Oldal 2 [2]
X.A.10-. December 526
- page two "
As we said before, the land forces of the Hast German Army
are composed of two large branches: the political elite forces of
the Grenzpolizei (border police) and the general Army or Volkspolizei.
The Grenzpolizei of border police is not primariiy what its
name indicates. *nough many of its forces are stationed along the
borders and though at present most of these men are used in preventing
people from escaping the German Democratic Republic, the primary aim
of this force is to be a highly trained first-class armed, highly
mobile unit, on which the regime can fully rely, in order to defeat
domestic movements, fight parachutists and saboteurs, in other words to
keep up the domestic order, in case of emergency. Their present
employment is mainly due to the wh$h to keep these forces well trained
and to give them practical experiences. The border police is composed
of 23 so-called Bereitschaften, cach one of these being composed of |
from 800 to 1.000 men, 4 cently, several of these bereitschaften have
b en transferred to the military Volkspolizeie ?o far it is Hard to
say, how many of these transfers have actually taken place. Hach man |
in the Bereitschaft is equiped with the Soviet 98-K rifle. *hey
further have “oviet tommy guns and arc motorized with the new BMW
jeeps and Panzerspachwagene As of present, 5 of these Bereitschaften
are in the Mast, along &he rolish and Czech border; 4 are in the Berlin |
area; 2 are on the northern sea bord; while all the rest is doing
service on the West Geman border.
the normal Volkspolizei, which will correspond in thee future
tó the army of “ast Germany, is divided into 28 so-called Dienststellen.
“hese have a strength of roughiy 2.500 mene ‘the bienststellen are
again considered only as cadres. wach Dienststelle has its staff
command, three bataillons of infantry, with each 31 officers and 52
NCOs, one Artillery unit of 5 batter es anu one company each of armor,
antiw-aircraft guns ,# anti-tankguns, intelligence, technical forces and
finally a , company of supply servicese ihe equipment is fully Hussian.
the armor/of the T-34 type, while the ranzerspaehwagen are of the B-64
type. he forces thus at present, in this branch, are around 70.000.
but id $rould not be forgotten, that sli of these 70.000 hove received
such training that they can serve immeuiatcly as cadre for larger unitse
The Naval Force was of*icially organized on vuly 17, 19505
it is called Sea Police. in its administration are four police schools,
five bataillions of 3ea Police ana tuo vea rolice small fleetse At
present, the force is estimated to be somewhere around 16.000 mens
The boats they have are headed by two mogcrn gunboats of 1200 tons each,
the "Prenzlau" and the "Fuerstenberg".s hese are supported by eight
600 ton boats and 38 smaller units. he new construction program forsee
the constuuction of 46 oth -r smaller unites. +he most alarming feature
here lies in the fact that 900 seagoing members of the Seepolizei have
recently been shipped to Russia, in order to receive submarine
traininge While there is no evid nce of the construction of sitmarines
in the German Democratic Republic, hothing might prevent the USSR
to give such submarines to their German allies.
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