Berlin Various

Has anyone got any photos, info or even camp names of when we were there? If so, please email it to me on; webmaster@baor-locations.co.uk or leave the info as a reply to this topic within the forum.

Try This link

http://www.western-allies-berlin.com/installations/barracks/barracks

Also

Stadium Barracks
BMH Berlin
RAF Gatow
Edingburgh house
Spandau Prision

Cheers Ron,

Here is another couple of links that was sent by a good friend of mine:

http://home.att.net/~rw.rynerson/fotos.htm

http://www.alliierteinberlin.de/index_e.html

http://www.berlin-brigade.de/us-ins/us-ein3.html

Dont know but when I was in Berlin a couple of years ago there was IIRC a Bks near the Kaiser place? looked as if it had been empty for a few years

Any one have any copies of the Berlin Bulliten from around 1990- 1992 they would like to copy, or sell, or at least know how to aquire them?

Many Thanks
Harv
Qs

I have quite a collection of my fathers WWII photos.
He was with 2nd Tactical Air Force RAF rear HQ.
These cover from D day +11 Normandy through Brussls, Buckeburg and around Berlin during 1954 etc.
They may be difficult to scann as some are direct prints of 35m film, others commecial post cards.
If you think they are interested i will do a sample of few and let you have them?
regards
Peter

Peter,

I am pretty sure that there will be someone, either on the Forum pages or on the main site, that will be able to advise on up loading photographs, etc.

Have you tried looking at this page?

http://baor-locations.com/forum.aspx

It give a rundown of how to upload images.

Paul.

I was there from Jan 87 to Dec 79.

Brooke and Wavell Barracks (Infantry) were in Spandau
Montgomery Barracks (Infantry) was at Gatow
Alexander Barracks (Logistics) was also in Spandau but the other side of the town.
Smuts Barracks (Armd Recce) was also in Spandau next to the Prison.

Hope this helps.

I was posted to Berlin 1976 after D squadron RSDG (Edinburgh) was disbanded. I went to Osnabruck in November on a honda 750 and from there to Berlin on it. Traveliing along the corridor from west germany to Berlin in a snow storm was some experience, to be welcomed by the squadron S/M with a glass of whiskey.
A couple of the outstanding memories were , the corporals mess was earmakred for demolition so we got to drive a chieftain through it, sadly the photos I took have disappear in the sands of time. Another was being ferried in a chieftain (with a dozer blade) by the engineers early one morning across the havel, being the driver I was not allowed to get out but given a lifejacket!

I was stationed in Wavell bks in 1976 i only have one photo left and thats me standing with some pal inside the camp on the road that runs along side the sleeping blocks you are welcome to it if you want

regards Ian (tess)

I was stationed in Smuts Barracks from July 1960 to February 1962 have a number of photographs some black & white other colour from this period if anybody is interested

Smut's Barracks square overlooked by Spandau Prison. Occupants at the time were Alber Speer (Hitler's architect and armaments minister), Baldur von Schirach (leader of the Hitler Youth) and Rudolf Hess (Hitler's deputy leader in the Nazi Party)



Inside Smuts Barracks showing main block on the right (admin and accommodation) and on the left cookhouse (downstairs) and NAAFI (upstairs). In the distance there is a fence across the road and beyond is the entrance to Spandau prison

BerlinSapper wrote:

Smut's Barracks square overlooked by Spandau Prison. Occupants at the time were Alber Speer (Hitler's architect and armaments minister), Baldur von Schirach (leader of the Hitler Youth) and Rudolf Hess (Hitler's deputy leader in the Nazi Party)



Inside Smuts Barracks showing main block on the right (admin and accommodation) and on the left cookhouse (downstairs) and NAAFI (upstairs). In the distance there is a fence across the road and beyond is the entrance to Spandau prison

Brilliant Photographs, I was in Berlin 1976-1978, the only occupant then was Hess. Once sat next to Him in an ambulance taking him to BMH for the Annual "Medical"

Thanks for your comment whitehorse.
We often saw Hess outside the prison between the wall and the fencing you can see in my first photo, usually when it was the British turn on guard duty. It probably relieved the boredom of both prisoner and guards.
I was lucky??? to be there when the wall went up, so at times things got a little hairy. Especially when, as drivers, we had to drive through Checkpoint Charlie and drive around East Berlin for an hour and then come out, as somebody else drove in, just to maintain our right of entry.

BerlinSapper wrote:

Thanks for your comment whitehorse.
We often saw Hess outside the prison between the wall and the fencing you can see in my first photo, usually when it was the British turn on guard duty. It probably relieved the boredom of both prisoner and guards.
I was lucky??? to be there when the wall went up, so at times things got a little hairy. Especially when, as drivers, we had to drive through Checkpoint Charlie and drive around East Berlin for an hour and then come out, as somebody else drove in, just to maintain our right of entry.

As RMP we used to do the same, we had a vehicle that drove from Helmstedt to Berlin 365 days of the Year. Purely to maintain access. In later years they used to be "Flag Tours",in connection with keeping the routes open, especially between West and East Berlin, as you know, the Russians probably didn't care, the East Germans did.We also used to escort the "Spandua Guard" from Staaken checkpoint to the Prison. Our other task was to escort the Russian Troops mounting guard at the "War Memorial" in the Tiergarten,that was a daily task.

I see they still have the German Police station behind the Russian War Memorial in Berlin when I was last there.

Talking of the Russian War Memorial I have a couple of photos. I think you can possibly see the police station in the rear view of the memorial, taken when we (the Royal Engineers) were working on top of the Reichstag. A Nazi party lapel badge was found in the rubble we were clearing away from inside the building.

There was a rumour, when I was there, that there were bodies left in the two Russian tanks positioned on either side of the memorial. Did you here anything similar when you were there?

These are wonderful pictures of times past and an important record. Unfortunately, Berlin was out of bounds to Canadian forces members, at least up to 1965, so I missed seeing a lot of interesting places in that city.

As an aside to the mention of the inmates of Spandau Prison, has anyone read Albert Speer's published diary of his years of incarceration? (Sorry, I forget the title.) Regardless of what we may think of him personally, it affords a brilliant insight into what life was like on "the other side of the cell door", including the ways he escaped reality by "walking around the world" and tending a garden in the prison grounds.

Perhaps White Horse could regale us with some good stories about his RMP days in Berlin and Checkpoints Alpha and Bravo. I'm sure there were many exciting events.

I read it many years ago Roderick, it was called Inside the Third Reich. I don't know if this Website has appeared elsewhere on these pages but, if not, here it is:-



www.thirdreichinruins.com

Here are some more photos that may be of interest to you Recce83. I think as a record of social history they say it all. They were taken in the first months after the border between East and West Berlin was closed. Evidently there were about 5000 East Berliners came across to the West to work every day. Over night that workforce was lost to the West. If I remember correctly the West Deutsche Mark was worth 5 East Deutch Marks but back in East Berlin the exchange rate was 1:1.







And all this went on under the watching eyes of the VoPo (Volks Politzei)

Shelldrake wrote:

I read it many years ago Roderick, it was called Inside the Third Reich. I don't know if this Website has appeared elsewhere on these pages but, if not, here it is:-



[url=http://www.thirdreichinruins.com

www.thirdreichinruins.com[/quote[/url]]

That was his first book. I never got around to that one, at least not yet. The book I'm referring to is titled "Spandau: The Secret Diaries" published in, I think, 2000. I checked and it's still available.

Apparently the keeping of journals was verboten. He wrote them and kept them hidden in his cell until a visitor could smuggle them out for safe keeping. It starts more or less immediately after his trial (he mentions the ones awaiting the death sentance and how he used to have to pass by their cells prior to transfer to Spandau). It finishes with his last day when, despite his imminent release at midnight, he was still required to obey curfew regulations and retire at the required hour. (I know, he wasn't that hard done by.) There are also some good photos.

I always thought they were guarded by soldiers from the four powers, but I learned in the book that they only manned the guard towers and seldom, if ever, had contact with the prisoners. The keepers were all civilian prison guards or warders from the occupying nations.

Anyway, give it a read if you can find it.

Shame, that link is now a dead one it seems

jim i can get the thirdreichinruins, have done for a couple of years. v. interesting site. try googleing it

reg

In believe if you try www.thirdreichruins.com (without the 'in') you may be more successful Jim