I recall. I travelled on the route to Bremehaven when I went to meet family off the ferry at Hamburg before driving back to Berlin. The train dropped me in the very salubrious bahnhof area of town where I enjoyed about three hours hanging around for my connection to Hamburg and it was winter!!
The French operated one train from Berlin-Tegel to I think Strasbourg crossing the West German border at Mulhouse. It was an overnighter too but I don't know much about that.
The British train ran during the day, morning out / evening back, from Berlin-Charlottenburg to Braunschweig.
The timetabling was officially arranged in order to meet connections to onward journeys but I alway figured it had more to do with using the whole 24 hour clock so as the Soviets could never say "Well you don't use it during the night so there is clearly no need for us to staff the checkpoints", we would always try to avoid allowing them to perceive precedents!
The Flag Order shown by Smitty is virtually identical to the British and French items but for the Flag symbol and the unit stamps.
The British ones were known as Berlin Travel Documents (BTD) used both on the road and railway corridors. BTD/A was for Helmstedt to Berlin, BTD/B was Berlin to Helmstedt and BTD/C was British Sector to Soviet Sector via Checkpoint Charlie.
The British Military Train aka "The Berliner" ran as I say during the day and was very much like a luxury Pullman service of years past. In the dining car breakfast and lunch were served on the way out and dinner on the return. There were even several "Berliner" wines with the Royal Corps of Transport cap badge and special Berliner logo. It was fantastic and non "duty" passengers (they tended to outnumber duty passengers) who were just travelling on a day trip to Braunschweig were charged the princely sum of DM10. Think about that, three restaurant style meals with silver service for the price of Bratwurst mit pommes and a beer
It was not unusual for units to hold mess functions on the train. A day shopping etc in Braunschweig then back to the train and change into mess kit (evening wear for the ladies) then pre-dinner drinks, regimental dinner and the time honoured tradition of "Port at Potsdam" when the train was processed through the Soviet checkpoint on re-entry to Berlin.
It was fantastic a real perk of being stationed in Berlin.
I always thought that the "Berliner" was deliberate statement making and a demonstration of the fact that Soviet obstruction was not having the desired result of deterring the "decadent Westerners"
As, I think, all three trains crossed the Inner German Border at the Marienborn / Helmstedt checkpoint the large number of parked armoured vehicles tha Smitty refers to were I believe at the NVA repair workshops at Kirchmoser where the trains would stop in sidings whilst the engines were changed from a DDR unit to a W.German DBB one.
There were hundreds of T55 mostly all packed like sardines very close to the fence and easy to see. The idea was I imagine to strike fear into the hearts of those same decadent Westerners at the sight of Warsaw Pact might but to anyone who knew anything about military armoured vehicles they were clearly all unserviceable probably even scrappers. They were dirty, rusty with bits missing and all with main armament barrels pointing up and collecting rainwater. Kind of a "smoke and mirrors trick" without the smole Of course, passing there in the dark all you would discern was rows and rows of tanks. It was just us Brits who should have been too full of beer and wine to make the distinction right? The truth is that the Allied Intel bods just yawned
Sadly I don't have any pics as cameras were strongly forbidden so as not to give the Sovs any chance to make a fuss!
I did find a couple of pics online to give an idea and as the British interpreters were all attached to my unit from other regiments the one shown saluting the Soviet officer on the station platform (Marienborn) is a personal friend of mine as are the guys in mess kit enjoying a glass of port (am I in the pic? I can neither confirm or deny that)
As the saying goes "The bad old days weren't always bad"
Regards
Mark
Last edited by Watchdog; 12-10-2020 at 09:24 AM.
Reason: Typo
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
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