Guard Duty

Old Dog summed it up pretty well, but Spandau was different. Troops from the US, the UK, France, and Russia all took turns guarding that place. I seem to remember that each country did it for three months at a time, and the four US battalions split their three months between them. Each battalion contained about four companies, and it didn't take a whole company to fill all the guard posts. There were about 15 towers and a three man relief team was assigned to each one. Add to that the Sergeant of the Guard, a driver, and a couple of supernumeraries (extra guys you have in case somebody gets sick), and the whole compliment was about 50 people. I pulled Spandau guard two or three times during my 30 months in Berlin. We also pulled compound guard (motor pools, ammo dumps, and gates) around our own barracks more frequently, maybe once or twice a month. The shifts were the same, two hours on and four hours off for a 24 hour stretch.

Spandau guard was mostly a formality. In the beginning they had been worried about the prisoners' friends trying to bust them out or their enemies trying to break in and do them harm but, after 20 years passed without incident, nobody expected anything exciting to happen anymore. We only guarded the perimeter wall and didn't have access to the rest of the prison. A guy called a "warder" was assigned to each prisoner. It was their job to keep an eye on their man, but they weren't exactly guards. The prisoners were not allowed to communicate with anybody but their warders so, if they had any concerns, they would tell their warder and he would pass it on to whoever. Visitors were allowed only twice a year, on Christmas and the prisoner's birthday. Like I said, Speer's girlfriend rented a small cottage right across the street from the prison. Every day at noon, she would stand out in her yard and blow on a whistle to let Speer know that she was still waiting for him. I don't think they were allowed mail, newspapers, radios, or televisions. The reason for all this isolation was that, in the beginning, the Allies were worried about the prisoners making contact with their old comrades and fomenting some kind of uprising. Everybody had stopped worrying about that a long time ago but, like I said, "the rules could not be changed".

I don't remember the number of general orders for guard duty being reduced to three, but I only remember about thee of them:
1. To take charge of this post and all government property in view.
2. To walk my post in a military manner, keeping always on the alert, and observing everything that takes place within sight or hearing.
3. To quit my post only when properly relieved.
The rest of them were about reporting anything strange that went on to the Sergeant of the Guard and the guy who relieves you. There was also something about obeying the orders of the officers of the guard only. When you were on guard duty, you were detached from your regular outfit and under the command of the Officer of the Day. Nobody else was supposed to tell you what to do.

I liked guard duty, KP not so much, mostly because of the hours. On guard you worked two hours on and four hours off for 24 hours. About half of your four hours off was spent on administrative stuff, but it was possible to get two hours sleep if you didn't fool around. In my outfit, it was a rare thing to get 8 hours sleep in a 24 hour period, so guard duty was like a vacation to me. KP was about a 16 hour shift, and you had to get up for your regular duty the next day. The cooks worked 24 hours on and 24 hours off. They seldom worked their whole 24 hours on, but they were expected to if the need arose. Their 24 hours off was really off and nobody messed with that.

In my outfit, nobody said "Who goes there?" We were told that was only in the movies, in real life we were supposed to say "Who's there?" The army was funny that way, you'd think that it would be the same all over, but it wasn't.