The Berlin Wall
Six photos by Bruce Ford.
"You are entering Berlin, the Capitol of the German Democratic Republic,"
The dreaded DDR.
Leaving the French sector.
Machine guns in pill boxes and observation towers: the face of Soviet Communism.
Beware the land mines.
This church was trapped in no-man's-land!
Abandoned buildings in the "death strip."
Here are text links to two photos contributed by Jay Elden Daves, jeda@umich.edu, who was a Specialist 4th Class with the 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). These 1969 black and white photos reflect the cruel harshness of the scenes as we can recall them. The photos are too large to post , and too fine to shrink, so click on the linked text to view them:
German language caption: "Spionage-Tunnel freigelegt. Erinnerung an den Kalten Krieg: David E. Murphy (l.) und Sergej A. Kondraschow in der Tunnelröhre des CIA, 23.09.97." The source of this is the web site of "Berlin-Bildarchiv." This Berlin news photo of the opening of a once heavily travelled CIA spy tunnel illustrates the high intensity of spy activity that went on in Berlin. It is an example of low-tech intelligence, used since pre-historic times, used in Berlin, and still used today in places like the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. It was in one of the buildings at Site 1, Rudow, Berlin, pictured on our 2nd "sites" photo page. The building was off limits to ASA folks, to whom it was made VERY clear that if ever they were caught in the building, Shemya would look like paradise compared to their destination. There is a relatively recent book out by two unlikely authors, Murphy and Kondraschev, called "Battleground Berlin." It gives a very detailed account of CIA and KGB activities in the city from 1945 to 1961. It has a complete chapter on the tunnel and all the related data. Another book on the CIA, The Agency, gives references to it, also. So does "CIABASE." But none of those mention the ASA in Berlin.
