Quote:
Originally Posted by James Langham2
Usefully, yesterday at the Other Partizan wargames show I picked up Gordon L Rottman's Osprey book Fortress 69: The Berlin Wall and Intra-German Border. He gives a few details of the Grenztruppen.
Armament - 9mm Pistole M (Makarov), MPiK and MPiKM K47 and AKM), IMGK and IMGD (RPK and RPD), RP46 and sMGK (RP-46 and PK), sMG38 in AA role (DShKM38/46) and RPG7. Late issue were MPiK74N (AKS74) and RPG18.
Vehicles - Ural375D, KraZ214 and Tatra148 trucks. Trabant 601 Kubal (so low powered that on even gentle slopes passangers had to get out and walk) patrol cars. Motorradwerk Zschopau (MZ) ETZ250 and TS250/1/A motorcyles. Small numbers of helicopters (Mi2, 8 and 24). All can be identified by the bright green backing on the national badges. Tanks had been long withdrawn.
Troops in Grenztruppen Kommando Mitte (Frontier Troops Command Centre) are listed as on this picture:
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Good list.
Its peculiar that the Germans under the guidance of the Soviets can produce vehicles like the Trabant 601 Kubal, yet left to their own devices they can produce the Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche and the Leopard 2 tank.