East Berlin, 1963. Wall of Shame

USS Newport News Sailors visit E/W Berlin.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• East
• Berlin
• Wall
• of
• Shame

[brucencalifornia]

thats very special.

as a snipe, being in-port the second it cooled down,equipment was torn down,after refuleing that is. Doing firesides, after doing waterside while at sea,

while painting the bilges, in 100 degree plus temp and humity.

Best duty schedual 4 in 24, lasted about a week

worst was (weeks) of 4to8s go back on watch as soon as you get off work?

haveing mid watch when steaming west , 25 hour day

Dexter ive commented on your sea dragon films, East Berlin that's something special

[dextergoad]

@brucencalifornia Thanks, Bruce. We kept the AC in plot running at full blast to keep the computers cooler. Some of my guys wore foulweather jackets while you guys were being roasted a couple decks down. Ironic. Dex

[RepoDemo]

The east Germans put piping on top of the wall to prevent people scaling it. It's funny all the piping was provided for by West Germany. I also heard that the Stasi had 1 officer spying on every 63 civilians. Is that true?

[dextergoad]

Interesting question about the spying. I don't know the answer. Does anyone here know? Thanks, Dexter

[dextergoad]

Derventio74 Comment: Freiheit...!

Dex Comment: Ja zur Freiheit!

(Yes to Freedom!)

[Richydoes]

What excellent history. I was in the RAF and visited Berlin (both east & west) from 1970 onwards. To me it was like the west was a colour film and the east was black & white. At the Neue Wache memorial we watched the guard change - no flicker of emotion from them; civilians walking by too scared to even acknowledge us. Freedom well deserved!

[dextergoad]

Thanks so much for sharing, Richy. You are indeed correct in that it seem like Black and White as to the difference between East and West Berlin. Freedom is a wonderful and Fragile thing. Dexter

[CarstenOepping]

@sthoverthere 63:1 is bullshit the GDR has 17 million inhabitants, minus the childs under 16 ca 15 million 15 mio:63 is 240.000 .a quarter of a million. this number of 110.000 inofficial informers are stretched thrue 40 years of GDR. and sometimes the informers doesnt know that they are informers. so they have an personel number but they only normal people who have no idea whats going on. then in the Memo :" IM 'Wachtel' 'Number 196345676' give the information that ...."

[CarstenOepping]

@dextergoad no! not because of that! Berlin was not Part of west germany! Berlin was an Independent City all the time and all 4 Allies have full access to visit all Parts of Berlin all the time with no restrictions at all except the military installations.

so an russian Officer could freely move thrue the border like a american or french officer. sometimes the Amis misused this to drive with there cars deep into east germany to spy military installation and play a cat and mouse with the MfS

[CarstenOepping]

wall of shame? no! wall of peace! wall of hope for millions and millions of people in the so called 3th world.wall of decolonisation. wall of anti capitalism and socialism. btw i lived for 18 in protection of this wall. till 1989.

[sthoverthere]

@dextergoad I guess there are no exact numbers. 85000 regular members and 110000 inofficial members, a lot more at peak times.. so 63 on 1 is very probable. even 50 on 1. they could have supervised their own agents.

[tim4179]

very nice, thank you!