York historian PETER KIRTON recalls a nerve-racking time as a soldier in post-war Berlin.

THE story behind a major incident that happened over 50 years ago has just been fully explained, courtesy of the regimental magazine of the Light Infantry, The Silver Bugle. The events happened in June 1953 in the divided city of Berlin, the centre of the so-called Cold War between East and West.

After basic training at Queen Elizabeth Barracks, Strensall, in 1953, I, along with about 40 other young National Servicemen, was posted to the 1st Battalion The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) who were based in West Berlin, Germany.

We travelled by train from York to Harwich from where we caught the night ferry (a floating cattle truck) for the overnight journey to the Hook of Holland.

These crossings were notoriously rough and the open troop decks with three tier bunks could often be awash with forces personnel being sea-sick.

We then transferred to the Dutch Railways, electric trains that were the height of luxury, serving us meals en route as we made for Germany. As our destination was Berlin, which was situated in the middle of the Russian Zone of Germany, we had to wait at the border town of Bad-Oeynhausen for the special overnight service to the former capital.

We were transported by steam train and warned not to lift the window blinds at any time of the journey, particularly when stopped in stations. Russian soldiers patrolled each platform en route and rapped on the windows with their "burp guns" if we lifted the blinds.

We arrived at West Berlin at approximately 6am the following morning. It was a strange and eerie feeling riding through the near deserted streets of this once great city that I had read and seen so many films about.

Our destination was the three-storey Wavell Barracks in the district of Spandau. By now our group was totally exhausted after travelling two days and two nights with very little sleep, but any ideas of having a rest were soon dispelled.

After a quick breakfast we were sped through the administrative procedures and then we were divided among the five different companies. I was now a member of D Company.

We were instructed on the code of conduct in this city that was divided into four sectors: Russian, French, American and British. We were strictly warned about not straying into the Russian sector as we would probably not be allowed back and if we did would then face a court martial.

Germany as a whole was also divided into the same four international zones. Berlin was isolated in the heart of the Russian zone and accessible only by the one railway line, autobahn and air corridor.

British Troops Berlin had a very special place in the British Army Order of Battle. Along with the French and American garrisons, they provided the only tangible evidence of Western determination to prevent the city from being absorbed into the communist regime and thus were very much in the eyes of the world.

Among the battalion's many duties in Berlin was guarding the seven Nazi leaders convicted at the Nuremberg trials, which began in November 1945. They were Von Neurath, Raeder, Funk, Von Shirach, Speer, Doenitz and Hess, all imprisoned in the nearby Spandau prison.

Guarding the Spandau prisoners was very much in doubt that very evening, however - when we were suddenly told we were going to war against the might of the Russian army.

There had been rioting in the streets of both East and West Berlin for some days and now things were coming to a head.

We were told that we were to make a last stand at the British Army Headquarters situated in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. We were also given the encouraging news that the best we could hope for was to hold out for 24 hours before being overwhelmed.

The astonishing way in which this news was received by our commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Pope, has now emerged.

Guests from the affiliated US Army infantry battalion attended dinner in the KOYLI officers' mess that evening. Just as the port was circulating, a motorbike roared to a halt outside.

There followed a muffled and somewhat combative conversation beyond the dining room doors. These sounds culminated in the appearance of the Mess Sergeant, doing his best impersonation of Jeeves, who had just dealt with an over-excited and presumptuous despatch rider.

He bore in a piece of paper on a silver salver, which he tendered to Lt Col Pope. Colonel Nick took the message, read it, folded it and put it in his pocket - with exaggerated calm and without any change of expression.

In true British stiff upper lip style, he dismissed the Mess Sergeant, rapped on the table and said: "Gentlemen, the port will circulate once more and then we go to war."

So, on the night of the rising, the NATO response to the arrival in East Berlin of two Russian tank divisions (hundreds of tanks and 25,000 troops) was to mobilise the 600 men of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.

The result was obvious. News that the Yorkshiremen were waiting for the tank divisions spread fear through the Russian ranks and their senior officers decided they had better pull back from the brink, rather than face certain defeat! Within 24 hours the order came for the KOYLI to stand down. Armageddon had been postponed.

In truth it probably wasn't the Yorkshiremen who scared off the Russians that night.

A more likely reason was that when the tanks rolled up to the West Berlin borders both the East and West Berliners realised that further rioting would bring them a far worse quality of life. The rioting promptly stopped and the Russians lost the reason to invade West Berlin.

Nevertheless, the moment made an impression on all who were there. Some 15 years later, a KOYLI officer serving at the US Army Infantry Centre at Fort Benning, Georgia, was introduced to an American colonel.

He was at that dinner that night, and vividly remembered it. "That Colonel Pope is one cool guy, I tell you!" he exclaimed.

"He reads the message, dismisses the Sergeant and then says, in a Limey voice straight out of a Hollywood movie, 'Gentlemen, the port will circulate once more and then we go to war!'

"I gotta tell you, that was one hell of a way to end the evening, and I've been waiting a hell of a long time for someone to believe my story!"

Yorkshire Humour On The Rails by Peter Kirton is out now. Published by Write Books, price £9.99, it is on sale at the Barbican Bookshop, Fossgate, York and branches of WHSmith at York Railway Station, Coney Street and Monks Cross

Updated: 09:31 Monday, January 12, 2004