Bio. 7 Cowboy in Berlin

Bio. 7 Cowboy in Berlin

I enjoyed the courses in Göttingen and graduated top of the RAEC class so I received a plum assignment: to West Berlin, an enclave surrounded by the Soviet zone. Berlin was divided into four sectors. Looking at it like a clock face with north at 12, the entire east side, from 12 to 6 was Soviet. The Americans were at 6 to 8, the British 8 to 10 and the French 10 to 12. We were free to travel in any sector, but there was no barrier between the Soviet sector and their surrounding zone, where we could be arrested by their border guards.

Initially, occupied West Berlin was great. I was a sergeant instructor in the Education Corps a “schoolie” stationed at Spandau in West Berlin. I had converted a suite of rooms on the top floor of our barracks into a study center. We were next to the prison holding Nazi war criminals. I could look out of a window and sometimes see them in the exercise yard.

I had my own chauffeur in an armored car. Berlin is honeycombed with lakes and I could use a rental boat free by signing a form. The Control Commission Germany (CCG) picked up the tab. I spoke enough German now to wheel and deal.  I met another lady in Berlin. We attended operas at the opera house in the Soviet sector and shopped on swanky Kurfûrstendamm. .

Then the other shoe fell. In early 1948, the Soviets closed the autobahn from the West. All gasoline supplies dried up and the Berlin Airlift started. There were no more cars, drivers or motorboats, The only way to get down town was by streetcar. After the airlift started, most of life’s luxuries were in short supply. Only coal and necessities came in via nearby Tempelhof airport. We felt isolated, our water and electricity came from the Soviet zone. We were even more scared when massive Stalin tanks began exercises with live ammunition in the Soviet zone, a few miles west of us. We heard that the Western Allies didn’t have any heavy weapons in Berlin.

In the midst of our jitters, the sentry at the entrance to our barracks reported a detachment of Soviet troops marching along the road toward us with fixed bayonets on their rifles. The Guard Officer sounded a General Alarm and we all ran to panic stations. When I joined the Education Corps, I’d been issued a revolver but I had no idea how to use it; I didn’t think it mattered now the war was over. I buckled it on and prepared to do or die for my country.

 The  Soviet detachment was soon identified as the relief detail for the prison guards. The occupying powers, United States,France, Britain and the Soviet Union took turns guarding the prisoners each month. As the Colonel was visiting our barracks, he turned the alarm into an arms inspection on the parade ground.

 The soldiers lined up in rows and I was at one end of a row. The colonel walked up and down the rows. When he came to me, he burst out laughing, and said, “Who the hell do you think you are, schoolie, a f-------- cowboy? Double that man to the guardhouse”. Double means run, so the Guard Commander ordered me to the guardhouse at the double and we both ran off the parade ground. It was a very embarrassing moment.

When we reached the guardhouse and the guard commander told the story to the men on guard duty, they couldn’t stop laughing. They explained to me that army revolvers, called sidearms, are worn butt forward on the left, to be drawn and fired by the right hand, not the way they are buckled on in cowboy movies. All wasn’t lost though; the story spread quickly to other army units in West Berlin and my study center became even more popular.