this is how the green berets plan to take out soviet special forces
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had the cold war turned hot there would have been no escape for the u.s garrison in west berlin
marooned in a city more than 100 miles inside communist east germany
the u.s berlin brigade and the british and french garrisons as well
would certainly have been overwhelmed by soviet and east german troops their presence helped keep
half of berlin free from communist rule but it was no secret that theirs was a suicide mission
yet there was a unique american unit with an even more hazardous mission
a small special forces detachment whose job it would be during wartime to conduct guerrilla
warfare against the soviets and their puppet armies that sentence bears repeating deep
inside east germany in the midst of a vast soviet military and secret police apparatus a small group
of u.s commandos would attempt to blow up russian supply depots and lead local resistance groups
the phrase suicide mission doesn't even apply
the unit had many names over the cold war but as james stedskall a veteran of the detachment
describes in his book special forces berlin clandestine cold war operations of the us
army's elite 1956 through 1990 they always knew what they were getting into they were aware of
the odds against them and the threat posed by the warsaw pac forces stationed just kilometers away
despite that no one wavered in their commitment to face and deter the soviet war machine
the u.s army's special forces was born in 1952 and by 1956 sf units were deployed to berlin
the unit would first conduct sabotage attacks on vital targets such as rail marshaling
yards bridges military command and control systems communications petroleum oil and lubricant or
pol facilities power plants and inland waterways stechscall writes most of the rail targets were on
the berliner austin ring a 125 kilometer rail line that circled west berlin just outside the city
and would carry the overwhelming majority of soviet traffic westward to the front
once those targets were destroyed the teams would then conduct the kenyars or commander-in-chief
europe's mission of unconventional warfare behind the lines of the warsaw pact armies the so-called
stay behind mission it was also prepared to arm and direct civilians and sign berlin against an
occupation force there were ten thousand weapons and the brigade's emergency arms reserves stored
specifically for that purpose quite a task for a unit that numbered less than a hundred men
ironically the unit's mission was eased slightly by the nature of the berlin wall
it was designed to keep people from escaping from east germany rather than into east germany
nonetheless had war broken out west berlin would have been suddenly and massively assaulted by
soviet and east german troops the sf troopers would have had a little warning to leave their
barracks go underground and slip into the east before the soviet juggernaut surged
west as if the soviet army and kgb weren't enough the berlin special operators faced another equally
formidable enemy the u.s government the cia was supposed to set up underground guerilla groups
in eastern europe that the green berets could train and lead but the spy agency had little
luck in creating them more important was a phenomenon that is still a problem today
using special forces troops as nothing more than elite assault infantry for direct action missions
by the late 1970s the berlin sf detachment was increasingly asked to train and prepare
for counter-terrorism missions given the wave of terrorism that swept across europe
in the 1970s and 1980s from groups such as badar meinhof the red brigades and carlos the jackal
the temptation to use commandos to stop them was understandable
but kicking doors to rescue hostages was far from the skills needed to stay alive in the east german
countryside in any event west berlin became united berlin when the wall came tumbling down in 1989
in august 1990 the berlin special forces unit was disbanded this rider was once told by an
ex-special forces soldier who hadn't served in berlin that the soviets had photos of all the
members of the detachment true or not east german records uncovered after the unification of germany
showed that east german intelligence didn't have any real knowledge of the unit until 1975.
even stedskall admits that the berlin special
forces would have had a difficult time accomplishing their wartime mission
nonetheless they were practicing skiing or practicing shadowing east german spies
that it slipped into west berlin the commandos could enjoy strenuous but exciting assignment
most of all the berlin special forces were on the front line at the most famous flashpoint of the
cold war and almost no one knew they existed the detachments men moved through the city in civilian
clothes carrying briefcases shoulder bags or later day packs that contain the tools of their trade
whatever they needed for the tasks they were to undertake that day
they walked alongside ordinary berlin civilians with the uneasy knowledge they could well be
called upon to fight on those very streets at the same time it was hard not to smile inside for
these men were among the privileged few special forces soldiers given the opportunity to serve
in this far outpost on such an important mission the glory of the spartans was often recalled
at the unit events but not unforgotten was the unequivocal ending that befell them at thermopylae
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