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Berlin: Ground Zero for Cold War Espionage
Stay-Behind Operations in West Germany and Berlin
In Post World War II Germany, no other city on earth felt the Cold War’s tension like Berlin. A city divided by four powers — with one of those powers going rogue, it became the most volatile political city on the planet. Capitalism and communism went head to head for the next 45 years.
To the rest of the civilian world an appearance of heated diplomatic discussion became the norm, but on the ground soldiers patrolled borders and intelligence agents played an increasingly dangerous game of cat-and-mouse.
Berlin was considered a capitalist jewel to dangle in the face of communism, but really, it was a city that stood little chance of survival in the event of a Soviet attack. And the potential for attack seemed real. If it happened, Berlin would be lost forever.
It was time to take drastic measures. Berlin’s underbelly is a maze of tunnels and secret passageways. Many of them built during the Second World War, others remnants of bomb shelters, newer tunnels appeared during the Cold War.
It was decided that units would be mounted and trained to stay behind and disrupt the Soviet onslaught. Their objective would be to disrupt and hinder any strategic advance the Soviets could make into…
