15 August 1975 · Hidden in vehicles · Checkpoint Charlie
A pregnant woman and her husband behind the back seat of a US sergeant's Chevrolet
Late on 15 August 1975 a US Army sergeant brought an East German couple, the wife pregnant, through Checkpoint Charlie in a hollowed-out space between the back seat and the boot of his Chevrolet. The East German guards looked closely but let him pass; US military police found the couple.
US Army Sergeant Harry Blue Jr. drove into East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie at 9 p.m. on 15 August 1975 in his 1968 Chevrolet sedan, registered with the US forces. At 11.05 p.m. he came back with an East German husband and his pregnant wife hidden in a hollowed-out compartment between the rear seat and the boot.
The rear of the car sat almost two inches lower because of the weight, and the East German guards examined it more carefully than usual, but they let it through. Blue later explained their attention by saying he had brushed the pole barrier as he entered the East German control area.
On the western side the US military police searched the car thoroughly. Their suspicion had been aroused by his nervous behaviour and by the fact that he had gone into East Berlin at an hour when, as the telegram put it, the sidewalks there had been rolled up for the night.
The refugees and a relative who met them in West Berlin said that 34,000 Deutschmarks had been paid through an intermediary and that the escape had been arranged from the Munich area. Blue was restricted, fined, barred from re-enlistment and transferred out of Berlin on 9 September 1975. The incident was not publicised.
Sources
- August 15 exfiltration in U.S. forces vehicle (telegram 1975USBERL01681, 18 August 1975)US National Archives, Access to Archival Databases (Central Foreign Policy Files, RG 59)
- August 15 exfiltration in US forces vehicle (telegram 1975USBERL01956, 25 September 1975)US National Archives, Access to Archival Databases (Central Foreign Policy Files, RG 59)
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