| Berlin Index of pieces in the Norfolk Section The Britannia and Castle |
| A Ballet Good Show A Near Miss for the Double Bass in 1946 A Night at the Opera Berlin 1941 Berlin 1947 Berlin 1948 Berlin Airlift Berlin or Bust Wiggy |
| MY SECOND VISIT TO LE
PARADIS from B&C
88 Jun 97 WA 'Bill' Dudley of Surbiton, Surrey wrote the article, 'A Younger ex-Royal Norfolk visits Le Paradis' in B&C 85 Dec 95 and the follow-up article My Second Visit to Le Paradis, published in B&C B&C 88 Jun 97. Bill served in 1st Bn The Royal Norfolk Regiment as Coy driver in A, S and HQ Coys. He was the duty driver and an officer ordered him to stop in the middle of a bridge in Berlin. Pte Dudley protested that it was a single roadway and he couldn’t and should not stop. The order was repeated so Pte Dudley complied. Through the open window a small item was flung hard into the river. A pistol? |
| BERLIN 1947
from
B&C
88 Jun 97 The first of 3 reminiscences of Berlin is from WT Oliver of Crawley, West Sussex. He transferred from 1/7 Queens in 1944 and served in the 1st Bn Royal Norfolk Regt until 1950. He regrets he does not get up to Norwich more often but says that from sleepy Sussex it is a little far to cycle in one day. “I was serving with the QM Staff in HQ Coy, 1st Bn The Royal Norfolk Regt, as Regimental tailor when we arrived in Berlin late in 1947. The winter was very cold. A Coy were billeted in Teirgarten with the remainder in Wavell Barracks, Spandau. Life was near normal then along came 1948 and down came the Blockade and life somewhat changed. We had to find extra guards around the British West Sector, reinforce those guards in the evening as well as find men for the main gate, fire piquet, ammo dump, transport pool and security patrol. Free time became a scarce commodity. Cookhouse food changed. I think we became the guinea pigs for dried potato powder. We called it 'pom' (still do! Ed). Our cooks tried everything with it but pom was pom whatever you did with it. Then there was fish and more fish. Later that year the PRI bought a few piglets and raised them on pom so for Christmas 1948 we had roast pork. The generators were in the East Sector and the Russians cut the power to 4 hours supply a day. After we received two large diesel generators, orders stated that all bulbs were to be changed to 40 watt or removed where not required. We had some clever dicks in the Signals Section and home made crystal wireless sets appeared. On the visits of the Garrison QM he always wanted to see the coke stacks behind HQ Coy. We always had a tip-off the day before so we would be out with the fire hose to make it swell. When the Bn took over Spandau prison we lost a Coy on that duty for a month, making it difficult to cover our own commitments. On the battledress sleeve we wore the Berlin flash, a black square with a red circle in the middle. The winter of 1948 was kind to us and in 1949 we moved by air to Dusseldorf. My stay with the Royal Norfolk Regiment was a very happy one after the war.' |
24th GUARDS
INDEPENDENT BDE GROUP - BERLIN 1941 from
B&C
88 Jun 97 (Strangely, the editor typed the
above in the HQ of 24 Airmobile Bde in Colchester while
working as Public Relations Officer on the Air Complaints
desk in support of their Exercise Gryphon’s Lift.
Downstairs on a wall is a framed photograph and obituary
of Lt Gen Sir Frederick Browning GCVO KBE CB DSO DL.
Nearby, a board names the Commanders of 24th Guards Bde
and their antecedents since formation in February 1940;
24th Guards Independent Bde Group, 24th Infantry Bde, 24th
Airportable Bde, 5th Field Force, 24th Infantry Bde again
and 24 Airmobile Bde, formed in 1988. 24 Bde was first
formed in 1914 as part of 8th DIV and was demobilised in
March 1919.) *1 To this day, Jun 97, the red Gryphon’s wings on a blue background are worn as a shoulder flash by 24 Airmobile Bde. The formation insignia was the family crest of Lt Gen Sir Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning. *2 Folder notes here in Colchester reveal that ‘1 Norfolk’ were a unit of 24th Guards Independent Bde Group 12 Sep 41 to 10 Sep 42. Postscript:
from B&C 90 Jun 98: |
| BERLIN from B&C
99 Dec 02 by Walter ‘Oss’
Osborne A most remarkable and erudite insight into Berlin came on disc (Good chap. Ed.) from 14822805 Walter ‘Oss’ Osborne 1 R Norfolk 1946-56 of Scarborough, N Yorks: ‘I’ve been waiting for someone to write about Berlin but I suppose we are all fading away?’ It was a glorious summer in Detmold. The Norfolk Cadets had enjoyed a visit then the whisper went round Berlin, guards, guards and more guards. This was later confirmed as pukka gen by the good citizens of Detmold, who were worried that the Cadets were the new garrison! The day rolled round and I believe the Bn went up by road. I was with the rear party watching Nobby Clarke dot the i’s and cross the t’s. We were going up by train in the usual paraphernalia of FSMO and loaded rifles. The Zone RTO was most concerned that we shouldn't upset our Russian friends and we had to hide our rifles and ammunition under the carriage seats. Once checked out of the British Zone, the train crossed to the Russian Zone check point where we were counted by a beautifully dressed KGB thug, who to my surprise smelled of scent - this was in the 40s when Brylcream was looked upon as a bit iffy! At Berlin Charlottenburg we were taken by the MT across the Grunewald and the Harvel Bailey Bridge to Spandau and Spandau West where I rejoined S Company. I was in 3 Mortar Pl with Sarah Seeking, the Immaculate Bland, and Tom Long; all under the tlc of Doojie Moore (died Oct 02, aged 92). Berlin was a mess with miles and miles of rubble, in which it was easy to get lost. There were no strict check points and we could wander where we liked, the skeleton U-bahn being the safest way to get about. People were living under the rubble in cellars and dugouts. There were, however, a lot of large 5 or 6-storey buildings which had survived the bombing and fighting and Spandau was not too badly knocked about. Berliners were recovering from the effects of the Nazi regime, the continuous bombing and, in the end, the street fighting throughout the city, with 10 year-old children trying to hold back the Mongolian divisions. When the fighting was finished Stalin allowed his troops to rape and riot in revenge for the suffering of the Russian people and as a consequence we were looked upon as the lesser of two evils. The barracks were a far cry from the stables and spiders of Nelson Barracks. They were centrally heated and double-glazed with push button electric fusing, miles ahead of anything in England. The top floor of a central block was in the hands of long-haired types in Field Security and there were lots of hush-hush comings and goings with people being smuggled to the Zone. Demob numbers were being called as the Conscript Army wound down and there were large Demob parties at the Jerboa NAAFI Club in Adolf Hitler Platz. This was one of the more pleasant duties. It was however a bit nerve wracking on the S-Bahn journey to Spandau, hoping whoever was driving would remember the Bailey Bridge. It was a bitterly cold winter and NAAFI rations were saved to give the local children a Christmas party to remember. The Quarter Guard were issued with ankle length kapok coats, boots, gloves and hats with earflaps. Unfortunately, it didn’t work as once kitted out the sentry could hardly move. (In the severe Balkans winter of 1996 we gave the Gurkha guards at ARRC Rear in Kiseljak, Bosnia, our ‘Deputy Dawg’ hats and any spare thermals, gloves contact, gloves inner and gloves outer! Ed.) I was mounting guard and the Orderly Officer impressed upon me the importance of the guard for the General Officer Commanding Berlin, one of the Big Four, Honour of the Regiment and all that. I thought he had an old fashioned look on his face but we loaded rifles and went off to a Mansion somewhere in Berlin. I mounted a ceremonial sentry on the front door with two prowler sentries and there was a Mil Pol Guard Pl on call at the back of the house. The day passed quietly. Did I mention it was the night before Christmas? In the evening I went to rotate the sentries and found the prowlers missing but a party in full swing in the Mil Pol mess where the prowlers wished me a Merry Christmas! The GOC, no fool he, had gone to the Zone and we were guarding an empty house. One of the better guards I thought. Some time later a spit and polish parade was ordered - Bren Gun Carriers and weapons gleaming and the remnants of the bn not on guard were paraded on the MT park. There was the inspecting officer, a diminutive figure in a utility raincoat with a bowler hat a shade too large. Manny Shinwell was inspecting the Garrison. (Ah. I thought for a moment you meant another aficionado of the Bowler! Ed.) I was too young to appreciate what the moment must have meant for him. Free elections were to be held. Joe Stalin immediately brought back his Mongolian divisions to ring and intimidate us and the Berliners. It had, of course, the opposite effect and while the East were 99.9% for Communism, West Berlin voted for a quasi democracy with a Control Commission oversight. One of the first decrees by the West Berlin Rathaus was to devalue the Mark and limit the exchange. This caught out the Black Marketeers and more or less stabilised the economy at about 15 Marks to the Pound, although chocolate, coffee and cigarettes were still the main currency. Meanwhile Stalin was being awkward, shutting down the road or the rail for repairs, eventually shutting them both down for good, and the air bridge was started. Fortunately there were hundreds of trained pilots of all nationalities available, with plenty of planes. The air corridors had long been agreed with Gatow, Tempehof airfields and the Harvel for sea planes at the Berlin end. The Russians regularly buzzed the air corridors but avoided direct confrontation. We already had a company at the Tiergarten on guard and another was now needed to unload the planes. The Harvel was the more agreeable duty as they could enjoy a swim between plane duties. It was about this time that reinforcements arrived from the disbanded 2nd Bn. As the air lift progressed, doors were removed from planes and all foods were powdered, tinned or dehydrated to ease the unloading. Electricity was reduced to two hours a day with no hot water. The cooks however worked wonders with the limited rations. I think at first the civilians worked for food but I’m not sure. A bonus from the air lift was the returning planes. Jump seats were fitted and regular leave started again, although the coal planes were not popular! Then came the great day when planes were landing at one end of the runway as planes took off at the other end. Food and utility stocks were built up and life was nearly back to normal, although at subsistence level. Our tour should have been for a year but lasted nearly two years. At last, orders came for the return to the luxury of the Zone. This time I was on the advance party but unfortunately it was to Hubelrath and a Guards Bde, out of the frying pan into the fire. PS Regarding Winkie Fitt and The Rum in B&C 87 Dec 96, I always thought as soon as the first shot was fired in anger Maj Monty Howard wrote off the Bn rum ration and anything else he could think of. |
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