Over the Wall

Former intelligence officer Will Britten lifts the lid on his work for BRIXMIS at the height of the Cold War

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The British Commanders’-in-Chief Mission to the Soviet Forces in Germany (BRIXMIS) was a military liaison mission which operated behind the Berlin Wall during the height of the Cold War. This liaison was undertaken by the 31 members – 11 officers and no more than 20 others – appointed to each mission. One of these men was former intelligence officer, Will Britten.

In Over the Wall, Britten lifts the lid on what it was like working on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. During this period, Berlin was a hotbed of spying between the East and West. BRIXMIS was established as a trusted channel of communication between the Red Army and the British Army on the Rhine. However, they acted in the shadows to steal advanced Soviet equipment and penetrate top secret training areas.

Over the Wall offers a more detailed and critical analysis of what the mission did and why, concluding that the Soviets must have known some of their agents had been turned by the Allies and that their intelligence had been compromised.

Additionally, the book examines, for the first time, the period after the fall of the Berlin Wall, up until the complete Soviet withdrawal in 1992, when BRIXMIS was succeeded by an organisation working covertly. It also explores the Soviet equivalent mission based in the US sector of West Germany, revealing how it operated in stark contrast to BRIXMIS.