East German border claimed 327 lives, says Berlin study

Discussion in 'Postwar' started by CL1, Jun 8, 2017.

  1. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  2. gmyles

    gmyles Senior Member

    I served in West Berlin from 1987 to 1991.

    The wall was one of those things your really needed to see up close. Sinister, yet covered in graffiti just on one side. Where Capitalism and Communism clashed.

    My unit was positioned in the bottom left hand part of the British Sector and were surrounded on two sides by the Berlin Wall. Well the Berlin Fence to be precise as it was the only part of the Wall not made of concrete. The reason behind this was the huge Russian Tank division based on the other side. Should the balloon have ever gone up, the Russians would have had a few problems getting through their own Concrete wall. But a T-72 would make light work of a couple of chain-link fences. We all joked about this on the first day of our tour that if they did 'pop over' we probably wouldn't have time to put our boots on and should learn some basic Russian phrases such as "Please direct me to you nearest labour camp?", or "I hear that Siberia is quite lovely in the summer".

    At the bottom of the unit was a lake called the Gross Glienekersee. A popular beauty spot for the locals during the summer with some small but lovely beaches. You could swim, but only so far as the now 'virtual' Berlin Wall bisected the lake (using floating bouys) and was guarded by East German Border Guards on a dingy.

    I was very lucky to be there at its end too. That was an event i will never forget.

    Gus
     
    Harry Ree, dbf and CL1 like this.

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