LouieD

Stuart, yes his Berlin book has a section about the SF Det and have you seen this book? Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956–1990 https://www.amazon.com/Special-Forces-Berlin-Clandestine-Operations/dp/1612008437/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=310WB3B3O4UB7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._IUvz75n5MfPHQ8yue0Sud0P1lSOljUD7Lk4Ox_RBojQLXBrjd6eGoRhV2JJ91fjxSfqLh-wrKXvCRRHoTRQUQES0yONvCJylzREQBnRLrWKGM8b70i_JBTYEqkRTscK6KArJpKWe99Qp5DNzpSN5H7C8BMgPB5i18BztCQVL_Wd_jxUaS5aVlHB7wO0BrbZAA0jz3kp--iCrZebDEgstw.cL5nVyk5Zso2u8E1sV8Ifk12vaiGqLXmCOSvDG7y9S0&dib_tag=se&keywords=special+forces+berlin&qid=1730775070&sprefix=special+forces+berlin%2Caps%2C155&sr=8-1

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/BRIXMIS-and-the-Secret-Cold-War-Hardback/p/50780 Andrew is also doing a series for Helion on Berlin during the Cold War. He just finished Volume 4 which features the U.S. Berlin Bde…..up next will British Berlin Bde https://www.helion.co.uk/military-history-books/cold-war-berlin-an-island-city-volume-4-us-forces-in-berlin-preparing-for-war-1945-1994.php?sid=99491ddaa94dc209d6df49064adea732 (full transparency….i assisted on some ORBAT and unit info)

Someone posted this on FB from the 11 ACR museum, no date but I’m guessing mid-late 1980’s. I will try to upload a clearer image latter. Notice the two FRG Corps heading eastward.

Kew has about 52 WINTEX files from the 1980’s, it looks like they are all from Foreign & Commonwealth Office

Mungo Melvin pulled the last GDP Plan (1989) out for Ex United Shield 08/09. He wrote a pretty extensive Staff Ride booklet focused on NATO/Warsaw Pact Plans. The Mandarins at the MOD had their feather ruffled because “The future is COIN!” “ Armor is extinct!”. So I was told that the MOD civvies pulled everything Mungo Melvin used and disposed of it. However the booklet, ARRCADE Planner, seemed to have survived in the file cabinets and attics of several Staff Officers who attended. Furthermore it seems that one file, DEFE 70/2073 1 BR Corps Admin Orders 1/90, seemed to have escaped their clutches. I have the file from Kew and for the other, well….I couldn’t possibly comment!

From what the Old & Bold tell me a lot was destroyed after Wall Fall. One reason was “hey we don’t need it anymore” but I have been told by multiple Staff Officers that there were plans to go EAST in certain scenarios (Poland staging a revolution, Second Berlin Blockade, counterstrokes over the IGB, etc.) that certain people at the National level did not want to see the light of day. Until March 2022 the MOD has been good (probably me pestering them!) with dropping files at Kew. However since the Ukraine War nothing has been dropped and my FOI’s are being denied on security grounds. That said there are some files at Kew that have multiple parts, for instance I have a Part A of a reservist study that ends July 1989. When I inquired about Part B I was told it had been destroyed.

For the U.S. Army Armies are spelled out: Seventh U.S. Army Corps are Roman Numerals I U.S. Corps Divisions and below are Arabic Numerals 1st Inf Div, 194th Armor Bde, etc i had read that was done to reduce confusion. British Army uses Arabic exclusively, usually without the “st, rd, th,” etc 1 Armd Div Usually only Bns of Inf Regts, RA Regts, and RAC Regts use/used them in their official title 1st Bn, The Royal Scots 14th/20th King’s Hussars 1st Field Regt, RHA the other Corps tend to drop them 1 Regt, RLC 32 Engr Regt, RE etc

No, hadn't had time to order it yet.

@Perun At the National Archives CAB 120/691 Contingency planning against possible Russian aggression: Operation UNTHINKABLE [papers 22 May - 11 July 1945]; preliminary Anglo-US staff talks on Russian threat in Europe [papers 30 August 1946 - 3 February 1947] 1945 May-1947 Feb

The publisher’s responded that there are no plans for an English language edition. I went ahead and ordered it but won’t arrive to the New Year!

For the German speakers (I have emailed and asked if there will be an English Edition, so far no response) the 2nd, expanded, edition which brings into play Bundeswehr Plans to cross the IGB https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/3967760634/ref=ox_sc_act_image_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

@Intrepid_Hants @Stuart Galbraith @PCallahan Centurion numbers revisited Spoke with a former People’s Cavalry Officer. He said that….. “I cannot state any numbers , but when I was in Barker Barracks Paderborn 1979-1986 there was a Dryclad compound which had some Cents in it, I always presumed they were OP tanks and never intended to be used as gun tanks by the RAC. However, the RAC did NOT continue any form of Cent gunnery training during my service, which would have been necessary had there been gun tanks kept in storage with that in mind. Written Off and Struck Off Strength (SOS) are two different concepts. Written off usually means that and equipment has been damaged beyond repair (or lost) and the write off process is the official means of removing it from the account following a Board of Enquiry. SOS is a more routine phrase which simply means that the equipment is no longer to be ccounted for, and therefore spares cannot be demanded, lubricants used, fuel drawn etc.” After some head scratching with the aforementioned ex-People’s Cavalry Officer and a check on the WMR/Equipment files I have from Kew, the 570 should be read as ALL MBTs in store (ie Chieftain). So Cents in limited numbers (the 50 105mm OP tanks plus AVRE & ARRV) were indeed in Dryclad in BAOR in the 1980’s along with Chieftains that we have mentioned before.

Second time Sir Humphrey has brought it to the fore on Twitter (do I have to pay him advertising fees?!?!)! Version 10 that I am currently working on May stretch the page count nearer to 200 and should bring back many memories to the Old & Bold, show the Mandarins at the MOD what could be fielded with 55,000 men/women, and be the penultimate reference work for historians and gamers.

If you can get my work, wife, and kids to cooperate I could have it done in two weeks!!! I want to get it out before the end of the summer but realistically if I have it all done by October I will consider myself blessed!

Perun, I have literally never seen that on any forum I have ever been on......... What copyright material?