Brandenburg Gate 1945
Uncle Walters recollections and photographs (See rest of set for more info)
This is the Tiergarten. It was here they used to have a big black market. Did I tell you about that Russian officer I picked up? I was in the Russian Zone, this was when you could go into the Russian Zone. I can’t remember what I was doing there, but I was on me way out, by myself. And this Russian flagged me down like. He was quite a decent sort of bloke, I think he might have been in the airforce. I stopped and he said “Alexanderplaatz”, it was in the Russian Sector, near where Checkpoint Charlie was later on. I picked him up and I was driving down there, and I didn’t know where the bloody hell I was going! I was a bit lost! Anyway I was driving down and there was this big notice up, on the side of a building. I couldn’t understand it, it was in Russian! He says “Ahh! Alexanderplaatz, that way.” So I carried on down, and we came to another one, “Alexanderplaatz!” So we got to Alexanderplaatz, and I knew where we was from then. Then he said “Brandenburg Gate?” So I says “Oh yeah, righto.” We was driving down there, and it was quite nice. We were sort of talking. The little bit of German that I knew, plus a little English he knew, it was going well! “Hey Tommee, Churchill, very good!” So I said “Stalin, very good!” “Tommee, very good!” So we were shaking hands and all that. When I got to the Brandenburg Gate, he got out, and that was where he was going, the black market!
Did you need passes to get into the different zones then?
No, we just drove into the zones. I did go into the American Zone, but I didn’t have much to do with the French Zone, and we used to do quite a bit in the Russian Zone, until things started going wrong.
This one job we had, we had to go to Spandau railhead, and these wagon loads of potatoes come in. And these German
civilians, they just loaded the potatoes in the back of our wagons with shovels, so they were all loose, and we’d pile them up. And then we used to go in convoy, probably about four or five of us, with a corporal in charge. When we’d go round a corner potatoes would fall off the back of the wagons, and these kids out there, they were picking the potatoes up! They got it so that they had a stick you see, and as we went past they used it to knock the potatoes off! It was dangerous, but I don’t think anybody got hurt.
The thing was, we used to take them all over the place, and this one place was in the Russian Zone, a depot of some kind. We just drove into a yard, and tipped the potatoes out and off we went. But there was one convoy went, with a corporal in charge, and the corporal got out and went to find out where they’d got to go. Of course the kids were helping themselves to these potatoes, and when the wagons did drive in, and tip their loads, the Russians closed the bloody gates, locked them, and wouldn’t let them out! They said they were selling their potatoes to the Germans. So they were stuck there for two or three days. Course when they got out the corporal was on a charge, but he wasn’t selling them at all. The Russians were like that.
There was another one. It was somewhere around about the Brandenburg Gate, and he was driving into the Russian Zone, and a Russian soldier stopped him. They used to carry machine guns, and obviously he stopped. They made him get out, and when he got out they got in and drove the bloody thing off! That’s the sort of things they used to do! This was when it started to turn sour, then of course they stopped us from going in the Russian Sector, but before that we used to drive straight through there.
Brandenburg Gate 1945
Uncle Walters recollections and photographs (See rest of set for more info)
This is the Tiergarten. It was here they used to have a big black market. Did I tell you about that Russian officer I picked up? I was in the Russian Zone, this was when you could go into the Russian Zone. I can’t remember what I was doing there, but I was on me way out, by myself. And this Russian flagged me down like. He was quite a decent sort of bloke, I think he might have been in the airforce. I stopped and he said “Alexanderplaatz”, it was in the Russian Sector, near where Checkpoint Charlie was later on. I picked him up and I was driving down there, and I didn’t know where the bloody hell I was going! I was a bit lost! Anyway I was driving down and there was this big notice up, on the side of a building. I couldn’t understand it, it was in Russian! He says “Ahh! Alexanderplaatz, that way.” So I carried on down, and we came to another one, “Alexanderplaatz!” So we got to Alexanderplaatz, and I knew where we was from then. Then he said “Brandenburg Gate?” So I says “Oh yeah, righto.” We was driving down there, and it was quite nice. We were sort of talking. The little bit of German that I knew, plus a little English he knew, it was going well! “Hey Tommee, Churchill, very good!” So I said “Stalin, very good!” “Tommee, very good!” So we were shaking hands and all that. When I got to the Brandenburg Gate, he got out, and that was where he was going, the black market!
Did you need passes to get into the different zones then?
No, we just drove into the zones. I did go into the American Zone, but I didn’t have much to do with the French Zone, and we used to do quite a bit in the Russian Zone, until things started going wrong.
This one job we had, we had to go to Spandau railhead, and these wagon loads of potatoes come in. And these German
civilians, they just loaded the potatoes in the back of our wagons with shovels, so they were all loose, and we’d pile them up. And then we used to go in convoy, probably about four or five of us, with a corporal in charge. When we’d go round a corner potatoes would fall off the back of the wagons, and these kids out there, they were picking the potatoes up! They got it so that they had a stick you see, and as we went past they used it to knock the potatoes off! It was dangerous, but I don’t think anybody got hurt.
The thing was, we used to take them all over the place, and this one place was in the Russian Zone, a depot of some kind. We just drove into a yard, and tipped the potatoes out and off we went. But there was one convoy went, with a corporal in charge, and the corporal got out and went to find out where they’d got to go. Of course the kids were helping themselves to these potatoes, and when the wagons did drive in, and tip their loads, the Russians closed the bloody gates, locked them, and wouldn’t let them out! They said they were selling their potatoes to the Germans. So they were stuck there for two or three days. Course when they got out the corporal was on a charge, but he wasn’t selling them at all. The Russians were like that.
There was another one. It was somewhere around about the Brandenburg Gate, and he was driving into the Russian Zone, and a Russian soldier stopped him. They used to carry machine guns, and obviously he stopped. They made him get out, and when he got out they got in and drove the bloody thing off! That’s the sort of things they used to do! This was when it started to turn sour, then of course they stopped us from going in the Russian Sector, but before that we used to drive straight through there.