The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment patrolled the border between the two halves of Germany – John Teasdale finds out about the vehicles they used
From the end of World War Two until 1990, the inner German border dividing democratic West Germany from the communist East was a running sore across the country. It was regularly patrolled on both sides of the border, and on May 1, 1979, an unidentified American photographer went along to record the situation. His host for the day was the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
When Germany was occupied by the Allies in 1945, it was divided into four zones of occupation (plus Berlin, also divided). The American Zone of Occupation was in southern Germany, and an ideal route into it from the Soviet Zone of Occupation was via the Fulda Gap – a corridor of low ground through a rugged and mountainous region.
’When Germany was occupied by the Allies in 1945, it was divided into four zones of occupation’
From 1951, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment was tasked with patrolling the border, in particular that part of it adjacent to the Fulda Gap. Routine rotations took the regiment back to the USA several times over the years; in 1966, it was ordered to Vietnam. The regiment took with…
