sandway:
Here’s a couple of very interesting photos seen recently on the web. A lot of us will remember Spielfeld, not that it was a place we looked fondly upon. The first photo I am guessing was from the 50’s but the second one was from the early 70’s. Promotor lorries would have started to frequent this border crossing from Austria to Yugoslavia at that time but it would be another eight years before I had the dubious pleasure of joining in the fun.I do remember one trip, a dark and cold night, where I had slowly worked my way up to the front of the queue only to ■■■■ off one of the customs officers who made me turn round and go back down the slight hill and rejoin the back of the queue. After that little escapade I used the little border 30km north, Radkasberg I think it was called, and only used Spielfeld on my way home.
Please click on photo to enlarge.
I had number of “incidents” as Spielfeld - few of them favourable.
I think it was Tommy Burch who was with me a Spielfeld when we arrived together at 2.45… Our friendly customs officer did Tommy’s papers and then stopped to have a chat and a beer with his relief (the end of the shift being 3pm). They carried on drinking and joking and, at 3.15pm - having kept us both waiting for 30 minutes - the new customs officer charged me for overtime… All work after 3pm was chargeable. This didn’t help with my dislike of Austrians.
Another incident was filling out the green statistic form which most paid the agents to complete for them which I rather resented… I used to complete the forms myself being reluctant to fund the Austrians in any way.
I passed over my green form and the unformed man started screaming at me rather like his fellow countryman, that little corporal, shouting in German “Are you blind?” He didn’t expect me to answer him in his own language explaining calmly I wasn’t blind and would he kindly do his job…
I think it was my first trip to Aachen that the customs officer threw my papers onto the floor saying “Totales sheisse”… I collected them and asked him in measured tones in German if he would care to explain to his superior officer what he had just said and done to me… There was suddenly quite the reversal of attitude…
I think it was at Speilfeld where Tookie saw an Austrian overtaking the queue and pulled his cab out to stop him… Our Austrian friend stepped out and started offering his fists and Tookie smacked him straight in the face and the Austrian police came and grabbed the Austrian driver… Later while Tookie was in the queue the Austrian police appeared with the Austrian driver - his eye now closed… They seemed amused and called Tookie “Casius Clay” and said they’d keep the Austrian driver for 30 minutes so Tookie could get on his way.
On the matter of Austrians I had been waiting three days and nights queuing to get into Habur/Zacko in a several mile long queue - and in the dark 3 Austrian lorries with lights switched off zoomed down the road to the front of the queue which naturally caused outrage with everyone in the queue… Next morning as we edged forward the 3 Austrian trucks were parked in a row on the left hand side of the road with every bit of glass smashed and every panel dented. No sign of the drivers… Clearly they failed in their task to get to the front and through the border… I always wondered what happened to them. At the least they would have had a bad beating - if not killed.