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Special Forces Berlin : clandestine Cold War Operations of the US Army's Elite, 1956-1990 / James Stejskal.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Philadelphia ; Oxford : Casemate Publishers, 2017Copyright date: ©2017Description: xvi, 333 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781612004440
  • 161200444X
Subject(s):
Contents:
The Origins of Special Forces -- The Formative Years (1956-1971) -- A New Mission and a Midlife Crisis (1972-1976) -- The Pros from Dover (1976-1981) -- Appointment in Tehran -- The Final Days (1981-1984) -- The New Kid on the Block (1984) -- Until the Fall (1984-1990) -- Epilogue: A Casualty of Peace -- Appendix A: In the Sights of the Enemy -- Appendix B: Leadership -- Timeline: Special Forces Berlin, 1956-1990 -- Timeline: Iran Mission, 1979-1981 -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- Notes -- Sources.
Summary: The previously untold history of a highly classified US Army Special Forces Detachment covertly stationed in West Berlin, Germany during the Cold War, poised to act if war ever broke out.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 356.1609 S823 Available 33111009648847
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

It is a little-known fact that during the Cold War, two U.S. Army Special Forces detachments were stationed far behind the Iron Curtain in West Berlin. The existence and missions of the two detachments were highly classified secrets.

The massive armies of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies posed a huge threat to the nations of Western Europe. US military planners decided they needed a plan to slow the juggernaut they expected when and if a war began. The plan was Special Forces Berlin. The first 40 men who came to Berlin in mid-1956 were soon reinforced by 60 more and these 100 soldiers (and their successors) would stand ready to go to war at only two hours' notice, in a hostile area occupied by nearly one million Warsaw Pact forces, until 1990.

Their mission, should hostilities commence, was to wreak havoc behind enemy lines, and buy time for vastly outnumbered NATO forces to conduct a breakout from the city. In reality it was an ambitious and extremely dangerous mission, even suicidal. Highly trained and fluent in German, each man was allocated a specific area. They were skilled in clandestine operations, sabotage, intelligence tradecraft and able to act if necessary as independent operators, blending into the local population and working unseen in a city awash with spies looking for information on their every move.

Special Forces Berlin was a one of a kind unit that had no parallel. It left a legacy of a new type of soldier expert in unconventional warfare, one that was sought after for other deployments including the attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. With the U.S. government officially acknowledging their existence in 2014, their incredible story can now be told.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 324-326) and index.

The previously untold history of a highly classified US Army Special Forces Detachment covertly stationed in West Berlin, Germany during the Cold War, poised to act if war ever broke out.

The Origins of Special Forces -- The Formative Years (1956-1971) -- A New Mission and a Midlife Crisis (1972-1976) -- The Pros from Dover (1976-1981) -- Appointment in Tehran -- The Final Days (1981-1984) -- The New Kid on the Block (1984) -- Until the Fall (1984-1990) -- Epilogue: A Casualty of Peace -- Appendix A: In the Sights of the Enemy -- Appendix B: Leadership -- Timeline: Special Forces Berlin, 1956-1990 -- Timeline: Iran Mission, 1979-1981 -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- Notes -- Sources.

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