Soviets Harass British Unit in East Germany

Three members of the British military liaison mission in East Germany were detained near the Polish-East German border and harassed for five hours by Soviet troops this week after a Soviet vehicle rammed their car, British military officials reported Friday.

The three men, one officer and two noncommissioned officers, were not hurt in the crash. They were eventually released and permitted to return to their base at Potsdam, 15 miles west of Berlin, the officials said.

The incident, which occurred Tuesday morning just off a major highway near the city of Cottbus, is the second major confrontation between Soviet troops and allied liaison missions operating in East Germany during the last 2 1/2 months.

Army Major Slain

Last March 24, U.S. Army Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., a member of the American military liaison group in East Germany, was shot and killed by a Soviet sentry while on duty 80 miles north of Berlin.

Moscow said Nicholson was shot because he was inside a restricted Soviet military area. U.S. officials rejected the Soviet version and labeled the shooting a cold-blooded murder.

Tuesday’s incident, together with the Nicholson killing, appeared to signal a hardening attitude by Moscow toward the liaison groups operating in East Germany. They appear to be the most serious such incidents since the groups were established nearly 40 years ago.

Britain, France, and the United States all maintain military liaison groups in East Germany, which was initially the Soviet zone of occupation of the defeated Third Reich. Soviet military liaison groups operate in each of the three Western countries’ former zones of occupation, which now constitute West Germany.

Intelligence Gathering

The groups, consisting of about 25 officers and men, were initially designed to conduct necessary liaison among the military commands of the victorious powers. However, since the two German states gained independence in 1949, the groups have been used principally to gather intelligence.

Both the British and American units in East Germany are based in Potsdam.

British military officials said the three men harassed by the Soviets on Tuesday were in uniform, sitting in a clearly marked car, at least three miles from the nearest restricted area when the incident began.

Maj. Hugh Buddington-Smith, a spokesman for British military forces in Germany, said the British army vehicle was parked near a major highway five to six miles south of Cottbus observing a Soviet military convoy pass when it was rammed by a Soviet jeep-type vehicle driving “in a dangerous and foolhardy manner”.

Auto Pelted With Bricks

The spokesman said Soviet troops on foot then threw bricks and shovels at the car. Buddington-Smith said the impact of the collision “nearly tore two wheels off the car” and, after some discussion, the Soviets allowed repairs to be made on the car at a nearby village.

However, while the repairs were being carried out, British officials said, a Soviet officer removed a bag from the car containing personal and military equipment belonging to the three British soldiers and that other Soviet troops waved loaded, cocked weapons at the Britons. The three men were finally released five hours later.

Duty with a military liaison mission has long carried an element of risk, with members from all four nations occasionally being detained, sometimes after overstepping the agreed limits.

However, Tuesday’s incident, the shooting of Maj. Nicholson and the death last year of a French officer in what many believed was a staged traffic accident on an East German highway, have raised these risks to new levels.

Diplomats in Bonn were puzzled about the meaning of this week’s incident. One Western envoy speculated that Moscow may want to end the liaison groups but he noted that such a move would also mean the end of Soviet military liaison missions in West Germany.