Behind enemy lines in East Germany with a US Military Liaison Mission driver Part 1 (183)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2021

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tom Favia served with the USMLM, The US Military Liaison Mission which the Soviet Union permitted to operate in East Germany at the end of World War 2 for monitoring and furthering better relationships between the Soviet and Western occupation forces. The British & French also had missions in East Germany and the Soviets has theirs in West Germany. Tom tells the amazing story of his recruitment from being an art student to being deployed “behind enemy lines” in East Germany. He also describes his earlier career on the Inner German border and then we move to his USMLM career. We hear about his driver training, planning procedures and the process for exiting West Berlin as well as details of the vehicles including the “James Bond switches”. If you’ve listened this far, I know you are enjoying the podcasts so I’m asking for a small monthly donation to support my work and allow me to continue producing the podcast. As a monthly supporter, you will get the sought after CWC coaster as a thank you and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ If a financial contribution is not your cup of tea, you can still help us by leaving written reviews wherever you listen to us and sharing us on social media. It really helps us get new guests on the show. I am delighted to welcome Tom Favia to our Cold War conversation… There’s further information on this episode can be found here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode183/ Part 2 is here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode185 If you can’t wait for next week’s episode, visit our Facebook discussion group where guests and listeners continue the Cold War Conversation. Just search Cold War Conversations on Facebook. Thank you very much for listening. It is really appreciated – goodbye. Radio GDR If you are interested in East Germany we can highly recommend our friends over at Radio GDR. 0:00 Introduction and guest introduction 3:08 Journey of Tom Favia from art school to the US Army 9:56 Tom Favia's role on the inner German border and experiences 17:18 Arrival and first impressions of West Berlin and initial training 25:11 Changes to recruitment and training after the Nicholson incident 33:10 Operational and representational headquarters in East and West Berlin 39:30 Gathering information from the Soviets at parties 44:34 Procedures for a mission and crossing from West Berlin to East Germany 51:08 Navigation and target selection during Cold War 1:00:17 Incidents where the Soviets tried to hinder their mission 1:01:33 Acknowledging the patrons and show wrap-up Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.9	We also had what was called the Trubant switch, so we could dim the headlights to make them look
0:13.2	from far away as if it was a troughby. And then we also had one was a motorcycle light that we could
0:19.3	switch off half the lights of the vehicle.
0:22.7	So from far away, someone would think it's just a motorcycle.
0:26.5	So those are the kind of things that, and they came in handy.
0:29.3	They came in very handy tactically.
0:31.8	But yeah, it was dubbed the 007 switches.
0:38.0	This is Cold War Conversations.
0:43.8	If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War
0:48.9	history accounts.
0:50.6	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app so that you don't miss out on future episodes
0:55.1	Tom Farvia served with the USMLM the US military liaison mission which the Soviet Union
1:03.0	permitted to operate in East Germany at the end of World War II for the purposes of
1:08.1	monitoring and furthering better relationships between the Soviet and
1:12.1	Western occupation forces.
1:14.8	The British and French also had missions in East Germany and the Soviets had theirs in West
1:20.2	Germany.
1:22.7	Tom tells the amazing story of his recruitment from being an art student to being deployed behind enemy lines in East Germany.
1:32.1	He also describes his earlier career on the inner German border and then we move to his US MLM career.
1:39.6	We hear about his driver training, planning procedures and the process for exiting West Berlin,
1:45.4	as well as details of the vehicles, including the James Bond switches.
	...

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