From correspondence with Jim Tobias, Jim states that Konigslutter site was in operation in 1953. Any one have more information?

May 1954 to Nov 1954
I was assigned to 331st Communications Reconnaissance Company (C.R. Co.) 5th Corp located at Giessen. Upon arriving in Giessen, I found out that the 331st C.R. Co. was on detached service near Konigslutter in the British Zone of Germany. After loading my gear in the back of a truck, and getting into truck for a three to four hour ride to Sollingen, near Helmstedt, I finally arrived at my assigned company and destination. Which was known as "31 Fox" and what was to be my home until mid November 1954.
"31 Fox" was a communications intelligence intercept site, that is an electronic monitoring location to intercept, copy and decode the Communist Army Military messages. The company was scattered about northern Germany; HQ was at Giessen, "31 Fox" was the main operations monitoring site near Sollingen, and 3 out post DF stations ; 31 Able was at Lubeck, Bahrdorf was Det 1, located near Velpke, I don't recall the site designator for Wesendorf located near Gifhorn. There may have been more outstation sites that I an unaware of being in use at this time. The 331st C.R. Co. was spread out over a distance from Giessen, just north of Frankfurt to Lubeck. I believe that Major Sutherland was C.O .at that time. Being a radio repairman, I had the opportunity to travel to the different out stations. At "31 Fox" we lived in squad tents, and worked in van trucks.
"31 Fox" was located in the Elm Mountains, on top of a hardwood ridge, which provided natural camouflage for a "spy" type of operations. The only open area was along border road between the base of a 187 meter high radio relay tower, that relayed messages across the then Russian Zone into Berlin about 110 miles to our east. This is was where our tent row was located; all of the operations areas were hidden in the woods away from prying eyes.
In the morning you would awaken and hear the Cukoo birds, look to an open field and see Roebucks feeding. It rained 27 days out of 31 days in July 1955, as you would guess we had mud, mud and more mud. (Just like in the movies)
We had a "Beer Tent" where we could go and have a beer in the evening. There was a British Signal detachment at Kinderheim about a mile away, doing the same job we were doing, they would come over at night and bend a few elbows with us. I got to into their operations area and was able to see the old communications equipment that they were using. Strictly ham gear pre WW II vintage, we were using Hammarland SP600's and Collins gear (pre R390 ) state of the art in 1954. I wonder what ever happened to two of the "Brits", Derrick Wakefield and Allen Spurgeon; I visited with them at South Ruislip about 20 miles out side of London in the summer of 1955.
Late August or early September 1954 while we were at 31 Fox (Sollingen). We had a scheduled company party, for all personal. Everyone was there except the trick on duty; they rented a hall in Konigslutter for the party. We had all kind of foods and beer to consume, about two hours into the party, when every one was starting to get "feeling good"; we had a "red alert" the Eastern Bloc nations went on maneuvers. The Soviet navy was moving south along the coast of Norway, the Red Army tanks were moving towards the border, and their air force were joining in the games. We were loaded on to vehicles and moved back to 31 fox as quickly as possible. They found four 50's for our "protection" (I don't think anyone saw anything heavier than a 30 caliber in basic and even knew how to load or fire a 50 caliber), we went to work as soon as we got back. Placing all the racks of communication equipment on mattress on the floor of the vans, cutting all runs of coax and ground wires and etc. with fire axes at each vehicle so we would be able to clear out, to where I don't know. It took us about a week to repair all the damage that we did the fire axes. The only casualty we had that night was one sprained ankle from a guy jumping out of the back of a 2 1/2 ton truck.
"31 Fox" broke camp and went back to Giessen for the winter, we were stationed at the Quarter Master Depot Kasserne.
by Dean Slagle
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dean
You mentioned a red alert in '54. I remember it well. The entire company was at the Deutsches Haus, which was pretty much run by my future mother-in-law. Another fellow and I (I forget his name, but was later my best man) were out with a couple of Königlutter's finest. He had torn his pants and we had to go back up the hill for a change. As we were going up the hill, all of our motor pool was coming down, and fast.
When I pulled up, someone in full field, with rifle, told me to get those girls back to town and get back at once. I remember taking the junk out of my backpack and putting the real thing back in. We were gathered inside the second inner wire (where I worked) and Capt? (Sutherland) Told us there were strange Russian ship maneuvers in the North Sea, and we were on full alert. He mentioned the company's entire armament was nine .50 cal machine guns. He asked if anybody knew anything about them. It didn't take me long to realize no one knew anything. I told him I did (I had just come out of ROTC at Lehigh. I knew the .30 & .50 well, as well as the 1911, M1 carbine and rifle, and BAR. Three of those I had to disassemble and reassemble blindfolded) He told me to choose men and set up emplacements on the eastern side of the camp. I asked him what we should do in case tanks or planes come. He said shoot! The .50s may have made some dents in our armor in WWII, but not Russian. I helped carry a lot of that stuff to the perimeter. It was damn heavy, especially the tripods. I couldn't quite remember the headspace, 7 or 9 clicks, but I wasn't sure. I got all nine set up with two men each. I remember people coming behind us asking for the password. We were scared, especially of tanks which we knew well weren't that far away. Finally, it grew light. I looked around and everyone had gone to bed, so we did too. It just fizzled out. We didn't get much help putting those guns away either. Maybe I should sue the government for my two hernia operations.
I remember when we dropped off the girls, I was thinking to myself we would never see them or the USA again. What was the captain's name? I will tell you more of him at a later date.
Years later I revisited our site several times. I used to run, and my son and I ran all over the hill. There is no evidence of anything being there. The antenna is still there. My wife's sister's father-in-law climbed that thing once to take photos. More guts than I have. Does anyone know Phil Petit or Van Peter Phillips? Phillips left the company in '53, was from Oakland and had gone to Monterey. When we were tested in Fort Devens, my language learning abilities were as good as my code learning. I'll never forget the corporal sitting there on the porch assigning mos's. He said "code school". I begged him for Monterey, I pointed out my scores and told him I had already had five years of French. Naturally, I went to code school.
.
Jim Tobias
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
konifotos