BRIXMIS

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Main article: Military Liaison Missions

The British Commanders'-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS) was set up on 16 September 1946 under the Robertson-Malinin Agreement between the chiefs of staff of the British and Soviet forces in occupied Germany.

The agreement called for the reciprocal exchange of liaison missions in order to foster good working relations between the military occupation authorities in the two zones. Similar agreements were then reached the following year with the Soviets by the French (FMLM) and the Americans (USMLM).

For unexplained reasons the agreements differed significantly as the British were allowed to have almost as many liaison staff in the Soviet Zone as the American and French Missions combined. The British mission also had the right to fly a light aircraft (to maintain the flying skills of any pilots stationed there) within a defined area. The agreements remained in force until 2 October 1990 when all three missions were deactivated on the eve of Germany's reunification.

During the Cold War the right of the missions to travel relatively freely throughout East German territory was used for the purpose of gathering intelligence on all Warsaw Pact forces based there: installations; troop movements; equipment; morale and the like. The Missions did not run agents (unlike the reciprocal Russian Missions present in West Germany). The early 1960s (coinciding with the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962) and the early 1980s (coinciding with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 1979-89) were particularly difficult periods for the operational conduct of all the Missions as world events were replayed and reciprocated at the tactical level out on the ground. Hostility from various Soviet and East German security and counter-intelligence agencies resulted in the death of a member of the French Mission in 1984 and a member of the American Mission in 1985. This crescendo in hostility itself coincided with the arrival of Reagan and Gorbachev to power and the beginning of a thawing in East-West relation culminating in the 'fall' of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

BRIXMIS was noted for many technical intelligence coups (Geraghty, 1996), including:

BRIXMIS was ideally placed to 'test the temperature' of Soviet intentions from its privileged position behind the Iron Curtain. However, and perhaps more importantly, it offered a channel for communication between West and East via its secondary but significant role of liaison - the initial reason for its establishment.

[edit] Resources: people; equipment; purpose

The three principle resources at BRIXMIS' disposal were its people, its equipment, and a very clear sense of mission, or purpose. The coordinated deployment of its people and equipment in order to achieve its purpose delivered significant liaison and intelligence capabilities to the Allied Powers.

The BRIXMIS contingent used Opel Kapitan cars in the 1950s, followed by Opel Admiral cars and their later replacement, the Opel Senator, converted to four-wheel drive in UK. However, the operational need for a vehicle with a higher degree of cross-country performance than the mainly on-road Opel Senator led to the acquisition of a number of extensively modified Range-Rover vehicles, but they proved to be fragile and expensive to run and maintain in Germany. With this in mind, a single Mercedes-Benz_G-Class was acquired for trials purposes in 1980/81. After extensive evaluation, the G-Wagen was adopted as the general tour vehicle, and in various models, lasted in service until the cessation of operations in 1990 [Young 2006). There is an ex-BRIXMIS G-Wagen on display at the Military Intelligence Museum [1] at Chicksands, England (Young 2006).

A De Havilland Chipmunk T10.
A De Havilland Chipmunk T10.

BRIXMIS also used two De Havilland Chipmunk T10s based at RAF Gatow to maintain and exercise the British legal right under the Potsdam Agreement to use the airspace over both West and East Berlin, as well as the air corridors to and from West Germany to the city. One of these Chipmunks is now in the Alliierten Museum (see weblink at base of page).

Known from 1956 as Operation Schooner and later as Operation Nylon, BRIXMIS was authorised, on an irregular basis, to carry out covert photographic reconnaissance flights within this designated airspace. All flights were notified to the Berlin Air Safety Centre (BASC), a quadripartite organisation responsible for authorising all flights in the three Air Corridors and the Berlin Control Zone (BCZ). All the Chipmunk Flight Notification Cards in the BASC were stamped by the Soviets - “Safety of Flight Not Guaranteed” - due to their interpretation of the 1946 Agreement as excluding flights outside West Berlin. The Berlin Control Zone and in particular the environs of Potsdam immediately to the east of and adjacent to West Berlin contained both Soviet and East German military and other targets that would be of interest to the British and Allied forces in West Berlin and West Germany at that time.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chipmunk reconnaissance flights soon ceased and the two Chipmunks were flown to RAF Laarbruch, in Western Germany to await disposal action. Chipmunk WB466 was flown back to Berlin and was donated to the Alliierten Museum in Berlin, where it remains on display today. WG486 is still in RAF service with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (see weblink at base of page).

[edit] References

  • Fahey, John A. Licensed to Spy. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-294-3. 
  • Geraghty, Tony. Brixmis: The Untold Exploits of Britain's Most Daring Cold War Spy Mission. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-638673-3. 
  • Gibson, Steve. The Last Mission: Behind the Iron Curtain. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-1408-4. 
  • Holbrook, James R. Potsdam Mission: Memoir of a US Army Intelligence Officer in Communist East Germany. Cork Hill Press. ISBN 1-59408-534-X. 
  • Marsden, Roy., 1998, "Operation 'Schooner/Nylon': RAF Flying in the Berlin Control Zone", Intelligence and National Security, 13, 4, pp.178-193.
  • Vodopyanov, Anya. Honors Research Thesis:USMLM. Stanford University. 
  • Young, Ian. (2006), "Behind The Lines", Military Machines International (no. November): pp.32-37

[edit] External links