Altefeld

Altefeld, a small village, near the East - West German border was located on a ridge overlooking the Eisenach Valley, south of Eschwege. We were quartered in building known as “Haus Eshwege”, I was told that it was a rest and recuperation house for wounded W.W.II German pilots and officers. The operations area was located in a small barn or farm storage type of a building, located a mile or two from “Haus Eschwege”. There were, as I recall four or five vehicles in the Operations area. I do not recall of any RDF equipment being located at this site. When the Altefeld site was first activated I do not know, but from records it was closed down on 26 May 1957.

Altefeld Update,  by Don Giorgi
I went back there this past summer (1998) - The St.Georg Hotel is there, and so is the haus, however its up for sale having gone the a number of owners -the ops barn is still standing but the roof has caved in and its not in use. Nothing much else has changed -

From: "Don Giorgi" <dgiorgi@prodigy.net> Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 16:30:21 -0800
       Dean - just looked some more of the Altefeld photos Dave Hughes aka "spook" was a character - a bunch of us were down at the border playing with the vopo/russian guards in the tower - we'd walk up to the fence, they'd come down the tower ladder-they got tired of it after a while and we started to leave - we were a bout 30 yards away when Dave turned and ran to the border and started climbing the fence - the guards came down like the tower was on fire - running down the strip on their side of the fence We beat our buns up the hill and hid in the bushes - fortunately after about 20 minutes of looking for us they gave up and went back to their home away from home.
       Dave also had a couple of complete fencing gear and started teaching some of us to fence His favorite stroke was to rap you on the head so that the ball at the end of the eppee would snap down and hit you right between the shoulder blades.
Slade and I were on the same trick and went on leave together to Rome,Capri,Nice Monte Carlo etc. Publicover & I were both on the house basketball team - Had some great times playing at the Bundesgroenshutz (spelling?) in Eschwege
                                                        Regards Don

Photos