I love stuff like this and have a great intrest in the cold war...At the moment im travelling round the ex soviets states but further east Ukriane, Georgia Khazakstan etc. More like this please :)
Great Video. I was on the other side Policing the Russians in the West as they had similar Missions called "SOXMIS" Soviet Military Mission. I served 1987 to 1990.
Nothing would have happened to them if caught. In fact they were under heavy Stasi and KGB surveillance 24/7. If caught doing illegal stuff they would have just been arrested and exchanged for KGB and Stasi guys caught in the West. There was never any danger for Brits or US intelligence personnel. This was not a James Bond movie.
@@mateo1726 With the right script there is a possibility of a drama with action/ thriller elements and a bit of comedy. Charlie Wilson's War meets The Bridge of Spies sort of thing.
The Cold War was truly the peak of espionage in the classic sense of spies. Of course these days we still have counter intelligence and spying missions around the world but technology has rendered so much of the classic spying/ BRIXMIS style missions completely impossible. The days of talking your way out of a checkpoint when the checkpoint itself is an information sponge - networked cameras and intelligence apparatus all working much faster than the human mind ever could - is just gone forever. The classic days of parabolic mics and forged identity documents is just gone, you could never blag your way into facility in that style today. So the Cold War truly is the "James Bond" era of spying. When technology was still second to the man in the trenchcoat and hat, when wits and guile meant you could get away and human side of counter intelligence meant you could find telegraph books used as toilet paper. These days information is so much more closely guarded and encrypted, the human element is almost second to technology now.
I was with US intelligence in the 80s in West Berlin. Had to laugh at how daring the British team was. The Soviets were placing communications cables all along the East-West German frontier. We wanted to know what this cable was was capable of. The BRIXMIS blokes went out & cut about 15cm section of the cable right from the middle of a several mile long stretch. We got to look at the cable & then they went back out to see if the Soviets would just put a patch in the cut area or have to replace the entire length of cable.
From what I've read Stasi and KGB knew each of your steps in advance. US intelligence in particular was compromised by double-agents reporting directly to Mielke. Remember that guy from Teufelsberg who was only snatched and charged after the Berlin Wall fell?
@@esahm373 I met the American warrant officer that worked at T-berg a few times. He bragged he had a rich aunt that left him money. His Stasi handler was the shop manager for the auto craft shop on Andrews Barracks. Shortly after working on my friend's car there, we got approached by a man who knew who we were & that he wanted secrets. He approached us the Reichstag. At least one electronic bug was found in T-berg. My section discovered it's signal one evening. The trash from our facility was sent to East Berlin where Stasi trainees sifted thru it. We had Soviet recon flights break the rules, cross into our airspace, & take pictures. During the summer they sent a helicopter. They took a few pictures of the Hill & the rest were of the nearby nude beach. OMG, it was an incredible assignment. So much drama & intrigue. We were all living in a spy novel there.
I drove for the USMLM in 72 & 73. My fondest memory of the Brits was the great party they threw in Berlin that Christmas!! The only downside was when I ordered a "martini" I got straight Vermouth by Martini & Rossi! Oh well, a great time with a group of dedicated troops anyway! Same goes for FMLM as well!! "Touring" in DDR at the time was a privilege and experience that will never be forgotten!!
Having done 9 years with the Royal Artillery in BAOR in the late 60's, I then became an Instructor with a TA Transport Regiment, so I knew about SOXMIS. Late one Sunday night, I was senior Convoy Controller, Motorcyclist, and on leaving the Autobahn at Bielefeld , as I crossed the flyover, there, on the flyover, over the Autobahn, was a SOXMIS car, complete with 9 metre mast up, watching our Convoy movements. I rode as fast as was safe to our new location and reported it, and was told by the RSM to get back and to let the guy be aware that I knew who he was. On my return to the flyover, he knew I had sussed him and in a swift, well practiced move, he shut down his Mast and Boot-lid, and drove off like the wind. But not before I'd got his SOXMIS number. On my return, the ubiquitous RMP's were there to question me and I got a pat on the back from the CO.
It would have been much better to leave them alone. One less SOXMIS team to look for and one to covertly track on its route. Any convoy on public roads would have nothing to hide.
Ah the good old days. I was in Soxmix until the fall of the Berlin Wall. It seemed like every soldier in the BAOR had orders to accidentally crash into us. They would always apologise for the inconvenience caused by the accident.
*_I was lost when driving in the DDR in 1977 and delighted to find an East German soldier thumbing a lift on a remote road in the Erzgebirge. Of course I stopped to give him a lift in the hope that he could put me on the right road to the town of my penfriend. I soon discovered he was quite drunk and kept telling me that it was forbitten for him to be in a British car and he was laughing the whole time. I took him to where he pointed me and let him out. He set me on the right road to my own destination. I would have made a terrible spy._*
I remember back in 83 waiting at Brize for a our flight to Germany . I was 18 and it was my first time going there , and our rsm came round handing out to each of us a SOXMIS card and told us what to look out for.Fantastic documentry a real eye opener for my kids.
Crikey! In 1985, at the tender age of 15, I went on a school trip to Berlin with eight others. We stayed in the home of one of the BRIXMIS higher-ups, an RAF Group Captain, whose son was in my academic year (and also came on the trip). It was one hell of a week, I can tell you. We got up to all sorts of fun, including learning how to drive Chieftain tanks with the Hussars who were stationed in the British sector at the time, flying in two-seater Chipmunk trainers out of RAF Gatow, and crossing Checkpoint Charlie to mooch around the Alexanderplatz and Treptower Park in East Berlin. At no point was I aware that our hosts were involved in active espionage against Warsaw Pact forces, though I'd have to say I did have my suspicions!
I worked as a Supply Officer in West Berlin US Army. Part of my M.O was supplying the Potsdam facility for Allied Pesonnel 1978-1983 from the PX on the ClayAllee in W Berlin. Many trips across the Glienecke Bridge both directions.
Spent two years in West Berlin as an American soldier, 1977 to 1979. Lived at McNair Barracks, 2ndBn/6th Infantry Regiment. Never knew anything about this spy stuff.
The first time I'd heard anything about it was the second I went on guard duty in Hemer, W.Germany and handed the card by by guard commander. 'Watch out for SOXMIS' he said. And he was probably wondering why there was a puzzled look on my face.
Fella in our unit did the BRIXMIS stuff He was our AFV Recce instructor. I remember all BAOR soldiers were issued SOXMIS cards in the 80s the cards had info/rules describing what to do when you observed a SOXMIS vehicle, Great video, great memories of Germany.
A big thanks to all the The British forces for continuing to keep us all safe. Looks like we're going to need you guys big time in the comming few months during this pandemic.
I now live in one of these former Soviet military objects you spied on, closely to Alexandrowka. Thank you for serving in BRIXMIS and best wishes from Potsdam! :)
I got charged for flipping off a SOXMIS car on Route 2 near Bielefeld that was passing our convoy . Little did I know our CO was 15 ft behind it following it as fast as his lightweight landrover could go. Apparently I bought the Army into disrepute . By doing that .. All I saw was a big black car with a wide angle lens pointing at me .. would of been rude of me not to make some kind of gesture.. I was fined £10 .. ha ha.
Awesome. Remember in the early 80's an RAF guy tried to sell a bunch of signals to the commander of the Soxmis ( soviet) . SOxmis had a compound inside the UK base. The Soviet commander thought it was a sting and called the UK base commander...
The Berlin Wall was one of the last dominoes, subsequent to the Polish Solidarity movement... and the Hungarian Border situation where "vacationing" east Germans wanted to cross into Austria (evidently, many East Germans could "smell the coffee"). (FWIW, I was working for a Japanese electronics company, leading a seminar in a West Berlin hotel, when The Wall came down... a mass party in the city broke out and lasted days... or, as well as I can recall in my condition, seemed like days)
Interesting documentary about the people from, what was for me the other side. Fortunately, the states in eastern europe had their eyes on the military in Westgermany. This probably helped maintain peace in Europe and the world.
There seems little doubt that these dudes were having a lot of fun. What was hinted at but basically left unsaid was that the Russians knew these people were there, and must have had a very good appreciation of what they were dong, and what intelligence they were picking up. In short the " spies " would have been under surveillance themselves. All of this is good fun and is great material for anecdotes decades later. The intelligence which is of much greater value is what is often referred to as ' sigint ' - or reading enemy signals either decoded or simply logged. The value of sigint was proved time and again during WW2 and it's a game that is not going to stop. Sadly the techniques which were perfected in war are now routinely applied against civilian populations.
@@andreidarie4076 For some reason the British politicians decided to import an entirely new gene pool along with the wonderful cultural practices onto their island
After watching this program, I was somewhat surprised at the spies not really knowing what the padding on the doors was, and also guessing that it was soundproofing. Interestingly enough, I have seen enough videos of Americans living in Ukraine who show the same types of padded doors in the old residential buildings in Kyiv. Between the concrete between apartments and having a padded door, plus and interior door, it will keep the building soundproof and also keep the heat in during the Winter.
wars cannot be won without this kind of bravery and willingness to go covert behind enemy lines. military cannot operate w/o intelligence from these kinds of operators
As a conscript in the West German Army 1974/75 we knew about those missions on both sides, no big secret!!! Why did we know? At the time we were some 600ooo soldiers and hence pair of eyes, and it was our duty even in our time off at home to look out for Russian Mission cars in West Germany, and immediately inform the next police station of what we saw. Those Russian Mission cars were clearly marked and we where shown photos of what they looked like. I guess it was one of those games that took place during the cold war. However As I found out years later on TH-cam....lol.... When the East Germans forgot that it was supposed to be a kind of Gentlemans game by killing some British Mission officers with an Army truck in their car, the Russians got very very upset and told the East Germans to stop that nonsense immediately and to never pull a stunt like that again. Cheers from Berlin
@@Johnconno It was William Woollard who narrated Secret War. Again no silly sound tracks and just interviews with the people there. Really worth a watch. That said Forces TV is doing a good job!
Great documentary!please make something similar about the french, american and more for the soviet liaisons.Things i highlighted: Finding the sabot round Stealing a reactive armor tile Information by discarded soviet logbooks used as toiletpaper Truly awesome and unknown facts
If they caught you you usually got beaten up and was delivered home with black eyes and occasional broken bone. But, they had to catch you in an area you were not allowed to be. Get out of the area and they could not detain you. Usually the East Germans were the problem, the Russians stood back as it was not quite their right to operate. So when you went out on patrol and you sighted the Stasi tail car, you would drive very slowly until you saw a puff of steam from the front of the tail car, then you knew they had blown a head gasket and killed the motor, so you could drive off without being followed.
I did Brixmis a few times whilst serving in Berlin. It was great fun and not really dangerous. The East Germans were great and also loved the cat and mouse game
Would be very interesting to learn about Soxmis - the Soviet mission in Western European NATO territory - too. I remind clearly being instructed how to deal with them should we come across Soviet 'observers.' I wonder if and ho they uncovered NATO military secrets and whether there have been incidents similar to those reported here. I do know that my uncle, who was part of 103 Commando company of the Royal NL Army caught a Soxmis operative during a large NATO exercise. I know nothing about the specifics of that event, but it does show Soxmis wasn't playing by the rules either.
The Russians were very active in the West but were never at the risk of death that the Foreign troops in the East were. I was one of many that policed the Russians "Soxmis" in former West Germany from 1987 to 1990. They were clearly effective at gaining intelligence. They were followed by Marked Military Police Vehicles and Covert Intelligence Vehicles. The Americans and the French operated independently from the British Sectors, although the Missions used to enter the British Sector on occasion. The used Dead Letter Box's for disposing of film and photo's that they took whilst out spying on the British Troops in West Germany. Ironically the British Mission in the East was the largest of all the Missions, they even had a propeller plane to use.
The irony of the renewed tensions between NATO and Russia over the war in Ukraine makes something of a mockery of the optimistic note at the end of this very interesting documentary.
They forgot that the real east of our country (Pomerania, Prussia and the German part of Silesia) was stolen by Stalin forever for resettling Poles from areas the Soviet union stole from Poland. It was a great sin of the Soviets few talk about. They uprooted roughly 15 million Germans and similar numbers of Poles from their ancestral homelands for gaining eastern Poland. To this day Belarus keeps it, without any regrets.
I forgot what we called it but we had people cruising around over there and they had people over on our side. They had special license plates on their vehicles. We could be on a road march with our tanks near the Czech Border and you may notice they would be following taking pictures. I never saw them while on patrol on the Czech border but if you did you just reported it to Operations, you couldn't apprehend them.
Scavenging for clues on a tank range, I immediately thought magnet fish the closest body of water. Soviets loved, and I mean loved, to fire their tanks gun even when it meant cleaning the barrel and having a commissar count how many rounds were fired afterwards. I know Polish tankers just dumped rounds into a body of water so they wouldn't have to clean the barrel and still make the commissar happy. Bet the east Germans did something similar
This may have happened regarding bmp variant but I have name of Brixmis operator who carried out op in east Germany .I knew this man personally when both of us were WO 2s.
Thought so myself, and I've never been in the military. Wonder how many limbs (or lives) were lost by Brixmis and other agencies' personnel who went "treasure hunting"? Part of the story they neglected to tell?
They said no one could predict the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thing is, in a debate in Junior College in 1984 I took the position that the Soviet Union would collapse. I said that with conviction. Where did I get it from? My father called it after reading about the problems with the Soviet economy in Time magazine. He clearly states he did not see it lasting much longer. So when they say no one could predict it I think wtf.
@Denise Raikes I respect these people for sure, but you don’t seem to be aware that Western oppression exists, but is covert and run by financial corporate and empires.
@@hArtyTruffle True , they don’t realise the same group of globalist scum that have no loyalty to any country are responsible for all the oppression they create , it’s all about controlling the tax cattle Macmillan, New York, p. 326 * When people of this class are stricken by guilt feelings while plotting world wars and economic depressions which will bring misery, suffering and death to millions of the world’s inhabitants, they sometimes have qualms. These qualms are jeered at by their peers as "a failure of nerve". After a bout with their psychiatrists, they return to their work with renewed gusto, with no further digressions of pity for "the little people" who are to be their victims. Carroll Quigley : Tragedy & Hope The Ultimate Bankster Quote - from a former Governor of the Bank of England Montague Norman (1920 - 1944) Posted on April 4, 2011 | 32 Comments “Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. “When, through process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of the government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. “These truths are well known among our principal men, who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance. “It is thus, by discrete action, we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”
@@vedantmehra6970 soxmis was the soviet version of mobile spies...i was in germany in the 1980's and in the packonexercise one day mid 80's everyone was having kittens as someone had spotted a car with soxmis plates....i had no idea what soxmis was but when it was exxplained to me what it was and we did the same i thought what a cool job.....the most excitment i got was as a 432 driver....those louvres where awesome during winter exercises though
@@GolfMike09 Soxmis vehicles were nothing special. Normal civil cars. They were bought colorfully at car markets and not repainted. Only the yellow license plate prevented her. The missions were particularly expensive for the Soviet Union. They had to finance and operate a total of 3 military missions, while the Western Allies only had to operate one mission each. BRIXMIS did most of the work with their cars. They had specially modified Opel Senators. The list of differences from the civil vehicle is long: Here are the most important differences: 3.0 l six-cylinder engines were used throughout. All control electronics were removed. In the Opel Motorsport department, it was converted to carburetor operation and contact ignition and optimized for an output of approx. 178 hp. They received an all-wheel drive from Furgeson. At that time, it also produced the all-wheel drives for the Jensen Interceptor. The tank volume was increased to 180 L petrol etc. Very interesting vehicles.
@@51WCDodge You probably won't get any more, the cars have all been scrapped. One is in an English museum, another exists in Germany, but has been completely converted to civilian. These are the originals I know. Then there are still some replicas, but without the all-wheel drive. There are also no more spare parts. The cars were scrapped after 60,000 km because the stress in use was so high. In total, the BRIXMIS had around 200 cars built.
Fascinating! You tend to think that at that time the Soviet bloc was pretty much vacuum-sealed. Were these missions allowed to operate as a type of transparent safety showing that there was no real buildup or threat intended? Also If I understand the agreement right It would also have allowed similar Soviet missions to operate in the West.
Yes, the whole point of the operation was that it was overt. The West had people in the East openly gathering information, and vice versa. They were spying in a sense, but legally so, and allowed to do it. The program only makes it sound like an illegal covert operation for dramatic reasons, and tiringly so.
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 But like any Diplomat, you are there legally, what you get up to on the other hand... Also both Soviet and Allied forces were in a nominally Forign Country, The German Democratic Republic,who had thier own axe to grind.
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 Ingvar you are not right. In principle the MLMs on both sides were legally stationed in each others' zones but in practice they wanted to minimise as much as possible what we could see and do which led to rammings, injuries, and deaths of two of my colleagues. We were banned from large areas of the GDR , called PRAs (Permanently Restricted Areas). All of us agree it was the most exciting job we ever had in the military.
@@nigeldunkley2986 I bet, it must've been awesome! What I'm objecting isn't the operation itself but the way the documentary makes it look like an illegal covert operation when it was an officially recognised mutual overt operation that was very much known. It's just a way of the filmmakers to use film dramaturgy to heighten the suspense, which is totally unnecessary when it comes to one of the most interesting spy operations in history. They're trying to look like something it wasn't, us my point.
I would be very, very interest if you have any more information on that. As far as I knew it was under the outer plates and it would not have been a quick job to have had it. That said the Soviets did get versions when Iran handed over Chieftains.
@@hypergolic8468 I have very little info. I was living as a teenager with the units receiving the first challengers at the time and there was a failure to keep the embarresing episode secret in the officers mess. Always been curious as to how it could have been done. Apparently it happened on the back of an Antar transporter while in transit.
These have to be the better missions, you would have been lucky to get this assignment. These are the stories that created all the Hollywood movies. All intelligence gathering is equal it seems. These guys operated in sort of open grey area. Driving cool armored cars, stake outs, taking pictures, going through garbage. This isn’t the dead drop crowd. This isn’t the recruiting crowd, or case manager crowd. This was some raw dirty everyday information gathering.
Cold war, cold shivers. Those at the back cried forward, those in the front cried Back! Red thread of honour to them who dared. Extra pay £1 per day for trade craft?
In 74 I walked into the Frankfurt PX to find a uniformed Soviet officer stanading there. Shook me sosobadly I left. Found out later the SMLM officer. We’re allowed to shop at our PX facilities. How bout that.
It was the best job ever - once you are out on tour you the crew alone could decide to go ahead with a job or whether it was too risky. No senior officers around just the vehicle crew.
Fascinating Fascinating Fascinating.... Excellent documentary. I've even seen some of the (declassified) footage of BRIXMIS travelling between the east-west Berlin territories in the late 1980s and its like night and day. New modern vs old and rickety. Just look at the transformation now though! Btw, I like Opel Senators... especially that one though... IT'S 4WD!!
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So glad to see the full episode thanks
yes much better than micro release
Fantastic, these types of stories are not taught in school, so good to see them.
I love stuff like this and have a great intrest in the cold war...At the moment im travelling round the ex soviets states but further east Ukriane, Georgia Khazakstan etc. More like this please :)
Great Video. I was on the other side Policing the Russians in the West as they had similar Missions called "SOXMIS" Soviet Military Mission. I served 1987 to 1990.
I served in Germany 78- 80 11th ACR. Never knew these missions were happening. Brave men, i salute you.
Nothing would have happened to them if caught. In fact they were under heavy Stasi and KGB surveillance 24/7. If caught doing illegal stuff they would have just been arrested and exchanged for KGB and Stasi guys caught in the West. There was never any danger for Brits or US intelligence personnel. This was not a James Bond movie.
you must have been blind,deaf or a desk jockey
This would make a great movie with the right script and director.
@@mateo1726 With the right script there is a possibility of a drama with action/ thriller elements and a bit of comedy. Charlie Wilson's War meets The Bridge of Spies sort of thing.
No script, just history.
But then again hollywood will make it about saving tge world with space force
Come on! It’s just gonna be Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, it will be completely unrealistic, and completely bad.
Still one of the best espionage documentaries I've ever seen. The footage is incredible. Thanks again for producing and uploading this.
The Cold War was truly the peak of espionage in the classic sense of spies. Of course these days we still have counter intelligence and spying missions around the world but technology has rendered so much of the classic spying/ BRIXMIS style missions completely impossible. The days of talking your way out of a checkpoint when the checkpoint itself is an information sponge - networked cameras and intelligence apparatus all working much faster than the human mind ever could - is just gone forever. The classic days of parabolic mics and forged identity documents is just gone, you could never blag your way into facility in that style today.
So the Cold War truly is the "James Bond" era of spying. When technology was still second to the man in the trenchcoat and hat, when wits and guile meant you could get away and human side of counter intelligence meant you could find telegraph books used as toilet paper. These days information is so much more closely guarded and encrypted, the human element is almost second to technology now.
@@dynamo1796 Well said. I entirely agree.
I was with US intelligence in the 80s in West Berlin. Had to laugh at how daring the British team was. The Soviets were placing communications cables all along the East-West German frontier. We wanted to know what this cable was was capable of. The BRIXMIS blokes went out & cut about 15cm section of the cable right from the middle of a several mile long stretch. We got to look at the cable & then they went back out to see if the Soviets would just put a patch in the cut area or have to replace the entire length of cable.
I was serving in BFG Munster former west deutschland in 2006 to 2008, went to Berlin for a week in August 2019,
What did the Russians do? and how quickly?
If you team can see the Soviets digging for a cable , probably it was a decoy.
From what I've read Stasi and KGB knew each of your steps in advance. US intelligence in particular was compromised by double-agents reporting directly to Mielke. Remember that guy from Teufelsberg who was only snatched and charged after the Berlin Wall fell?
@@esahm373 I met the American warrant officer that worked at T-berg a few times. He bragged he had a rich aunt that left him money. His Stasi handler was the shop manager for the auto craft shop on Andrews Barracks. Shortly after working on my friend's car there, we got approached by a man who knew who we were & that he wanted secrets. He approached us the Reichstag. At least one electronic bug was found in T-berg. My section discovered it's signal one evening. The trash from our facility was sent to East Berlin where Stasi trainees sifted thru it. We had Soviet recon flights break the rules, cross into our airspace, & take pictures. During the summer they sent a helicopter. They took a few pictures of the Hill & the rest were of the nearby nude beach. OMG, it was an incredible assignment. So much drama & intrigue. We were all living in a spy novel there.
I drove for the USMLM in 72 & 73. My fondest memory of the Brits was the great party they threw in Berlin that Christmas!! The only downside was when I ordered a "martini" I got straight Vermouth by Martini & Rossi! Oh well, a great time with a group of dedicated troops anyway! Same goes for FMLM as well!! "Touring" in DDR at the time was a privilege and experience that will never be forgotten!!
My Dad was in Brixmis, we had good times staying in the mission house in Potsdam and living in Berlin at the end of the 70's
And people like your dad gave all of us the best edge we could have had. Absolute respect, and thanks!
Chippy is an outstanding character - cool and calm when it was important to be on top of things and with a wonderful sense of humour.
so basically stasi followed Brixmis officers everywhere?
@@mumin9436 Dunno. But speaking in general terms, MfS followed EVERYONE EVERYWHERE. At least, they clearly wanted to leave this kind of impression.
Having done 9 years with the Royal Artillery in BAOR in the late 60's, I then became an Instructor with a TA Transport Regiment, so I knew about SOXMIS.
Late one Sunday night, I was senior Convoy Controller, Motorcyclist, and on leaving the Autobahn at Bielefeld , as I crossed the flyover, there, on the flyover, over the Autobahn, was a SOXMIS car, complete with 9 metre mast up, watching our Convoy movements.
I rode as fast as was safe to our new location and reported it, and was told by the RSM to get back and to let the guy be aware that I knew who he was.
On my return to the flyover, he knew I had sussed him and in a swift, well practiced move, he shut down his Mast and Boot-lid, and drove off like the wind.
But not before I'd got his SOXMIS number. On my return, the ubiquitous RMP's were there to question me and I got a pat on the back from the CO.
Those were the days.....please read my comment just now.
We called them SMLM or "smell-em"
It would have been much better to leave them alone. One less SOXMIS team to look for and one to covertly track on its route. Any convoy on public roads would have nothing to hide.
Brilliant! Nice to have a documentary about the Cold War, and spying in particular, without ridiculously dramatic voice-over and music.
These guys are so interesting, I could listen to what they have to say for hours
Ah the good old days. I was in Soxmix until the fall of the Berlin Wall. It seemed like every soldier in the BAOR had orders to accidentally crash into us. They would always apologise for the inconvenience caused by the accident.
wow ... are you serious ? thats crazy
I’m a german born in the nineties, what does BAOR stand for?
@@rolux4853 British Army of the Rhine.
*_I was lost when driving in the DDR in 1977 and delighted to find an East German soldier thumbing a lift on a remote road in the Erzgebirge. Of course I stopped to give him a lift in the hope that he could put me on the right road to the town of my penfriend. I soon discovered he was quite drunk and kept telling me that it was forbitten for him to be in a British car and he was laughing the whole time. I took him to where he pointed me and let him out. He set me on the right road to my own destination. I would have made a terrible spy._*
I remember back in 83 waiting at Brize for a our flight to Germany . I was 18 and it was my first time going there , and our rsm came round handing out to each of us a SOXMIS card and told us what to look out for.Fantastic documentry a real eye opener for my kids.
Crikey! In 1985, at the tender age of 15, I went on a school trip to Berlin with eight others. We stayed in the home of one of the BRIXMIS higher-ups, an RAF Group Captain, whose son was in my academic year (and also came on the trip). It was one hell of a week, I can tell you. We got up to all sorts of fun, including learning how to drive Chieftain tanks with the Hussars who were stationed in the British sector at the time, flying in two-seater Chipmunk trainers out of RAF Gatow, and crossing Checkpoint Charlie to mooch around the Alexanderplatz and Treptower Park in East Berlin. At no point was I aware that our hosts were involved in active espionage against Warsaw Pact forces, though I'd have to say I did have my suspicions!
When the dogs barked, one of my dogs gave warning barks. Universal language among dogs, millions of years of evolution. My other dog went on alert.
What did you’re cat do ?
The actual Opel Senator used and pictured in this film is in Cosford Air Museum, Shrophire, UK. 4x4, armoured and still drives!
There was one at NAM Chelsea. The ExMilitary vehicle I'd love to get hold of.
I worked as a Supply Officer in West Berlin US Army. Part of my M.O was supplying the Potsdam facility for Allied Pesonnel 1978-1983 from the PX on the ClayAllee in W Berlin. Many trips across the Glienecke Bridge both directions.
Spent two years in West Berlin as an American soldier, 1977 to 1979. Lived at McNair Barracks, 2ndBn/6th Infantry Regiment. Never knew anything about this spy stuff.
That's why it's called the spy stuff😂😂😂.
The first time I'd heard anything about it was the second I went on guard duty in Hemer, W.Germany and handed the card by by guard commander. 'Watch out for SOXMIS' he said. And he was probably wondering why there was a puzzled look on my face.
I can watch stuff like this for hours
Absolutely fascinating! Great job!
Fella in our unit did the BRIXMIS stuff He was our AFV Recce instructor. I remember all BAOR soldiers were issued SOXMIS cards in the 80s the cards had info/rules describing what to do when you observed a SOXMIS vehicle, Great video, great memories of Germany.
It gives me joy❤️ when foe become friends.
A big thanks to all the The British forces for continuing to keep us all safe. Looks like we're going to need you guys big time in the comming few months during this pandemic.
What an amazing documentary. Thank you!
This is so cool, I love this kind of thing and I remember growing during the Cold War era.
Check out the "cold war conversations" podcast. He interviews these guys all the time from both sides
I now live in one of these former Soviet military objects you spied on, closely to Alexandrowka. Thank you for serving in BRIXMIS and best wishes from Potsdam! :)
That opening scene was intense 😳 😬 😭
The book on this is absolutely fascinating!
What is the name of the book?
Outstanding information from the people I trust.
I got charged for flipping off a SOXMIS car on Route 2 near Bielefeld that was passing our convoy . Little did I know our CO was 15 ft behind it following it as fast as his lightweight landrover could go. Apparently I bought the Army into disrepute . By doing that .. All I saw was a big black car with a wide angle lens pointing at me .. would of been rude of me not to make some kind of gesture.. I was fined £10 .. ha ha.
You did God's work, probably the best fine you ever paid.
Awesome. Remember in the early 80's an RAF guy tried to sell a bunch of signals to the commander of the Soxmis ( soviet) . SOxmis had a compound inside the UK base. The Soviet commander thought it was a sting and called the UK base commander...
The Berlin Wall was one of the last dominoes, subsequent to the Polish Solidarity movement... and the Hungarian Border situation where "vacationing" east Germans wanted to cross into Austria (evidently, many East Germans could "smell the coffee"). (FWIW, I was working for a Japanese electronics company, leading a seminar in a West Berlin hotel, when The Wall came down... a mass party in the city broke out and lasted days... or, as well as I can recall in my condition, seemed like days)
Interesting documentary about the people from, what was for me the other side. Fortunately, the states in eastern europe had their eyes on the military in Westgermany. This probably helped maintain peace in Europe and the world.
More docs like this please. 👍
There seems little doubt that these dudes were having a lot of fun. What was hinted at but basically left unsaid was that the Russians knew these people were there, and must have had a very good appreciation of what they were dong, and what intelligence they were picking up. In short the " spies " would have been under surveillance themselves. All of this is good fun and is great material for anecdotes decades later.
The intelligence which is of much greater value is what is often referred to as ' sigint ' - or reading enemy signals either decoded or simply logged. The value of sigint was proved time and again during WW2 and it's a game that is not going to stop. Sadly the techniques which were perfected in war are now routinely applied against civilian populations.
YES VERY MUCH ENJOYED THIS VIDEO.... many thanks.
Great documentary. Thanks!!
My old man served some time in BRIXMIS, he's got a few stories of times he was fired at by the Ruskies, thankfully he had a very skilled driver
Look how tough Uk was back then. Now look at these backsliders
Tv Tube Time small island with a small gene pool. Doesn’t help when most of the best of the gene pool is permanently lost through two world wars
@@andreidarie4076 the size of the island is irrelevant, still got one of the biggest populations in Europe
@@jude_the_apostle and increasingly one of a progressively lower average IQ.
@@andreidarie4076 For some reason the British politicians decided to import an entirely new gene pool along with the wonderful cultural practices onto their island
@@777zebo And sell its creativity to the USA, and china
＠29:10 gives a new meaning to the term log book
After watching this program, I was somewhat surprised at the spies not really knowing what the padding on the doors was, and also guessing that it was soundproofing. Interestingly enough, I have seen enough videos of Americans living in Ukraine who show the same types of padded doors in the old residential buildings in Kyiv. Between the concrete between apartments and having a padded door, plus and interior door, it will keep the building soundproof and also keep the heat in during the Winter.
wars cannot be won without this kind of bravery and willingness to go covert behind enemy lines. military cannot operate w/o intelligence from these kinds of operators
Great video !!
As a conscript in the West German Army 1974/75 we knew about those missions on both sides, no big secret!!!
Why did we know?
At the time we were some 600ooo soldiers and hence pair of eyes, and it was our duty even in our time off at home to look out for Russian Mission cars in West Germany, and immediately inform the next police station of what we saw.
Those Russian Mission cars were clearly marked and we where shown photos of what they looked like.
I guess it was one of those games that took place during the cold war.
However
As I found out years later on TH-cam....lol....
When the East Germans forgot that it was supposed to be a kind of Gentlemans game by killing some British Mission officers with an Army truck in their car, the Russians got very very upset and told the East Germans to stop that nonsense immediately and to never pull a stunt like that again.
Cheers
from Berlin
PS
All mission cars had total immunity....as did the occupants as long as they stayed in their car.
This could have been really good television, the 1970s when everybody had very long attention spans.
The sort of thing that the BBC would have done as it did with the Secret War.
@@Johnconno It was William Woollard who narrated Secret War. Again no silly sound tracks and just interviews with the people there. Really worth a watch. That said Forces TV is doing a good job!
Excellent. Thanks.
Great doc,hearts of lions,rule Britannia...
🇫🇴
An excellent documentary. The comments are also interesting.
Great video related to history we know very little of.
US, French and Soviet (of course) had similar teams. It would nice get images and stories of/from them
Great documentary!please make something similar about the french, american and more for the soviet liaisons.Things i highlighted:
Finding the sabot round
Stealing a reactive armor tile
Information by discarded soviet logbooks used as toiletpaper
Truly awesome and unknown facts
Well done MEN you did your country a great service and you have my respect 👍💪✌🇬🇧
Brilliant story 👍
If they caught you you usually got beaten up and was delivered home with black eyes and occasional broken bone. But, they had to catch you in an area you were not allowed to be. Get out of the area and they could not detain you. Usually the East Germans were the problem, the Russians stood back as it was not quite their right to operate. So when you went out on patrol and you sighted the Stasi tail car, you would drive very slowly until you saw a puff of steam from the front of the tail car, then you knew they had blown a head gasket and killed the motor, so you could drive off without being followed.
Thanks for this very informative video. I'd be interested in reading or viewing anything else on this subject. Great job!
Looks like a fun job ,
Interesting show
Fun job is an understatement - best job any of us had!
Just don't get caught...😎
I did Brixmis a few times whilst serving in Berlin. It was great fun and not really dangerous. The East Germans were great and also loved the cat and mouse game
fascinating stuff
Great Dokumentation 👍🏼🇬🇧🇩🇪🎗
Dave Butler und die Anderen hatten den aufregendsten Job der Welt. Das wäre auch was für mich gewesen.
Would be very interesting to learn about Soxmis - the Soviet mission in Western European NATO territory - too. I remind clearly being instructed how to deal with them should we come across Soviet 'observers.' I wonder if and ho they uncovered NATO military secrets and whether there have been incidents similar to those reported here. I do know that my uncle, who was part of 103 Commando company of the Royal NL Army caught a Soxmis operative during a large NATO exercise. I know nothing about the specifics of that event, but it does show Soxmis wasn't playing by the rules either.
The Russians were very active in the West but were never at the risk of death that the Foreign troops in the East were. I was one of many that policed the Russians "Soxmis" in former West Germany from 1987 to 1990. They were clearly effective at gaining intelligence. They were followed by Marked Military Police Vehicles and Covert Intelligence Vehicles. The Americans and the French operated independently from the British Sectors, although the Missions used to enter the British Sector on occasion. The used Dead Letter Box's for disposing of film and photo's that they took whilst out spying on the British Troops in West Germany. Ironically the British Mission in the East was the largest of all the Missions, they even had a propeller plane to use.
The irony of the renewed tensions between NATO and Russia over the war in Ukraine makes something of a mockery of the optimistic note at the end of this very interesting documentary.
Superb presentation
Very interesting and fun job.
Only ever caught sight of 1 Soxmis Isuzu Trooper vehicle on a convoy during my time with a British Tank Transporter unit in BAOR
Man this was intense!
They forgot that the real east of our country (Pomerania, Prussia and the German part of Silesia) was stolen by Stalin forever for resettling Poles from areas the Soviet union stole from Poland. It was a great sin of the Soviets few talk about. They uprooted roughly 15 million Germans and similar numbers of Poles from their ancestral homelands for gaining eastern Poland. To this day Belarus keeps it, without any regrets.
11:38 I like how this Brit used the American slang term "narcs".👍😄👍. Bless u boss from your US cousins.
excellent video 📹
in reality a long tough tedious job.
in the middle of the enemy and unharmed
I remember soxmis and the lectures about them
AMAZING!!
The Cold War was one immense and regrettable tragedy for everyone involved. Thankfully the great tragedy is ended. And the world is still here.
Sadly it's come back only in a different way, the division of America.
It never ended
I forgot what we called it but we had people cruising around over there and they had people over on our side. They had special license plates on their vehicles. We could be on a road march with our tanks near the Czech Border and you may notice they would be following taking pictures. I never saw them while on patrol on the Czech border but if you did you just reported it to Operations, you couldn't apprehend them.
Scavenging for clues on a tank range, I immediately thought magnet fish the closest body of water. Soviets loved, and I mean loved, to fire their tanks gun even when it meant cleaning the barrel and having a commissar count how many rounds were fired afterwards. I know Polish tankers just dumped rounds into a body of water so they wouldn't have to clean the barrel and still make the commissar happy. Bet the east Germans did something similar
This may have happened regarding bmp variant but I have name of Brixmis operator who carried out op in east Germany .I knew this man personally when both of us were WO 2s.
First rule of being on a range..touch nothing...
My great grandpa lost two fingers picking up the wrong things in a Range. People wouldn't believe how many things don't explode when first fired.
Thought so myself, and I've never been in the military. Wonder how many limbs (or lives) were lost by Brixmis and other agencies' personnel who went "treasure hunting"? Part of the story they neglected to tell?
Seems a very nice guy. Probably has a lot of more good stories to tell. really liked this documentary.
They said no one could predict the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thing is, in a debate in Junior College in 1984 I took the position that the Soviet Union would collapse. I said that with conviction. Where did I get it from? My father called it after reading about the problems with the Soviet economy in Time magazine. He clearly states he did not see it lasting much longer. So when they say no one could predict it I think wtf.
I think it was more the speed at which it fell. IIRC it was all over in a couple of days.
Great. They risked their lives to gather intel.
It was all officially agreed, the Soviets had exactly the same on the Western exercises.
@Denise Raikes I respect these people for sure, but you don’t seem to be aware that Western oppression exists, but is covert and run by financial corporate and empires.
@@hArtyTruffle
True , they don’t realise the same group of globalist scum that have no loyalty to any country are responsible for all the oppression they create , it’s all about controlling the tax cattle
Macmillan, New York, p. 326
* When people of this class are stricken by guilt feelings while plotting world wars and economic depressions which will bring misery, suffering and death to millions of the world’s inhabitants, they sometimes have qualms. These qualms are jeered at by their peers as "a failure of nerve". After a bout with their psychiatrists, they return to their work with renewed gusto, with no further digressions of pity for "the little people" who are to be their victims. Carroll Quigley : Tragedy & Hope
The Ultimate Bankster Quote - from a former Governor of the Bank of England Montague Norman (1920 - 1944)
Posted on April 4, 2011 | 32 Comments
“Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible.
“When, through process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of the government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers.
“These truths are well known among our principal men, who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world. By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance.
“It is thus, by discrete action, we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”
Quite a good mini documentary, do you have the same on the SOXMIS early 1970s?
Soxmis was ?
@@vedantmehra6970 soxmis was the soviet version of mobile spies...i was in germany in the 1980's and in the packonexercise one day mid 80's everyone was having kittens as someone had spotted a car with soxmis plates....i had no idea what soxmis was but when it was exxplained to me what it was and we did the same i thought what a cool job.....the most excitment i got was as a 432 driver....those louvres where awesome during winter exercises though
@@GolfMike09 Soxmis vehicles were nothing special. Normal civil cars. They were bought colorfully at car markets and not repainted. Only the yellow license plate prevented her. The missions were particularly expensive for the Soviet Union. They had to finance and operate a total of 3 military missions, while the Western Allies only had to operate one mission each. BRIXMIS did most of the work with their cars. They had specially modified Opel Senators. The list of differences from the civil vehicle is long: Here are the most important differences: 3.0 l six-cylinder engines were used throughout. All control electronics were removed. In the Opel Motorsport department, it was converted to carburetor operation and contact ignition and optimized for an output of approx. 178 hp. They received an all-wheel drive from Furgeson. At that time, it also produced the all-wheel drives for the Jensen Interceptor. The tank volume was increased to 180 L petrol etc. Very interesting vehicles.
@@michaelgahler4729 thanks for the details. Now where can I get one?
@@51WCDodge You probably won't get any more, the cars have all been scrapped. One is in an English museum, another exists in Germany, but has been completely converted to civilian. These are the originals I know. Then there are still some replicas, but without the all-wheel drive. There are also no more spare parts. The cars were scrapped after 60,000 km because the stress in use was so high. In total, the BRIXMIS had around 200 cars built.
That ERA box was planted by the Soviets! 🤣
Real Heroes.
Fascinating! You tend to think that at that time the Soviet bloc was pretty much vacuum-sealed. Were these missions allowed to operate as a type of transparent safety showing that there was no real buildup or threat intended? Also If I understand the agreement right It would also have allowed similar Soviet missions to operate in the West.
Yes, the whole point of the operation was that it was overt. The West had people in the East openly gathering information, and vice versa. They were spying in a sense, but legally so, and allowed to do it. The program only makes it sound like an illegal covert operation for dramatic reasons, and tiringly so.
SOXMIS
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 But like any Diplomat, you are there legally, what you get up to on the other hand... Also both Soviet and Allied forces were in a nominally Forign Country, The German Democratic Republic,who had thier own axe to grind.
@@ingvarhallstrom2306 Ingvar you are not right. In principle the MLMs on both sides were legally stationed in each others' zones but in practice they wanted to minimise as much as possible what we could see and do which led to rammings, injuries, and deaths of two of my colleagues. We were banned from large areas of the GDR , called PRAs (Permanently Restricted Areas). All of us agree it was the most exciting job we ever had in the military.
@@nigeldunkley2986 I bet, it must've been awesome!
What I'm objecting isn't the operation itself but the way the documentary makes it look like an illegal covert operation when it was an officially recognised mutual overt operation that was very much known. It's just a way of the filmmakers to use film dramaturgy to heighten the suspense, which is totally unnecessary when it comes to one of the most interesting spy operations in history. They're trying to look like something it wasn't, us my point.
would love to see a documentary about soxmis. like how they stole Chobham armour off the first Challengers to be delivered to BAOR
I would be very, very interest if you have any more information on that. As far as I knew it was under the outer plates and it would not have been a quick job to have had it. That said the Soviets did get versions when Iran handed over Chieftains.
@@hypergolic8468 I have very little info. I was living as a teenager with the units receiving the first challengers at the time and there was a failure to keep the embarresing episode secret in the officers mess. Always been curious as to how it could have been done. Apparently it happened on the back of an Antar transporter while in transit.
I wish they had explained why the driver failed to show at the RV. Those drivers were the best in the military and I would guess he had his reasons.
That's obvious, he'd have been getting chased or just evading.
These have to be the better missions, you would have been lucky to get this assignment.
These are the stories that created all the Hollywood movies. All intelligence gathering is equal it seems. These guys operated in sort of open grey area. Driving cool armored cars, stake outs, taking pictures, going through garbage. This isn’t the dead drop crowd.
This isn’t the recruiting crowd, or case manager crowd. This was some raw dirty everyday information gathering.
How did they not make a movie out of this? Id kill to see a proper film it's archives. James bond people are you watching?
these old guys were badass.
Volunteered for BRIXMIS in 77 after 2 years in our Recce Platoon..never got it..
@Dan Didnot What kind of intel did you gather?
If Hilda,s Bar was open.
His Intel was: How many prostitutes Stazi had on their payroll
Great documentary. Dose anyone know what the bivi is he set up?? Can't find anything like it anywhere.
I have seen similar just listed as bivi bags or micro tents
I love this
I wonder if they had a swift one at the lock in lol
Cold war, cold shivers. Those at the back cried forward, those in the front cried Back! Red thread of honour to them who dared. Extra pay £1 per day for trade craft?
Uhhh....if you "bend the rules beyond the breaking point"...you've broken the rules.
Omega sea master? Classy
Ex RAF mechanic,remember it well
😊
may sound absurd... but loved it. had a smile & little laugh while watching. love from India!
In 74 I walked into the Frankfurt PX to find a uniformed Soviet officer stanading there. Shook me sosobadly I left. Found out later the SMLM officer. We’re allowed to shop at our PX facilities. How bout that.
What a awesome job this must have been
It was the best job ever - once you are out on tour you the crew alone could decide to go ahead with a job or whether it was too risky. No senior officers around just the vehicle crew.
Fascinating Fascinating Fascinating.... Excellent documentary. I've even seen some of the (declassified) footage of BRIXMIS travelling between the east-west Berlin territories in the late 1980s and its like night and day. New modern vs old and rickety.
Just look at the transformation now though!
Btw, I like Opel Senators... especially that one though... IT'S 4WD!!