Reading Gerald Spicer's tale of being stationed at Schwechat airfield, just outside Vienna (Letters, February 20) reminded me of an experience I had when stationed at Schonbrunn in 1947.
A colleague and I were detailed to go to Schwechat to repair one of our trucks which had broken down.
Not familiar with the area, we took a wrong turning, ending up at a Russian airstrip and in trouble.
We were taken into custody and, with two armed guards behind us in our Jeep, were taken to the their HQ, then to the Russian section of the international zone (Bezirk 1).
There, we were interrogated as to why we were on their airstrip.
The Cold War and distrust had started. They thought we could have been aero mechanics. We tried to assure them we were auto mechanics but they still distrusted us.
Eventually, we signed a statement that we had accidentally strayed and were not spying.
After about nine hours, our military police were called to escort us back to Schonbrunn. What we signed was written in Russian because the interpreter could write no English.
Goodness, we could have signed our life away without knowing. We were just pleased to get back to barracks.
-D J White, Beachcroft Place, Lancing
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