Special Forces Berlin: Clandestine Cold War Operations of the Us Army's Elite, 1956-1990

This book relays the history of a little known and highly classified US Army Special Forces Detachment that was stationed in Berlin, Germany from 1956 to 1990. It came into existence in response to the threat posed by the massive armies of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies to the nations of Western Europe. US military planners decided they needed a plan to slow the massive Soviet advance 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 in a hostile area occupied by nearly one million Warsaw Pact forces until 1990. If war came, some of these men would stay in Berlin to fight the enemy, while others would cross the most heavily defended border in the world and disappear into the countryside to accomplish their tasks behind Soviet lines. The Detachment were also involved in operations elsewhere, including involvement in the attempted rescue of American hostages from Tehran in 1979. When SF Berlin was disbanded, its files and records were for the most part destroyed or lost. Written by a veteran of the unit, this narrative of the unit’s activities is based on the recollections of the men who served in it, coupled with what little declassified, official documentation is available.REVIEWS "... a story that had to be told, and who better to tell it than Chief Warrant Officer James Stejskal who has established his credentials as a historian and researcher in various articles as well as his seminal work on the Swakop River Campaign and World War I in South West Africa The Horns of the Beast. In addition, his service in the US Army Special Forces in Berlin during the 1970s and 80s gives him the insight to comment cogently on that portion of US Army Special Forces history that impacted on the doctrine of both urban unconventional warfare and counter terror operations. ... a historical record without which the story of United States Army Special Forces would not be complete. Congratulations to Chief Stejskal on an excellent work of military history. CSM Jeffrey Raker, US Army Special Forces (Retired) , The Drop, the journal of the Special Forces Association, Summer 2016.