Occupied Berlin, 1945-1990 Allied Forces (US, British, French, Soviet)

[Watchdog]

This is exactly the stuff!

Lets see some more.

Regards

Mark

[Rakkasan187]

Shopping in East Berlin was exciting.. I went to an East Berlin toy store and bought some East German and Soviet tanks and some toy Soldiers. They were made pretty well and I thought it was neat to have a toy Solider from our adversary at the time.. Never thought of having an East German toy Soldier with an AK-47...The tanks and trucks although rudimentary in build and design still gave our anti-armor specialists an idea of what the shapes of the vehicles looked like...

Smitty

[drmessimer]

[center][center]Attachment 1426099
We did driver training and gunnery range-finding at Lichterfelde (West)

I and my TC, SFC Greg Sergent standing next to the zone border. I was a Cpl. Gunner at that time. You were fine if you stayed in the 3 western sectors, but in deep trouble if you wandered into the Zone, or for that matter into the east sector. That happened occasionally when a GI went to sleep on the S-Bahn (elevated train that ran through and across Berlin). I did that once and got lucky. The conductor who found me asleep in the East Sector took 10 DM, all that I had, and put me on the next train back into the west. I never rode the S-Bahn again.

I and my TC, SFC Greg Sergent standing next to the zone border. I was a Cpl. Gunner at that time. You were fine if you stayed in the 3 western sectors, but in deep trouble if you wandered into the Zone, or for that matter into the east sector. That happened occasionally when a GI went to sleep on the S-Bahn (elevated train that ran through and across Berlin). I did that once and got lucky. The conductor who found me asleep in the East Sector took 10 DM, all that I had, and put me on the next train back into the west. I never rode the S-Bahn again.

Speaking of being a Cpl in 1957, I was a Cpl. When I arrived in Berlin, which posed a problem for the company officers; what to do with me. At that time, Cpl. had been replaced with the Specialist-4 rank, a non-NCO rank. I think I was the only Cpl. In Berlin at that time. They could not find a place to put me on the Duty Roster, so I was not included, which was fine with me. Finally, they decided that as a Jr. NCO, I could be the Cpl. Of the Guard. That worked once, after which I was put on the Charge of Quarters list, which was also fine with me because when I came off duty at 0500, I had the next 24-hours off and was free to go where I wanted to go.

Sub-Caliber qualification firing was done on the tank stand at Rose Range, as was our small arms qualification firing. We qualified with the M-2 Carbine, M3A1 (“Grease-gun”) SMG, and the M1911A-1 .45 pistol.

Check Point Charlie 1958

[Rakkasan187]

Those who went on the Liaison Missions into Potsdam will remember the SMLM Cards... or as we called them the "SMELL UM" Cards. These cards were issued to Allied Personnel to help in reporting the actions of Soviet Military in the Allied Sectors.. It was commonly known that Soviets would come into the US , Brit and French sectors to watch troop training and other aspects of our daily life. The Soviets didn't try to hide their intentions nor did we when we went in to East Berlin and Potsdam.. I have some pictures of a Soviet Car that followed my unit to the Brandenburg Gate one time. We were going to take a unit photo with the Gate and Berlin Wall as the backdrop... Of Course the Soviets were curious so they drove up pretty close to our unit and I was able to snap a few pictures of them before they drove off.. Those pictures are in a photo album that I will get out and scan some of the pictures to add here...

Smitty

[Rakkasan187]

Keep them coming.. These are stunning pictures and they bring back tons of memories.. Rose Range, Parks Range, Turner Barracks, McNair, Andrews, Clay Compound.. Best time I ever had in the Army...

Smitty

[drmessimer]

Smitty, you guys were much more active that we were. Our activities were parades and firing salutes at Tempelhof. We got called out on an alert in 58 when the Russians held-up a USA convoy at Checkpoint Bravo on the Autobahn, but I didn't go into East Berlin at all until I was a civilian, and the only trips our company took outside of Berlin were for annual field training in Grafenwöhr. We went down there a platoon at a time for two weeks. I have photos of one of those trips and some good stories, but they do not belong here.

[Rakkasan187]

dr...

Post them here.. I thought about it and a large portion of our training was done outside of Berlin in Graf, Wildflecken and other places.. So it is still keeping with the main theme of the topic of the Berlin Occupation Forces...

For example French Commando School which was offered to us was outside of Berlin so I see no issues...

The organic unit was still a Berlin Based unit but we had to go outside the city to train in many cases with our tanks and other larger weapons which were forbidden to be fired within the city...

Smitty

[Rakkasan187]

Here are a few pictures taken during a Wall Patrol. During these patrols 2 gun jeeps with mounted M60 machine guns and 3 personnel, driver, NCO and gunner would patrol the sectors and take photos of East Germans and or Soviets and report any activities. Even daily routine activity was monitored. In the following pictures you will see an East German Guard tower that is being manned, a motorcycle patrol with 2 riders, most likely the tower guard replacements, a jeep with 2 personnel and also you will see an East German Guard dog station. In one photo in the immediate foreground you will see the back of a US Army Heavy tow truck. This truck was entering the US training site known as Doughboy City. As you can see the distance between the East German border and the US Sector of Berlin was just a mere meters away from each other..

You will also see that the East Germans are watching us, either in the towers or on the ground and they too took lots of pictures. They would try to catch any glimpse of a name tape or shoulder patch, even though they knew the units in Berlin and they wanted to try to catch us doing something that could cause an international incident like flipping the bird to them or yelling obscenities' to them or what not but for the most part we were very disciplined because we knew the consequences of causing an incident...

That's me under the US Sector sign..

[drmessimer]

These are photos of the Wall shortly after the first version went up. The East Germans made constant improvements to it, increasing the height in some places, widening the "death zone" on their side by tearing down the now abandoned buildings, installing dog runs, adding anti-tank obstacles, and mines.

Immediately after the wall went up, the West Germans started adding signs that faced into East Berlin, protesting the wall. This is an example. "Article 13 United Nations Charter: Everyone has a right to free movement! Everyone has the right to leave each country, including his own, and to return to his country!"

This is an example of the early stage of the Wall construction. The movable barriers and the cyclone fencing sometimes remained that way for weeks. The building behind the jacketless guard is being torn down. The second guard is leaning against the fence in the left half of the photo. These temporary sections were guarded around the clock. If you wanted to, and could speak German, you could sometimes engage the guards in conversation. Usually they just glared without saying anything, but once-in-a-while they would answer non-political questions, such as , "Langweillig?" (Boring?) Sometimes they would just shrug and answer, "Naja." ("Yeah sorta") But that was about all.

In some of the early Wall sections, the buildings themselves became a part of the Wall. The buildings were empty, but the windows were bricked-up to prevent using the vacant buildings as escape routes. Later these buildings were torn down when the "death Zone" was widened.

This is a section of the permanent Wall. The building on the left, nearest the Wall was later torn down.

Still within the city, but on the more open outskirts, the Wall in its final form was somewhat different than that in the city itself. It was wider and took the form of several parallel fences with the spaces between the fences filled with rolled barbed wire. These fences were electrified, evidenced by the poles running along the inside. There is a second fence several yards back of the main structure. At the time this section was up, the barren area between the fences was mined.

This is a section behind the Wall that is being prepared as a traffic entry point. The materials needed to build the internal barriers to create a sort of vehicular Slalom course can be seen in the background. The cleaners are members of the Peoples Army border guards.

Outside of the city, in the Soviet Zone, the barrier was a patrolled fence with a minefield in the cleared zone directly behind the fence. Gun towers, like the one in the background, were spaced at regular intervals within sight of each other. The man walking along the west side of the fence is a West German border guard.

These East German soldiers are patrolling along a road on the east side of a zonal barrier. Dwight

[Rakkasan187]

Dwight,

Stunning pictures and again a reminder of what once was....

Thank you for posting these

Smitty