Nuuumannn's European Tour of 2019

Really enjoying this.

Excellent !

The next day, we continued on with the Berlin Airlift tour, today was supposed to be the day we went to Shonhagen to see the Daks Over Normandy aircraft again, but this event had been cancelled and we found out on the train to Belin a few days earlier. It was me who found out actually. There were doubts it was going to happen before we left Paris, and so I contacted my friends in Berlin and they did some digging around - they wanted to come with us to the event - and they discovered that on the airfield website that the Daks Over Normandy bid to host an event at the airfield fell short of safety requirements and so the event was not permitted to go ahead. This lent weight to the claim by some in another group that the Daks Over Normandy people were a little disorganised at this end. As it was, the Daks did a fly over of Shonhagen, but on a different day. They held events at Wunsdorf and Wiesbaden, in totally different parts of the country to Berlin. The candy bomber drop recreation had also been cancelled too, which meant that for the 70th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, what we had travelled to Berlin for, there was nothing!

I was starting to lose faith in the whole tour and was itching to spend more time with my friends as for the last few nights we'd been in Berlin, I had spent with them, not the tour group. Nonetheless, the first half of the day went according to schedule with a visit to a secret Nazi communications facility in a small town an hour's drive to the south of Berlin, Zossen. A peculiar wee town, Zossen was full of second hand book stores! Not surprisingly, their military sections were well stocked and I couldn't resist buying a couple of German language books, one on the rocket base at Peenemunde and a monograph on the Type XXI U-boat, for very low prices indeed.

This is one of the entrances to what was known as the Maybachlager communications facility, containing Maybach I and II and the Zeppelin below ground communications bunker built by Reichspost on the orders of the OK des Heeres in the Bendlerblock between 1937 and 1939. Post war, the Maybach buildings were destroyed by the Soviets on the instruction of the Four Power Agreement by those occupying Germany after the war, but the Zeppelin bunker remained in use until 1994 and was enlarged by the Soviet Army, being dug from its original 30 metre depth to 60 metres below the surface. It was renamed Ranet by the Soviets. The guardhouse and gate were of the Soviet pattern.

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This is a map of what is accessible within the bunker complex. The neatly arranged cluster of rectangular buildings is the Maybach I complex, with Maybach II being out of the picture to the right and completely destroyed; there being nothing left of the buildings. The Zeppelin bunker is the large L shaped building at centre. The red lines between the complexes were subterranean tunnels, most of which have since been destroyed, although the tunnel from the Zeppelin building and what is listed as 'Panzir' to the right was built by the Russians as an entry/exit tunnel and still exists. we'll see it on the tour. The tunnel marked Weststollen was also intact and we walked through that to the surface, exiting within the compound.

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This is how the bunkers of Maybach I look today. Designed to resemble houses, they were above ground shelters, with subterranean rooms and each building housed communications facilities for different branches of the German military. The Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe and Abwehr had individual blocks here, as well as the Gestapo and other security branches within Maybach II and from these, communications throughout the Germans' regions of conquest were spread, after receipt from HQs in Berlin. The buildings' remains are testament to their strength in that the Russians just left them, rather than continuing their destruction. They were 36 metres long by 16 metres wide and were hermetically sealed against gas attack.

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Sign of Soviet occupation of the site on a generator building door.

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The enormity of these structures' construction can be appreciated by seeing their skeletons. Begun in 1937, the entire Maybach I complex was completed two years later in December 1939, with 12 of these three-storey towers. Designed to resemble local housing, the issue that was pointed out to us was that reconnaissance aircraft might well have believed they were photographing nothing less innocent than local housing but for the several hundred personnel that worked in shifts on site - it would seem rather obvious if a hundred or so people were seen entering or leaving one building! Nevertheless, the complex at Zossen went largely unknown to the Allies through most of the war, although the site was known to Ultra and the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, becoming common knowledge with a slip of the tongue from an officer captured in July 1944, and its bombing was ordered in early 1945.

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A ventilation port mounted above an entry alcove. Below ground in each tower there were individual air purification facilities, as well as wells for water and diesel motors to keep each individual complex running. The method of construction, steel reinforced concrete being evident here.

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Another view at one of the collapsed structures, again, emphasising their size. A wee note about Maybach II, comprising similar structures, within a safe inside one of the buildings was found documentation left by the 20 July 1944 Operation Valkyrie, which was crucial in incriminating those executed in the court yard at the Bendlerblock and at Plotzensee prison in the north of Berlin (Plotzensee is still a prison, but the room where the plotters not killed at the Bendlerblock were executed survives as a memorial - I visited Plotzensee many years ago).

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These images, on display within the Zeppelin bunker show how these towers looked during the war; camouflage nets were also used to create the illusion of a village. On 15 March 1945, the Zossen complex was attacked during bombing raids by 675 heavy bombers of both the RAF and USAAF, Hans Krebs, Chief of Staff OKH was in Maybach I at the time and was injured in one of the raids. He was later to take is own life in the Fuhrerbunker on 2 May 1945. The raids did some surface damage and communications were cut off for two hours, but the site began transmitting again via the Zeppelin bunker. Abandoned before the Soviets arrived, Russian troops scoured the site and removed everything not bolted down, especially the comms equipment, which was state of the art compared to the Russian built stuff they were used to, most of it was shipped back to the Soviet Union before the buildings were destroyed.

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This is the subterranean entry tunnel to Ranet, the former Zeppelin bunker, that was built by the Soviets in 1983.

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This is the above ground entrance to the Zeppelin bunker, renamed Ranet by the Soviets and modified for their use by1966, when it became operational with the same purpose. Before their occupation of the facility, they carried out measures to protect it from NBC attacks - nuclear, biological, chemical warfare. New ventilation facilities were added, the structure was increased in depth and habitation for its occupants increased for prolonged stays below ground. Entry and exit doors were thickened and sealing of the entire complex was improved. Note the camouflage nets.

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Zossen continues next.

Exploring the Zeppelin bunker. The principal stairway underground - there were lift shafts, but these no longer function.

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Evidence of the original occupants - Reichspost. No original equipment survives within the facility, although some rooms house displays with period radio telephones and other items of interest that would have been used at the time.

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The Zeppelin bunker was entirely self contained and a separate entity to the Maybach facilities, with accommodation, cooking and bathing rooms, with water tapped from a subterranean well. This corridor is one of the original German sections of the complex.

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Plans for the Zeppelin/Ranet bunker. There's a spelling mistake: Gundflasche, should be 'Grundflasche', or footprint. Gesamt Nutflasche (sans umlaut) is total wood - nut (?) skinning - German translaters help required. 'Wandstarken' (sans umlaut) is wall thickness, 'Bodenaushub' is ground excavation, 'Eingebaut Betonmenge' is built-in concrete amount, concreting taking eight months.

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A corridor within the Ranet section of the complex.

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This is the lowest point of the building. We are now 60 metres below the ground within Ranet. This was the accommodation tunnel for the hapless Soviet soldiers who were garrisoned here...

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...And this is what they slept on!

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The exit tunnel to the surface was lined with chalk, which if touched remained on clothing and our hands for the rest of the day.

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This is the exit from where the tunnel breaches the surface. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the entire facility was taken over by the Bundeswehr, who kept it running until 1994. The pixel camouflage most likely dates from this time.

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Finally, local means of transport; this particular Trabbi was in good nick and worthy of my attention.

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Next, instead of heading for Schonhagen, we then sought out Finowfurt, and the rather dilapidated Luftfahrtmuseum on site at the former Soviet airfield.

Fascinating stuff !

Great shots, love the beds

Great shots Grant!

From Zossen we drove to Finow, a small hamlet an hour's drive to the north east of Berlin. There we went to the Luftfahrtmuseum Finowfurt located at Flugplatz Eberswalde-Finow. A former Nazi Luftwaffe airfield opening in 1938, post-war the Soviet Air Force took over in 1950 and initially used for training, it became a fighter station complete with dispersed Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS), with its main equipment being Yak-28 twin-engined interceptors, with LSK (DDR air force) MiG-23s and latterly MiG-29s of JG 3 before its closure in 1993. It still operates as a civil airfield, but much of the grounds are covered in solar panels, including much of the main runway. According to a display in the shop, Soviet Bell P-39s were stationed there for a period.

Finow's importance to the Nazis was paramount, for it was the main HQ for I/KG 200, and those captured B-17s, B-24s and other Allied types were based here, as well as an assortment of heavy Luftwaffe types, including Fw 200, Ju 290, Ju 52, Ju 252, Ju 352, Ar 232 and He 177 with 1/KG 200. Medium types with 2/KG 200 include Ju 88, Ju 188 and Do 217, training types with 4/KG 200 at Finow included Ar 96, Bu 181 and Bf 108s. KG 200's Stab HQ was at Gatow. Unfortunately there is little on the activities of KG 200 on display, the museum mentioning Luftwaffe use in the entrance foyer, but with little detail.

The Luftfahrtmuseum is located at the far end of what used to be the main runway, now covered in a solar farm, in a dispersed HAS compound. The coach driver, getting lost, took us to the GA field, with its neat control tower, where directions to the museum were sought.

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This gate guard Su-22M reflected the state of the majority of the aircraft on site - a bit dilapidated, although work was being done on them.

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Arrestor barrier erected in front of display HAS.

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MiG-15UTI and MiG-21F-13 inside a HAS.

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PZL-Mielec M-18A Dromader, with a radar equiped shelter behind.

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MiG-23BN of the LSK.

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VEB-14P, licence built Ilyushin Il-14 constructed in Dresden.

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Yak-28R.

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Yak's nose.

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Inside one of the HAS is a number of wrecked aircraft, including this Bf 109G-12 cockpit section.

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PZL-Mielec An-2T.

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Freshly painted L-29.

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Tu-134. Interflug was the DDR's state airline.

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Mil-8T with another fuselgae hiding in the trees.

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MiG-23S looking a little cosmetically challenged.

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Finally, looking over us all disdainfully, Lenin hasn't given up hope of redemption yet.

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Finow was a little rustic and run down and one of the group commented that it was the saddest aviation museum he'd ever seen! There is definitely room for improvement and considering its distance from a main centre, surprising that it gets any visitors at all. Nevertheless, there is the bare bones of an interesting collection there, although there is little that is different to almost every other aviation collection in the former DDR. It is a shame that there is little on the field's history, as it was certainly fascinating. I guess we can't really expect to see a Beute B-17 in Luftwaffe markings anytime soon.

On the way home, I contemplated the tour as it had been and after the cancellation of events surrounding the Berlin Airlift side of things, I made the decision that the next day I would leave the tour and go out and do my own thing, although we had one more day of the tour to go. I had had enough and was eager to spend more time with my friends. On the way back I was being Don Quixote...

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Next, Karlshorst and the impressive Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park.

The Ilyushin Il-14 is a very attractive looking aircraft

A sad looking museum, but great to see nonetheless.

Great shots Grant!

The next day after breakfast in the hotel, I set off as the rest of the tour was boarding the bus for its daily excursion. They were heading for the Alliertenmuseum, the Allied Museum that focusses on the four-power occupation of the city after WW2. I've been there before and its good, it has a Handley Page Hastings that took part in the Berlin Airlift, but my thoughts on the tour hadn't changed and with the afternoon's activity being a visit to the Deutsches Technikmuseum, which I'd seen a day earlier, it was time for me to go do what I wanted and leave the tour behind. According to the original itenerary, the candy bomber drop at Tempelhof was to take place today, but since that wasn't happening, I was going to go to one of the most significant historic sites of WW2 Europe.

In the leafy suburb of Karlshorst in the city's south east, in this incongrouous building at the end of Zwieselerstrasse, World War Two in Europe officially came to an end. In this building, the Soviet Army signed away control of East Germany with the ratification of the DDR in the former RLM building in October 1949. Now, thanks to the Soviets, it is a museum, one of the best in the city, that tells the story of the Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany, the capture of the city by the Soviet Army and the impact of all that on its hapless citizens. Prior to the end of the war, the building was the officer's mess for the Wehrmacht Pioneer School.

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In this room, representatives of the Wehrmacht, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe - the OKW des Heeres HQ'd at the Bendlerblock, signed the document that ended the war. It was a ratification of the existing agreement made the day before in Rheims, which is the official reason behind the scurrying of officials from France, to Flugplatz Tempelhof and through the devastated ruins of the city centre to this largely untouched corner of the Reich, but unofficially, the reason for the reconvening at Karlshorst was Stalin. After the signing of the official surrender document at Rheims on 7 May 1945, insisted on by General Eisenhower, who stated that if the Germans did not surrender unconditionally, then bombing of Germany would resume, Stalin was furious. How could the Allies force the Germans to sign a document of surrender with no Soviet participation, after what the Soviet people had been through? He was right of course, the Soviets suffered the largest human and material losses of every country that took part in WW2 at the hands of the Nazis, so the absense of Soviet representatives at the surrender table was not acceptable. That night, everyone was packed into aircraft and flown to Berlin. The room is almost exactly as it was on 8th May 1945, save for the carpet allegedly pilfered from the ruins of the Reichskanzlei on Vossstrasse. Much of the furniture is not original however.

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Here is where the representatives of the Allied countries sat, indicated by their national flags. From left, representing General Eisenhower, the British delegate was Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, The Soviet delegate was Marshal Georgy Zhukov, formal representative of the Red Army Supreme High Command, the United States delegate was General Carl Spaatz, Commander of the United States Strategic Air Forces as a witness, and the French delegate was General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, Commander of the First French Army, as a witness.

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Here is where the Germans sat. From Marshal Zhukov's diary, "The first to enter, slowly and feigning composure, was Generalfeldmarschall [Wilhelm] Keitel, Hitler's closest associate. Keitel was followed by Generaloberst [Hans-Jurgen] Stumpff. he was a short man whose eyes were full of impotent rage. With him entered Generaladmiral [Hans-Georg] von Friedeburg who looked prematurely old. The Germans were asked to take their seats at a separate table close to the door through which they had entered. The Generalfeldmarschall slowly sat down and pinned his eyes on us, sitting at the Presaedium table. Stumpff and von Friedeburg sat down beside Keitel. The officers accompanying them stood behind their chairs."

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The German Instrument of Surrender Document as signed by those present, in a display case in the room.

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Following the end of the war, the building became Headquarters for the Soviet military administration within Germany, with Zhukov as its nominal head. Within the room that used to be his office, adjacent to the hall where the official surrender took place is Zhukov's dress coat.

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Upstairs in what used to be offices is a meandering timeline with objects and documents of significance to the story of the Soviet push toward Berlin. It's sobering reading and unfortunately I wasn't able to take it all in, although I bought a copy of the thick and lengthy museum brochure. A PPSh-41 submachine gun.

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Pilot's Notes for the Bell P-39 Airacobra written in Cyrillic. Note that the Airacobra has a British fin flash.

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A dual-language map of the Allied occupation of Germany.

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This is a sign typical of those that the Sovits had placed around Berlin broadcasting Stalinesque quotes. It states, "History tells us that the Hitlers come and go, but that the German people, the German state, remains." A vaguely ambivalent and wholly out-of-character sentiment for the little moustachioed General. The museum caption to the item refers to the fact that fascist Germany is referred to as a separate entity from the German people, something that wartime Soviet propaganda never did.

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The caption to this map reads, "On 2 May 1945 at 5 o'clock I removed this map from the desk in Hitler's office in the Reichs Chancellery bunker, and on the same day of 1945 at 12 noon handed it over to the member of the Military Council of the 5th Shock Army, Lieutenant General F.E. Bokov, Commander of the Reichs Chancellery Guards Battalion, Commander 2nd Infantry Battalion 1050. Infantry Regiment 301. Infantry Division 9th Corps of the 5th Shock Army Captain F. Shapovalov 2 May 1945."

Features of interest we visited a few days earlier can be identified on the map, the central defensive Zitadelle can be seen marked in red pencil, with its eastern and western flanks marked, ending at Alexanderplatz and Zoologischer Garten respectively. The blue pencil marks show the courses of the Soviet advance.

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The enormous stained glass window in Soviet style in the building's stairwell, the central figure clutching a child is the same as the sculpture at the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park. Note the presence of the Fernsehturm. Following their relinquishing of Germany's eastern half to the DDR government, the Soviet army abandoned the building as an administrative centre. but remained on site and made the decision to preserve it as a memorial. The museum was opened in 1967, given the breathlessly lengthy title of The Museum of the Unconditional Surrender of Fascist Germany in the Great Patriotic War, 1941 - 1945, with items from collections in Moscow on display in support of the story told within. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian and German governments decided to retain the building as a memorial and it opened to the public at large in 1995 as the simpler titled Deutsch-Russischemuseum, with captions in Russian and German only. Since then the exhibition spaces have been enlarged and captions provided in English to appeal to the foreign tourist market. The first time I visited the site, there was no English versions of the story told within, but was nonetheless fascinating.

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Outside at the entrance sits this T-34-85. There's that red marble from the Reichskanzlei again.

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Around the back of the building are a few examles of Soviet weaponry, including this IS-2.

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ISU-152.

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SU-100.

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BM-13 Katyusha on a ZIS-6 chassis.

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Next, one of Berlin's oldest airfields, right next door.

Yet more interesting stuff - thanks Grant !

Thanks for skipping the official tour and telling us about this instead!

Lovely shots Grant!

Thanks again guys. From the Deutsch-Russischemuseum we walk along Zwieselerstrasse and turn left into Kopernicker Allee, where we walk to this junction and the site of Berlin's oldest airfield, Flugplatz Friedrichsfelde, or simply known by the suburb it borders with to the east, Biesdorf. In 1887 Werner von Siemens bought the land for industrial development; his firm Siemens Schuckertwerke, based in Nuremburg became interested in constructing aircraft and airships from 1903; work begun on the airfield in 1907 and their first airship was a gigantic thing built in the very first rotating airship hangar on this site. The sign is the only evidence that this land used to be an airfield.

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These are surviving aircraft hangars built on site in 1916 - 1917 and were unique for their time, being among the first steel reinforced concrete hangars built in Germany. They are self-supporting structures capped with vaulted domes and there were once a total of 18, but two have since succumbed to vandals and fire. They are listed structures, but development of the site has ground to a halt and work on these being incorporated into accommodation has ceased.

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Another view of the hangars, with paving work having begun but stopped on site. This was a military airfield during the Great War, following Siemens Schuckert's selling the site to the military in 1914. Exactly what units or type of aircraft operated here is a mystery and references to its Great War usage are almost non-existent. German references speak of the uniqueness of the buildings, but nothing is written about what it was these hangars housed during the war. Initially I had thought that Siemens Schuckert continued aircraft construction activity in these hangars, but this wasn't the case. Their aircraft works, where they built their technically advanced fighters was in Nuremburg and the site where their Riesenflugzeugen, the Siemens Forssman and the Siemens Schuckert Steffen R aircraft, were built was the Siemenswerke near Spandau, still operated by Siemens AG.

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With the induction of the Nazi party into power, the site became part of the Wehrmacht Pionierschule I in 1937, for which a complex of administration and accommodation buildings was built at Karlshorst-Ost, within which the museum building on Zwieselerstrasse we had just left was the officer's mess. Again, to what extent the grass airfield or these hangars was used is not known. There was never a concrete runway, thus restricting what types operated here. The principal airfields in Berlin during WW2 were Tempelhof and Staaken - the latter of which we'll see more of soon and Johannistal, another grass strip and Germany's first civil commercial airfield. It was there that Wilbur Wright demonstrated his 1907 built Flyer during his successful European tour in 1909. I wanted to visit the empty field but ran out of time. To get to Johannistal I would have had to miss something off my itinerary, which I wasn't willing to do.

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The site of where the runways were is now a wildlife reserve protected by an electric fence, which borders a housing plot. There is a sign with illustrations briefly outlining the airfield's use. This is how the airfield looked after the Great War; the line of hangars can plainly be seen. Zwieselerstrasse does not yet exist. This was on the very outskirts of Berlin and was nominally uninhabited land.

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Overgrown and disused to enable various species of rodent and birds to thrive, this is looking toward the site of the Siemens Schuckert airship shed, not shown in the previous illustration as it had been removed by 1920. It was located below where the 'z' is in 'Flugplatz'. Constructed in 1907 on the instruction of Werner von Siemens' son Wilhelm, the enormous 12,000 ton shed was completed two years later. Designed by Siemens' own personal architect, the shed was built by construction giants Steffens & Nölle AG, who also built the Berlin radio tower, of which see later, and was 136 metres long, 25 metres high and 30 metres wide. As mentioned earlier, it was the very first rotatable airship hangar, being driven by two gasoline engines and two electric motors to turn it about its concrete base. The entire structure sat on 24 steel bogies and moved about two circular rails. It took one hour to rotate the shed completely. Below its base was storage for hydrogen that could be pumped into the airship within the shed. The rotating airship shed at the Imperial German Naval Airship Station at Nordholz, near Cuxhaven was based on the engineering of this one.

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This image was taken from roughly where I took the previous one, at the edge of the airfield. Construction of the Siemens airship began in 1908, but was not completed until 1911. Despite its enormous size, the SSL 1 as it was designated was a non-rigid pressure ship at 118 metres long, which was big for a pressure ship, and was powered by two 125hp Daimler engines. Between its first flight on 23 January 1911 and its last in 1913, it was evaluated for military service, - the army taking over operations in early 1912, it was found to be rather complex in operation, not to mention the influence of the so-called 'Zeppelin Lobby', favouring the ships of the firm's nearest competitor, who established an airfield at Staaken. Among passengers aboard were Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, who wanted to see what the competition was up to. The innovative ship was dismantled in 1914, and the shed saw use by Gross-Bassenach and Parseval airships subsequently.

Siemens Schuckert was not done with the shed, despite the land being disposed of to the military, however. Between 1915 and 1918, the firm developed what it called Torpedogleitern, unpowered glide bombs packed full of explosives. Prototypes and models of these devices were tested within the Biesdorf hangar. Varying in design from a 300kg device with a biplane wing and cruciform tail section to a monoplane design of 1000kg, in August 1918 the Zeppelin L 35 launched one of these and control was maintained over a distance of 7.4 kilometres, operating from the airfield at Juterbog, rather than Biesdorf. During earlier trials, L 35 also carried an Albatros D III fighter aloft simultaneously in front of the glide bomb slung under its hull.

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From Am Alten Flugplatz we can see the rear of the Deutsch-Russischemuseum across vacant land that was formerly property of the KGB and the Stasi, of all things. At one stage a section of the field served as a radio communications aerial array.

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This is a Soviet style accomodation block, within which personnel based on site lived, this much I know. Exactly what they were doing here is not known, although it is known that there was a Stasi construction firm on the airfield grounds. This building is now in the compound of a Berlin regional transport bus company's workshops today.

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Lining Kopernicker Allee are two of what look to be administration office blocks within a high fenced compound ringed with barbed wire and security gates. If someone said the Stasi operated within this compound I'd believe them, although today the entire site looks disused and derelict. What things took place within these walls and by whom?

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Within German texts the site is claimed to have been occupied by the 'Ministry of State security construction business', in other words, operated by the Stasi. This image was taken by holding my camera up over a metal gate and through the barbed wire at its top edge. These resemble machinery or vehicle sheds, which points to them being used by the Stasi. They are situated behind the office towers, in a row of four of them. Behind them are more of the original concrete aircraft hangars, seen off Am Alten Flugplatz. Mysterious.

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Next, the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park in all its grandeur.

Mysterious indeed

Some real jewels of architecture there.

From Karlshorst I caught the S-Bahn to my friend's house and she, her 8 year old daughter and myself then went to Alexanderplatz and caught the S-Bahn to Treptow, for a photo-shoot at the Soviet War Memorial. The second of three in the city, the third at Pankow, this is by far the largest and most impressive, taking two years to build and lots of stone gathered from around the crumbling former Reich capital buildings. Begun in 1947, the memorial is located on ground that used to be a sports field, but became a Soviet mass grave after the war's end - over 3,200 Soviet soldiers lie within the grounds. This is one of two entry portals with the inscription, "Everlasting glory to the heroes who have fallen for the freedom and independence of Socialism".

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Once through the portals, the visitor arrives at the northernmost edge of the monument and a sculpture representing Mutter Heimat - the Motherland mourning her lost sons.

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From her point of view, we can see the two enormous marble plinths representing draped Soviet Red Banners peaking out from behind the willows, with the central figure of a soldier-liberator crushing a swastika with a sword and clasping a small child.

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In frnt of each red marble pillar is a kneeling soldier, on this is the older soldier and on the other is the younger, both bowing to the dead. There is some debate as to the origins of the red marble, and indeed the stone work used in the monument's construction, the common belief is that it is from the Reichs Chancellery at Vossstrasse, but a recent investigation suggests that this is not true. Again, I have to query this assessment for the same reasons as the cladding of the Mohrenstrasse U-Bahn platform with the same marble. Where else in 1947 Berlin would you find red marble of the same type that was used in the construction of the Reichskanzlei, and why would the Soviets source it from elsewhere when there was a supply of it already in the city? The Chancellery, specifically the Marmorgallerie, was a big building and it remained a crumbling ruin left as it was after the end of the fighting until 1947, when serious attempts were made to remove it. Stone by stone it was dismantled, as were so many other buildings in Berlin, the materials being transported away from the site by light gauge railway for use in construction projects round the city.

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The kneeling young soldier with the soldier-liberator in the background. It fits the Soviet ethos that the ruins of the heart of Nazi government would be used as the foundations of the memorials to their dead. The war memorial on the Tiergarten is constructed of similar grey stone as that of this one.

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From the raised flag dias, we look across the memorial garden toward the soldier-liberator; each of the stone blocks crowned with brass wreaths in between hold the remains of a single unknown individual, a general, a colonel, a captain and a soldier. The inscription on the stone in the foreground reads, "The Homeland will not forget its heroes."

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Either side of the lower garden are 16 vertical stellen, eight on either flank, representing the 16 Soviet republics, with typical socialist themed reliefs adorning them. Each narrow face of the stones holds an inscription by Josef Stalin, such as "Queue up for bread!" "Off to the Gulag!" and such inspirational things ordinary Soviet citizens might hear under his rule. My friend, an East German by birth did not appreciate my topical humour.

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The face of Lenin is never far from sight, despite his betrayal by Stalin. Maybe that's why he has a permanent frown.

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Soldiers look on at modern visitors with bemusement.

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The soldier-liberator is based on the deeds of Colour Sergeant of the Guards Nikolai Masalov, who during the final battles for Berlin, crossed the Landwehr Canal and risked his life to save a stranded little girl from her dead mother, although I doubt he was crushing a giant swastika with a sword at the same time... Within the lower conical room is a mosaic crowned by the Soviet Red Star, which is difficult to photograph because of an iron gate restricting entry.

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The immortalised Nikolai Masalov in heroic pose.

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Looking back across the primary axis of the memorial from the soldier-liberator steps. Mutter Heimat can be seen at centre in the distance.

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So that is the grand Soviet War Memorial. it is as impressive as the first time I saw it, although the Berlin council needs to get the hedge trimmers working. After our stroll through the monument, two of us clicking away furiously, we went to the banks of the Spree River nearby and sat, along with many many other Berliners enjoying the late summer evenings, and ate. We were joined by my friend's husband and drove back through the heart of East Berlin, crossing onto Frankfurter Allee, where I spotted these lamp posts. These are the Speer lamps, designed by Hitler's architect that used to line the Ost-West Asche and Unter Den Linden, collected up by the Soviets when laying the arrow straight boulevard that bisects the eastern half of the city. Again, this points to the re-use of Nazi symbology, or maybe the architects just liked the design, with its fascist overtones?

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Close up of the four-lamp head.

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The two-lamp head. We'll see another Speer lamp design on our travels tomorrow.

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These next images were taken from the moving car; this one shows one of the towers that flank the Frankfurter Gate old entrance to the city, which the giant Stalin Allee was tacked onto.

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Frankfurter Allee looking north-west toward Alexanderplatz, with the Fernsehturm and Speer lamps prominent.

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Strausbergerplatz, the roundabout that is the starting point of Frankfurter Allee, nee Karl Marx Allee, nee Stalin Allee, with its Stalin-esque sculpture at its centre.

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Finally for now, That night, I checked out of the hotel where the tour stayed, H10 on Johannisthalerstrasse - I can highly recommend it - and went back to my friend's place, leaving behind its vaguely aviation themed reception area, with this fine intricate model of a Ford Trimotor.

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Next, my last day exploring Berlin - Staaken, Spandau and more to come.