The
Border
First a few facts about the Border Troops "The Grenztruppen"
1. All troop's families are required
to live inland of the border at least 8 hrs from the troops station.
2. All troops must have "Proven
Loyalty" to the "Peoples Cause".
3. No troop shall be allowed to
venture to the border unaccompanied.
4. Any troop attempting to cross
the border without permission shall be shot.
5. If a troop "Defects"; that troop's
family shall be held accountable.
Following WW2 the 2nd Cavalry
redesignated the Second Constabulary Regiment and assigned
to maintain control
over the U.S. zone of occupation within Germany
During the Cold War era the Second Armored
Calvary Regiment was responsible for surveillance of 731 kilometers along the
Iron Curtain. Its sector included 375 kilometers of the border separating West
and East Germany, as well as the entire 356 kilometers of the West
German-Czechoslovakian border.
Czechoslovakia
Border Barracks
100 yds
from FDR-Czechoslovakia Border
1980
This Kasern was commanded by Russian Officers.
There was a heavy machine gun post in front of the building.
A game we played was to pop-up on one side of the hill
seen at bottom of picture.
Then we would fly around the hill and come up on the opposite
side.
The machine gun post would then be required to pack up and
move the position at the rear of the building.
A soviet officer would walk from the front entrance thru
the middle of the building to the back entrance.
The gunners were required to be set-up when he reached the
rear entrance.
We then would reverse this action.
Needless to say the gunners would take longer and longer
to switch positions.
The officer would get madder and madder and could be seen
screaming and shaking his fists at the gunners.
Seems to me they should just set-up 2 posts and man them.
But they never did...
Closest
Farm to the Czechoslovakia Border still Occupied 1 mile from Border
Border can
be seen in middle of photo
1980
This farm house was occupied by an elderly couple that appeared
to be in there 60's - 70's.
Unfortunately I never met them personally.
I bet they had some stories to tell.
Many Photos below provided by Rick Laws
of the 11th ACR
The Old style Square Gaurd tower
Newer Round Style Gaurd Tower
All towers were within view of at least one more tower.
The Fenceline
We would see work crews working on ground level Flak launchers.
Interestingly they were pointed in their direction...
A Border Crossing
Everyday
Life for the East
Gaurding
the Workers
Why was
this required?
Clearing a minefield
A Work Camp
On Patrol
Taking a Smoke Break
You think those tower Gaurds are watching?
A little game we played with the other side was to
tape pans and cardboard tubes to our helicoptors in odd places and paint
them green.
The Tower Gaurds would sure waste alot of film...
Below is a report of an escape from the DDR of a Family and the reasons why.
A far, long clearing, colored like a cornfeld in the summer,
to the left and right set in by close needle wood, and in the foreground
a fear-exciting fence.
This is the year 1994; an almost peaceful impression of
the formerly most dangerous boundary of the world.
Since 1971, the year of the seizure of power by Erich Honecker,
and into the beginning of the 80’s on approximately 450 km of the German domestic
boundary up to 60,000 so-called fragmentation mines (SM-70) were laid along
the front.
A metal lattice fence and the SM-70 contructions applied
by the border troops was the most effective item of all.
And further development still 1982/83 was planned.
Starting from August 1961 the building established from
Berlin between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of
Germany had many terrible faces and separated the Germans into east and west
from the Baltic Sea in the Vogtland.
This so called "Anti-fascist protective wall" marking the
border, served rather to keep in the power impulses of the Soviet Sponsered
Government.
In the year 1952 the demarcation line between the western
and the eastern zone of occupation, well-known as the "Green Boundary",
(after the Stalin note for reunification on March 1952 that had been rejected
by the west) the Soviet control commission (SKK) issued the instruction
05.05.1952 that clearly defined the border.
Thus above all the unbroken stream of refugees should be
prevented into the west.
The German border police (DGP) had to consider various criteria
within the Green Boundry.
Along the demarcation line a 5-km-Strip is to be created,
which represents the border. A 10 meter broad protective strips is to be
established by the spring.
And in the autumn, available woodlands are to be cleared.
Only members of the border authorities are certified to
the work in this area.
Along the strip in certain places road and wood barricades
as well as wire entanglements etc. were to be established.
A further protective strip of 500 m broad is to be defined
and be subordinated to the administration of the border authorities.
Modifications of any type in this area (e.g. construction
measures in localities concerned etc..) are not permitted.
Further all inhabitants of all localities that are to enter
within this strip must have a special stamp on the identity card of these
inhabitants. Authorized entry is to be permitted only by the owners of appropriate
access passes.
Further a 5-km-Strip is to be created to mark the identification
zone.
While these similar regulations are to be used for
the second protective strip, all persons, who are in this area would be required
to prove authorization with the proper identity card.
Meetings or meetings after 22 o’clock within this area are
forbidden.
A whole number of further regulations were contained in
this instruction, in order to guarantee that this particularly endangered
area did not permit any unauthorized entry.
Hundreds of signs along the demarcation line were established
with the label
"Stop! Demarcation line!"
This instruction of the SKK was sanctioned by the GDR government
and transferred in the form of an appropriate regulation, which served on
27 May 1952 as basis for a "Police Regulation" of the Ministry for public
security (MfS).
There were many of us always watching.
Units that Guarded the Border