English/French orders required.
First, one needed a Request and Authority for Leave form, the same as everyone else in the U.S. military. However, this one shows the special provisions for Berlin - it required an extra authorization from the Assistant Chief of Staff for G-2 (Intelligence), in this case signed by his deputy, Major Kubilins.
English/French orders required.
France was asserting its sovereignty in various ways during this period. One of the more understandable was the requirement that American soldiers traveling in France carry orders in French. More alarming than the added paperwork requirement was the series of warnings which we also had to acknowledge. The following document laid down the law.
Enlarged text is shown below.
Here are the stern words:
Later, in 1971, I traveled from Berlin to Spain via France. This made quite a packet of papers: the Flag Orders in Russian, French and English, the train ticket for the Military Train out of Berlin in German, French and English, the Ordre de Mission for travel in France in French and English, the above document full of warnings, the DA31 pass seen at the top of this page, and the orders for travel in Spain, similar to the French orders, but in Spanish and English.
Murphy's Law of Paperwork struck on that trip as on many: when I tried to streamline things by only pulling out the relevant paperwork, border control officers wanted to see all the other documents. When I pulled out the whole pile, they wanted to wave me through. The exception came upon leaving Franco's Spain. Border guards at obscure Canfranc had never seen most of these documents, and held up my bus, which was already running late. They were fascinated with the paperwork, but were most impressed by the Flag Orders having Russian in them. Eventually, they waved us on, but now the French and Spanish passengers on this small bus were thoroughly impressed with the importance of "their" American.
- R. W. Rynerson
Return to Berlin Documents/Papiere table of contents.
Read a story of the Berlin Military Trains.