MINI TOUR IN ITALY, GERMANY AND swizerland 360p
That low cost airlines offer cheap flights, it is very difficult to resist excuses to visit places in East Germany at the flimsy excuse We knew that the former Soviet base Altengrabow near Magdeburg was due demolition, so when Dan announced he was thinking of buying a Trabant Kьbel an EVN model; a convertible that was for sale in Barleben, a few kilometers north of Magdeburg, we convinced him that he really was worth a close inspection, and went mainly along too.
A big Brit Sub group had visited the huge site Altengrabow in April 2001 the first German Bunker Tour Mike Barton, and when some of us promised to return to photograph the many above-ground buildings that occasion, Mike had obtained permission for us to enter and explore the disused communications bunker on the back of the national site and Mike had a tight schedule to keep, we had a little time to look around the myriad of surface vessels.
News had filtered by the German authorities for little demolish the site, so - spurred to action - we contacted Mike in Germany and asked if he could arrange entry to the closed site for us Mike arranged kindly, and said he d come along too, as he wanted to take some pictures of the game itself.
We felt we could achieve both goals namely Trabbie Kьbel inspection and photographing Soviet-built in a day if Ryanair tickets and rental cars were booked Dan, myself Tony Page, Robin Ware and Nick Catford mentally prepared ourselves for a day excursion Germany; which in real terms meant getting up at 3:30 to get to Stanstead for the 0630 flight to Berlin and back to 0:30 best plans.
Arriving in Berlin in 0930, Schonefeld Airport was removed with his usual ease and we left the parking our rental car and headed straight Altengrabow, 20 km east of Magdeburg, where we met Mike Nick, Robin and I spent the next four hours hotographing always the first Soviet base buildings, some of which, it must be said, were in a perilous state base is vast there are literally hundreds of buildings that make up this vast area Soviet training and ammunition storage site.
During the Cold War, it was under the control of the Russian Third Shock Army based in Magdeburg Third Shock Army - the powerful armored fist of the Soviet Western Group of Forces, which was responsible for opening the way for the travel CHANNEL seven days that the Russians had planned for themselves and their German friends from the East - were four divisions of tanks and motorized rifle division to prepare for the Russians ample use of the area of training Altengrabow 8 x 12 km fact, the site is much more than a training space Altengrabow hosted thirty units, ranging in size from a division HQ, a missile brigade, many air defense units as missiles, armored units, motorized infantry and several signal functions in 2001, our sub Brit visited the bunker visit COMCEN communication center quite impressive in the corner of the drive area.
This could require much military munitions such as the armed East German NVA, the Russians never went without their full levels of wartime ammunition with them, say the vehicles were armed and constantly bombarded and ready to go Despite this, they still managed to require an extended ammunition depot in Altengrabow also visited in 2001 to provide immediate reserve for their potential need filing included a special store weapons or for nuclear ammunition, visit the website sub Brit for the original trip report and photos.
All units naturally necessary for the accommodation of their soldiers, if large areas of the perimeter were taken with huge accommodation blocks of three floors and support facilities canteens, garages, supermarkets, shops, gyms, Installation heating, etc.
The training area was supported by the Bundeswehr, the German army which built its own accommodation blocks Appropriate training area is still used for armored training, but most of the old Soviet buildings are empty and unused and slowly fall down the future does not look good for the individual site has a use for poorly constructed buildings, including fixtures and fittings have all been removed, some went home to mother Russia and some are used to improve the lifestyles of the local community - if the decision was made to return the region to its wooded state.
The buildings will be demolished eventually all of our original 2001 visit to COMCEN we had little time to this side of military life, hence the travel photography of a day.
As we have with the serious business of photography, the British army had to be heard to some large caliber automatic weapons to the test elsewhere in the region Mike assured us that they knew we were there.
The date was 11th November and a few seconds before 11:00 UK time, the shooting stopped and there was absolute silence around the Sub Brit team brought a poppy or two, and I put my only under a tree at a time agreed and spent two minutes thinking.
Dan and Mike went to see the object of desire of Dan, the organization to meet the rest of us outside later Since the base was so great that 50,000 troops had our work cut out in the department of photography We separated to cover more ground the weather was absolutely perfect crystal clear, sunny, pretty cool, but not really cold a fantastic day, great.
At the center of the complex surrounding the parade, there are five barracks several floors and a large gymnasium barracks were completely stripped; flooring was raised in places, lights disappeared, the windows are down and very basic toilets have disappeared - it must have been a strange sight to see the heavily loaded army zils trundling Russia loaded with used toilet and sections of flooring, but the recycling of this nature was a necessity when you can get on the flat roof of the barracks and from there we can have a good view and even better impression of the parade ground with its trees birch and scrub that now cover the evidence of the former tenants quickly in March from one end of the parade ground to the other will take you to the gym is now an almost empty room with nets draped remains the high ceiling and major sporting grounds stencil on the walls uneven scrap iron staircase leads outside the building in the projection room above the lower floor where no doubt many stirring and patriotic movie endured by the reluctant conscripts sea ted below.
Further exploration of the site discovered what we assumed to be the sauna or the toilet - but it can be difficult to positively identify some of these structures as years of neglect, borrowing and the fact that they weren t buildings the best built in the world has left them in a state of distress stand out from the decay inside was the strange sight of two sets of Olympic rings colors still bright, mounted in a steel frame surrounding an indoor garden with soil and topped with decorative wall art and posters exotic locations and palm-fringed beaches. Weird
Most of the remaining buildings are now empty shells, some of which I suspect were probably built using the foundations of the old WW2 Stalag 11A originally POW camp, but a positive identification of these special structures is difficult Altengrabow was a prisoner-of-war camp in both WW1 and WW2.
We wandered around the large dining room U-shaped, with its mural inspired to one of the end walls, located off to one side of the internal site, and behind it was the building containing the coal burning system for the entire site It hasn t changed much in the time between our first visit and present.
Fortunately, these military sites do not seem to suffer vandalism and excessive graffiti that is present in far too many Germans UK sites can sometimes visit these buildings, but they do not need everyone to know that they were here leading the heating system were various conduits, assembly pits and underground pipeways near building heating systems we found a large empty building with signs large beds of machines and exhaust extraction equipment mounted This ceiling, we concluded, was the main building of the generator There were strange berries tiles located on one end of the building whose purpose remains unknown, at the other end of the building was the main air intake which contained the water-based cooling equipment and set filters into the ground about halfway down the building was a large pit ith staircase leading down through a short passage in a separate room next Now why it was specified in the original design is a mystery to us as single parents ap purpose seems to have been to allow engineers to inspect the underside a large piece of equipment and access to the inspection pit and adjoining room.
We returned to the main barracks area and spotted a large beech tree with initials engraved deeply in the aging trunk Most of the entries made in the 1950s and we assumed that they mentioned the dates of birth of conscripts who are bored whiled their time on this tank base miles away from their native land keep in mind that the vast majority of these sites do people ventured outside its high fences, except, perhaps, on military maneuvers at the end of the site, we found a very small sauna attached garage, even with its rocks on a chimney way could still be traced to the nearby lake, where steaming agents would probably cool down quickly once they had broken the ice out of the water.
Walking through the deserted base, my thoughts kept drifting back to those old times Russian soldiers had arrived here on a three-year assignment in the process, with their tanks and equipment from across the Soviet Union Altengrabow was their home for the next three years, and overall, they weren t allowed to leave the base of the lucky few brought their families to live in blocks of flats built on the outskirts of the main area of the barracks; the rest lived in the huge blocks of barracks several floors around the parade ground, now awaiting demolition.
Life here must have been dark, but better than being found in the USSR then in 1989 when the wall fell many stayed behind Germany preferring post-Cold War uncertainties of the motherland.
As we toured the site with buildings obviously left in a state of total disrepair, it was impossible not to notice how badly the buildings were built were all built to a very low level, with technical briquetting single soviet that seems to defy gravity, stairs with varying and uneven strip rolling, built on the site of what has never been available Grim.
After more than four hours, and countless Robin film reels, being fully digitized, rejected my 35mm film like last century, a frantic phone message Dan said it was up to us as non Trabant owner and Mike had disclosed the fact that if we wanted, we could have a look in another Soviet bunker Wьnsdorf If we wished Sorry.
Photography has taken a sense of urgency and with the use everything, we piled into the car and really ran back to Zossen Wьnsdorf, a familiar area for us now the fastest cars are really rental cars aren t they.
Wьnsdorf was the headquarters of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany GSFG, known in his days as the western group of GTF force, unlike the North group in Poland FNG, the Central Group in Czechoslovakia CGF, the South Group in Hungary FMS and the Northwest Group NWGF the Baltics GTF incorporated the land and air forces has noted Mike Barton will speak at the conference in Brit spring 2004 and provide more details Book Now Each forces had their own staffs for the purpose of war As described in a previous report, the GTF had its main headquarters bunker Wьnsdorf as the former WW2 Zeppelin bunker, which operated under the Russians with the callsign Ranet.
As we arrived at Wьnsdorf Mike told us about the other bunker complex He explained that the Air Force, 16th Air Army, had his bunker about 200 yards Ranet in a separate complex, who shared with air GTF PVO defense the callsigns used here were Okean for 16 AA Nikel for PVO notes Mike Barton and his group in Germany still refer to the Soviet bunkers identified by their callsigns like callsigns were used permanently by WGF comms and HQ staff, while the location often had three names of the Russian official version, the official German version and the version of the people living near it a city name or village is not always a clear identifier .
The complex PVO 16 AA was called in the UK 20, UK is the Russian abbreviation for bunker in this case, but 20 is still a question mark.
After being given the keys to the area and bunker by the guardians of the site, we went through several locked doors and to the entrance of the bunker The entrance was buried and understandable blocked after the Soviet withdrawal, and it was obvious very little if non-Russian eyes had seen in that bunker for many years now revealed, we were in the light half absolutely gagging to become you there, you would t.
Suitably dressed in we went to the UK 20 is that you half submerged enter the two-level side in a long corridor services and bunker support is left, and 16 AA and PVO bunkers go right the main corridor It there were obviously need both services at the time, air defense - PVO - was regarded as a separate service to coordinate their inter actions, but at the same time, each service has its own intensive input, or divisions combat and regiments in action in the sky, or the vast network radar comms inward and the traffic going to the AD comms missile sites outward.
Both operational bunkers UK 20 are very similar in design, with offices for their respective staffs of the two levels of the two blocks of air-shed type, for example of reinforced semicircular concrete segments bolted together to the desired length a construction in two levels was then inserted - wall panels or precast concrete - the edges so that the finished bunker narrow corridors that descend from the outside of the rectangular building within the 'semicircular shelter buildings also have their own main hallway, with rooms going off on each side.
In each case, the two ops bunkers contain a command post and a great situation room, the latter being formed by simply cutting the high level and leaving the open end wall, so that you can look to the Projectors down in the lower level would have operated from level two to the beam on the end wall of the bunker, which has also been used as a fact base wall there are also a few rooms located behind the wall of the card before actually reaching the final end wall of the bunker staff officers have also been located at two to be on call for more information.
Mike told us that there were plans in hand to relocate the complex because of its vulnerability and its proximity to the main, Ranet, bunker However, time and history have terminated the construction work.
Inside, there was quite a lot of junk lying around, but by his former tenants of the bunker was well enough stripped generators are gone, as was any other thing of value However, there were many paperwork that something Mike raised interest We spent some 90 minutes examining every nook and cranny, and Nick pictures tell you more than ever my words could when he puts them on the site, check.
The bunker was dry and in good condition inside we found the various emergency exits, now securely attached and we went in every room there were a few posters of the Soviet era on the wall more and more signs original and labels on doors, etc. There was no vandalism graffiti style as a person, in our opinion, had already been there.
For us, the trip was almost over, so we left the bunker, handed over the keys and just managed to wolf down a quick meal at a nearby restaurant before blasting the airport for a delayed flight.
It was a brilliant, if very rough, day after getting back at 2 am - ended up being another 24-hour session Okay, Dan never got his Trabbie, but we have see a no bunker of us knew existed reasonable deal then.
We thank Mike Barton for services beyond the call of duty, Mr. Kьchemann, the Forester Altengrabow and M. Bochert Zossen Wunsdorf.
Germany Mini Tour, germany, tower, former Soviet base.