Hello,

I need a citation. JFK sent tanks across the East German border to defend West Berlin in the Berlin crisis. I want to know the date and the unit name of the tank division. I'm having trouble finding this and would appreciate any help.

Thanks very much.

Joe Backes

Hi Joseph,

it was on October 25, 1961 when General Lucius Clay at Checkpoint Charlie let 10 tanks arrived. Very close to the border.
On October 27, 30 tanks from each side, USSR and USA were confronting for about 16 hours.

Unfortunately i don't know the name of the unit.

I have this information from a german website.

Hope it helps a bit


Martin

Hi Martin,

It helps. Thanks. But, what I'm really interested in is where the tanks came from. I believe they came from West Germany and crossed East Germany until they got to Berlin. I'd love to see any photo of the crossing into East Germany, if anything like that exists. I want to know how long did it take to get to Berlin? I vaguely remember John Newman mentioning this, I think at a JFK conference somewhere.

Joe Backes

Joe,

Going from memory since I don't have easy access to my books, you should find this information in Deborah Shapley's biography of Robert McNamara, Promise and Power (1993?). Khrushchev was threatening to close down western access to West Berlin (as Stalin had done, forcing the Berlin Airlift under President Truman); as a show of resolve, President Kennedy ordered a column of tanks across the East German corridor to West Berlin. They definitely came from West Germany, the whole point of the exercise being to insist on the corridor remaining open through East German territory to West Berlin.

Hi Joe, the place to look for this I believe is, "The Defense of Berlin" by Professor Jean Edward Smith published 1963. This is about the best account of the division of Germany and Berlin and the politics behind it, I have come accross.
I have lent my copy to a friend but will get hold of it during the week and post any relevant info I find.


See you
Brian

It seems the US response began on the Sunday evening 22nd when Alan Leightner the Deputy Chief of station traveled with his wife into E. Berlin and the confrontation began in earnest when the Volkspolizie demanded to see ID papers when he tried again on the Monday.

The Sunday confrontation led to the US rolling 4 M48 tanks from the 2nd battle group and 2 armoured personnel trucks up to the checkpoint, ordered there by the Provost Marshall.

The 10 tanks arrived at the checkpoint on the following Wednesday morning at 10:30-10:50.
I will scan the relevant pages and send them on to you when i get hold ogf the book.

Google is your friend:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=tan...n&scoring=a

http://books.google.com/books?q=tanks%20be...sa=N&tab=vp

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=tanks%...sa=N&tab=ps

http://www.google.com/search?q=tanks%20ber...sa=N&tab=nw

So is the JFK news archive: http://www.kennedyassassinationarchive.com/Home.aspx

Here're a couple of videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb9AMndjr2U

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=77e_1244145367