Fragment of the Berlin Wall

sketchfab

In the 1960s a 12 foot concrete wall as built around West Berlin to keep out residents of the East. When President Gorbachev of Russia withdrew his support for the East, it was decided that the wall would be demolished. In November of 1989, John Dudart-Aberdeen Maj. (retired), a Cornishman, was the Commander of ‘Support Company’ of the 1st Battalion The Light Infantry (having served with its antecedent regiments, the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry). Within ‘Support Company’ was a group of soldiers trained and equipped as ‘Assault Pioneers’ (doing demolition, working with explosives etc). John tells us how he tasked these soldiers to ‘demolish and recover some of the Wall as a momento of the times’. He expected some ‘football’ size examples which they provided, like the one seen here, but a large slab of graffiti covered Wall which you also see pictured, which is on display in the museum.