West Berlin Police weapons

[uk 75]

One of the many boardgames about the Cold War Berlin 85 featured a map of the whole city to enable you to play either the three allied brigades in West Berlin or the East German and Soviet forces.
To try and give the allies a bit more to fight with you are also given counters for West.Berlin precincts.
The material accompanying the game suggests that the Police were armed with rifles and light anti tank weapons.
Unisually there seem to be no website devoted ro what the West Berlin Polizei might have done pr been equipped with.
The same boardgame also contains a scenario where a West German brigade is spirited into the city before the crisis. This is pure invention and I have found no basis for it.

 

[TomS]

One of the many boardgames about the Cold War Berlin 85 featured a map of the whole city to enable you to play either the three allied brigades in West Berlin or the East German and Soviet forces.
To try and give the allies a bit more to fight with you are also given counters for West.Berlin precincts.
The material accompanying the game suggests that the Police were armed with rifles and light anti tank weapons.
Unisually there seem to be no website devoted ro what the West Berlin Polizei might have done pr been equipped with.
The same boardgame also contains a scenario where a West German brigade is spirited into the city before the crisis. This is pure invention and I have found no basis for it.

There was a Volunteer Reserve Police force formed in Berlin on 1961, theoretically to protect critical infrastructure against East German militias. They are probably the units represented in the game, though they don't seem to have officially had AT weapons, just
KAR-98s and Sten guns. I'd guess that if they were augmented with infantry AT weapons, they would have bazookas, same as the Bundeswehr had up until the mid-60s.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiwillige_Polizei-Reserve

 

[Michel Van]

Standart Weapon of Police force in West Germany until 1980s
were Walter PP and PPS pistols (last one not like by officers)
next to that HK MP5 a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun,
also HK PSG1 Sniper rifle

I not know of any rifles and light anti tank weapons, for Berliner Polizei during Cold War.

but the Freiwillige Poilzei-Reserve (Voluntary Police Reseve)
we're equip with war weapons: Mauser Modell 98 rifle, American submachine gun and Sten Mk 2.
But the FPW is strictly a Objekt Schutz (site protection brigade) with limit task.

 

[uk 75]

Full details of the now very old game are here.

Berlin '85: The Enemy at the Gates

Operational-level simulation of the Warsaw Pact's attempt to seize Berlin in WWIII.

boardgamegeek.com

 

[uk 75]

Standart Weapon of Police force in West Germany until 1980s
were Walter PP and PPS pistols (last one not like by officers)
next to that HK MP5 a 9x19mm Parabellum submachine gun,
also HK PSG1 Sniper rifle

I not know of any rifles and light anti tank weapons, for Berliner Polizei during Cold War.

but the Freiwillige Poilzei-Reserve (Voluntary Police Reseve)
we're equip with war weapons: Mauser Modell 98 rifle, American submachine gun and Sten Mk 2.
But the FPW is strictly a Objekt Schutz (site protection brigade) with limit task.

Michel a discussion on a well known wargame site makes some off the wall assertions.

Reserve Police Force | Berlin '85: The Enemy at the Gates

West Berlin veteran here. What this game leaves out is West Berlin's "Reserve Police Force". This was a 50,000 strong formation of modern infantry, I mean police. They were trained and equipped, oddly enough, by the Bundeswehr. They employed scores of wheeled APCs for "riot control". (I have

boardgamegeek.com

 

[uk 75]

Come back to this old thread because I was watching the third Dirty Harry film where Clint fires a LAW.
This and other similar weapons would have been very useful in the hands of Police and other civilian outfits with military training on the ranges of the three Allies.

 

[iverson]

I have read that the Germans were prohibited from basing troops in Berlin. The Eastern block considered the West German Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal paramilitary border police) to be a military formation, since it was equipped as light infantry (armored cars, antitank weapons, helicopters, etc.). The Freiwillige Polizei-Reserve was organized as a less provocative alternative for Berlin.

For some basic information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiwillige_Polizei-Reserve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesgrenzschutz

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