View the Andrews Barracks parking lot from the back door of Company B building.
The building was vacant, bomb damaged, condemned, off-limits. Did anybody go there?
The answer is, YES!
George Phelps DataComp12 at mindspring.com
Subject: The Abandoned Andrews Barracks
"To answer your question, I 'visited' the vacant barracks at Andrews. It was used, at the time, as a munitions depot. Late in my tour of duty, 1969-1971, all of the munitions were removed, thankfully, and the barracks was razed. I don't recall if anything was ever constructed on the site after the razing. About a week before the demolition, [a friend, name expunged to protect the deranged] and I sneaked into the 'off limits' barracks. For the most part it was exactly the same as the other barracks all of us occupied, except for all intents and purposes, it had not been 'touched' for twenty-five years (at the time). I am sure that you recall that during the war, Andrews was used by the SS troops in Berlin as their main barracks. As [we] were wandering around we came upon the dayroom of the barracks. There, still painted on the walls, we saw numerous cartoon drawings of SS troops 'high stepping,' with the toes of their boots kicking the rears of other, Jewish cartoon characters. I will never forget that as long as I live! It remains high in my memories of Germany, along with my Father's story about helping to liberate a Nazi concentration camp and this short, blonde, German girl I met one night in a bar on K-Strasse -- but wait a minute, that's a different kind of story."
Two Too Big Aerial Photos of Andrews
These next two photos were contributed by Jay Elden Daves,jeda at umich.edu, who was a SP4 with Berlin Brigade, 1969-1972, working at HHC-3-6 at McNair, 592nd Signal Company at Andrews, and as a 72B20 Communications Center Specialist at Helmstedt Support Detachment (also a part of Berlin Brigade).
They are too large to post, and too great to shrink, so click on the linked text to view them:
Andrews, formerly the SS Academy of the Third Reich, was the site of many parades of the SS Bodyguard, inspected and reviewed by der Fuerher, shown here in 1945. These were followed by lynchings and impromptu firing squads by these same troops of suspected deserters at war's end.
This and the one below it provided by Mike Metevelis, of Tulsa, Oklahoma metemike at ix.netcom.com .
Following the biggest battle of WW2, the battle to conquer Berlin, and the partition of the city, there followed victory parades, like the one below at Andrews, the US Army Band in 1946. This photo from Bill Moran shows the US Army band in parade in front of the HQ building at Andrews Barracks. You can see that the flag on the right is the Soviet Union's "hammer and sickle" flag, flying higher than the one on the left, the US Old Glory. I wish I knew why. Perhaps it's at half staff. You can see that the building is still burning, and has smoke-damaged windows. Read the legend over the entrance: "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler," the name of Hitler's bodyguard unit.
The next two photos were sent by Brock Garland, brockyg at aol.com , who writes:
I left FSB as a Spec. 6 in September 1969 after nearly 3 years there; first in A Company and then in B Company, when that company was established.
I had wondered if I might have been the first African American German linguist in Berlin. I found out I certainly was part of a long heritage at Andrews.
This photo of the 780th Infantry Platoon was taken in October 1947 when the Army was still very much segregated. That's Andrews parking lot (or parade ground). The photo is from a soft cover trade publication, "American Forces in Berlin - Cold War Outpost," by Robert P. Grathwol and Donita M. Moorhus. Publisher: Dept. of Defense Legacy Resouce Management Program, Cold War Project, Washington, D.C., 1994.
[Incidentally, Brock adds,] There's also a great film, "A Foreign Affair," (1948) directed by Billy Wilder, that is hilarious and captures the fun and games of the occupation. There's a brief scene at Tempelhof at the beginning of the flick where the reviewing troops are all African American...not to belabor the issue...I just thought it was a great picture (the movie and this photo).
[Note: Brock is also the author of a history book called "War Movies."
Publisher: Facts on File Publications, 1987]
The picture below is from "Jackboot: A History of the German Soldier, 1713-1945," Barnes & Noble Books, 1995, by John Laffin. It shows the last graduating class of the Corps of Cadets of the Royal Academy of the German Kaiser's Army officer cadets on the parade ground. They are assembled for a final review by Army General Ludendorf and his staff. One of the conditions of the Versailles Peace Treaty which ended World War I, was that the officers school had to close down -- the victorious Western Allied Powers felt the Academyat Licterfelde was a threat to world peace. The setting here is what we knew as Andrews Barracks parking lot. The picture was taken in 1920. General Ludendorff, who later supported Hitler in the 1923 Munich uprising, is taking and returning the salute at the lead of the Corps reviewing officer staff.
About the photo, "Aerial shot of Andrews Kaserne!" 
