Early in 1962 LTC Alexander told me to head up to Trier. Trier is the oldest city in Germany and is a major border crossing point. I was to meet a truck shipment that was to be escorted to Ulm. The truck was pulling a regular stake and platform trailer with two rather large, custom wooden crates. Once we got the shipment to Ulm I had the Telefunken plant manager sign for the boxes.
On the shipments we escorted all the boxes had a large US shield with two hands shaking superimposed over the shield. The shield was similar to the one below.
Over a years period of time I escorted maybe 5 shipments to Telefunken GMBH in Ulm. Not always from Trier. Other shipments I met had originated in Bremerhaven and Hanover. On the third or fourth shipment it was me killing to know what was in the boxes. It couldn’t be too sensitive since we had no guards. Once I got to know the plant manager I asked him what was in the boxes. He was surprised that I didn’t know. He told me the crates contained radar units and others had parts for the radar units.
I know that Germany had some rudimentary radar as far back as the 1930’s so I guess we were helping them with newer technology. I also know that Frankfurt was one of the first international airports to land planes in zero visibility.
I asked the plant manager what they did with the radar units. He said. “Vee take dem apart and put dem back together besser.”
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