Originally Posted by
MPN11
In 1988 I had the good fortune to have MoD/NATS HQ Staff responsibility for the RAF Element of the
Berlin Air Safety Centre and a Staff visit was essential. What a strange World it was back then! Kindly accommodated in the palatial residence of the RAF element CO (a lucky wg cdr) and chauffeured around in his luxury limo, we parked at BASC next to the Soviet CO's tatty old Opel with missing hub caps etc.
It was interesting to see the good relationships between the 4 Powers at 'shop floor' level, despite the on-going Cold War, and to hear of the intense competition over the quality of F&B at social functions ... ISTR the French were usually on top!
We Dan-Air 1-11 and 727 crews were encouraged to visit the BASC at least once to understand its operation and particularly the difficulties involved in getting extensions if delayed en-route for a return to Tegel. The work was done at an over-sized dining table, with each corner inhabited by a commissioned officer of the Soviet, French, UK, and USA air forces. The Soviet and RAF ones were amending their respective publications, the French one was reading Le Figaro and wreathed in smoke from his Gauloise cigarette, and USAF was watching a ball game on a small portable TV. The work involved reacting to alerts from the Berlin Air Traffic Centre of a departing/arriving allied aircraft approaching a corridor entry point. The alert would go to the French, UK, or USA reps for the North, Centre, and South Air Corridors respectively. The flight info would already be sitting in their pigeon-holes on a post-card type form. The post-card would be handed across the table to the Soviet Officer, which counted as formal notification of the movement. Having recorded it he would stamp it with an outsized imprint with Cyrillic script stating that the USSR could not guarantee its safety but acknowledging the movement.
Our conducting S/Ldr explained that you started off UI to make sure that you were fully practiced in the routine before going solo. His turn came, BARTCC rang to say that Flt No XXXXX was a/b TXL and heading for the Centre Corridor. He carefully extracted the appropriate card, time stamped it, and handed it over to the Soviet officer who recorded the movement and handed it back. Having placed it in the approved rack our man relaxed, first one done at least. A few moments later the Soviet Officer suddenly asks for the card back. This isn't in the script! Card duly returned to Soviet corner with trembling hands. "Ah", says the Russian, "I forget to stamp it! I will do it now for you!" Russia 10 points, and new boy thus welcomed into the fold.
Off duty they were teaching the Russians the game of darts, much to the cost of the walls of the BASC building. It had been the Prussian equivalent of the Old Bailey and was used by the NAZI People's Court for the trial of those involved in the 20 July Bomb Plot. Once convicted they were to be hung (by piano wire, "like cattle!") within two hours on Hitler's express orders. Executions were to be carried out across town at Moabit. With round the clock bombing this created a logistical problem and was partially overcome it is suspected within the Court building itself, for in the basement there was still a crudely made braced beam high up on the wall. Our guide explained that in the top of the beam were grooves as though worn into it by wires under tension...