Todays Excerpt: The Soviet Union established the Deutsche Democratic Republic (DDR) in 1949 borne from the Soviet zone of occupied Germany including East Berlin. The DDR spanned 41,610 square miles and was bordered by West Germany (to the south and west), Poland (to the east), Czechoslovakia (to the south) and the vast Baltic Sea on its northern border. The DDR comprised Mitteldeutschland (Middle Germany) including the region east of the Oder and Neisse river, the Prussian provinces of Pomerania, East Prussia, West Prussia, Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia, the eastern Neumark of Brandenburg, and a separated portion of Saxony. Anything east of the Oder–Neisse line fell to Polish administration except northern East Prussia, which the USSR claimed. While West Germany was rehabilitated by its occupiers (the western allies of France, Great Britain and the United States), Stalin’s cementing of the DDR divided the former Germany into two states making the 1945 division a permanent fixture of Europe. West Germany proclaimed itself as the legal successor to the Third Reich and took the immense horrific legal accountability for the Reich’s crimes. The DDR did not. It merely renounced any affiliation with its Nazi past, asserting itself as “the anti-fascist rampart as well as being the first socialist state on German soil. In distancing itself from the Nazi past, the DDR refused to recognize the nation State of Israel, reimburse the Holocaust victims and failed to acknowledge anti-Semitism. The 1945 Yalta Conference attended by the heads of state for the Soviet Union, represented by General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Great Britain, represented by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the United States, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt sealed post-war Germany’s fate by dividing the defeated Germany into zones of occupation as well as carving up the capital city of Berlin. The zones would be administered by the American, British, Soviets and, later, the French (from a further zoning taken from parts of both the American and British sectors). The Yalta and Potsdam conferences attended by the Allies established the occupation of Germany would be controlled by a four-member military government of France, Great Britain, the US and USSR until German sovereignty is regained as stated by the Allied Control Council (ACC). This was short lived in actuality due to the Soviet Occupation Zone or Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ) including the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia led to disagreements in policies corresponding to the occupied zones and the Soviets chose to govern their zone regardless to how the other ACC zones were managed. The Soviets removed themselves from the ACC during 1948 and the other zones unified into a permitted self-governance which led to the formation of a separate socialist rule in the Soviet occupied portion of Germany. Consequently, the Western Allies did not recognize the DDR’s capital being East Berlin which was recognized by East Germany and the Eastern Bloc of nations. The advent of the Cold War, beginning in 1947, rendered the ACC weak and thin. The political differences in the early stages of the Cold War (a continually tense political and military situation between the Western Allied powers and the Soviet Union) following the weakened ACC accords initiated the Berlin Blockade (June, 1948 through May, 1949) wherein the Soviet army halted Allied rail, road and water traffic into West Berlin and forcing the Berlin Airlift of food and supplies by the Western Allies to sustain the well-being of West Berlin residents. Although the DDR has been included as one of several “buffer” satellite states of the USSR by the global community, some East German residents went a step further in proclaiming the DDR as a puppet regime of Stalin and opposed the single-party notion propagated by the Socialist Unity Party. The East Germans who held this view saw West Germany as a better alternative, especially with the deteriorating economic conditions, and became part of the almost three million whom violated the DDR prohibition on migrating to the west during the 1950s. Barriers were quickly erected to prevent further citizens fleeing to the west and were escalated into the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 including the laws enacted against those choosing to migrate over the wall being shot on sight. Given these evolving situations in the DDR, the surreal nature put upon West Germans and West Berliners caused them to be considered foreigners by East Germans and the DDR authorities. If the Cold War ever turned hot, the Soviet armies stationed in the DDR would roll across the East German border into the West German countryside aided by rotor and fixed wing aviation regiments, plowing through the air corridors followed by a second wave of Warsaw pact countries armies from Poland, Czechoslovakia and the DDRs military (comprised of its own army, navy, air force--for air defense--and border troops). East German males were conscripted into their nation’s military, mostly as border troops, and were to mandatorily serve 18 months if medically qualified. Since the DDR sat in half of what is morbidly classed as a “limited nuclear strike territory” between east and west, the Soviet air armies were in a constant state of readiness, contrary to what US and NATO forces were led to believe by their respective governments who published views of the Soviets being near rusty with preparedness and ill-equipped by not having regular military exercises. This round-the-clock urgent need for a response of any sort was fomented by state of the art, front line fighter, fighter bomber, reconnaissance and troop transport aircraft besides attack helicopters (not including the battle tanks and armored personnel carriers included in any battle planning) stationed in the DDR. The Russian presence in the DDR is not to primarily defend the DDR as much as staff the buffer between the Soviet Union against the West should the Cold War become hot. Because of this posturing by both the Soviets and the host East Germans, the East German LSK, mostly flying surplus Soviet fighter aircraft from their own bases in the DDR augmented a pretense of cordial cooperation kept at a distance between the hosts and Soviets, underlining a veiled begrudging feeling by some of the DDR residents towards the visitors who originate from the east. The Mil Mi-24 is primarily a large attack helicopter besides serving as a troop transport with room for eight passengers with a variety of nicknames courtesy of its Soviet pilots including the flying tank for its helicopter gun ship role, crocodile because of its camouflage paint schemes and glass due to the flat glass panels surrounding the cockpit. Brandis airfield was bombed numerous times during 1944 and 1945 by the USAAF. The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and jet-powered Me 262 fighter aircraft were but two types operating from the base by the Luftwaffe during World War II. A US Army task force came upon it during the middle of April, 1945 and captured it after a brief fire fight. The Army discovered remnants of destroyed aircraft the Germans chose to dispose of in place of liberating them, uncovering some of the technological advancements the Komet and 262 held. The US 60th Armored Infantry Battalion occupied Brandis while an intelligence detachment uncovered a collection of Junkers 287s, He 177s, Me 163s as well as Messerschmitt 110s among others in various states of demolition. Re-liberated by the Soviets per the ACC agreement in July, 1945, the new owners upgraded the damaged buildings and refurbished the airfield initially with the MiG-15 in 1954 and until 1961; the airfield was classed as a reserve base. Beginning in 1960, Brandis saw new life as the base was over-hauled, the runway lengthened, and new taxi ramps constructed as well as new hangars and living quarters for the personnel assigned to the base. The current regiments stationed at Brandis are the 357 and 359 Independent Transport Aviation Regiment which may serve as an ambiguous reference for a non-Soviet aviator to the Sukhoi Su 25s that currently rotate to Afghanistan on a regular cycle supplemented with a fleet of L-39 Albatros advanced training aircraft. Forty-five minutes after the Mi-8 finished its low orbit hover around Brandis’ perimeter and airfield to show Aleksey and Oleg the various complexes, runway and taxi ramp configurations of the flight line, Aleksey was the first to accompany Captain Stepanov in a waiting L-39 with “130” emblazoned in red with a yellow outline on the fuselage on the first of his two familiarization flights. The first sortie had the Captain navigate the Albatros over the eastern suburbs of Leipzig to the west, Eilenburg to the north with a misty view of the town of Wurzen off of the trainer’s port wing during a southwestern turn. “The south is where we will be flying the second sortie to train you on the characteristics of the seventeen,” Stepanov said over the cockpit intercom. Noticing sparse patches of green German countryside amid the gloomy grey smog which seemed to hang in the lower altitudes, Aleksey scanned all around him to commit any landmarks he can see from his 7,000 foot high perch to memory, much like his first ride in the L-29 back in Moscow almost four years previously. “There are not a lot of landmarks other than the cities,” Stepanov stated over the intercom, as if to read Aleksey’s mind. “So you will quickly learn to read and believe nothing but your instruments when flying over Germany.”
Posted on: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 13:34:12 +0000
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