1 R IRISH patrol the Inner German Border.

A Corporal leads his patrol detachment along the Inner German Border on a 1 R IRISH Border Patrol.

Shortly before the GDR (German Democratic Republic) decision, on 9 November 1989, to open its border to the West and lift travel restrictions, a Border Patrol was carried out by A Company 1 R IRISH (based in Osnabrück). They attracted considerable interest from the East German Border Guards who photographed the patrol wearing their Caubeens along the soon to disappear Iron Curtain.

These were among the historic final days of the Cold War. The IGB (Inner German Border) was 1,393 kms (866 miles) long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia. Some 1,100 GDR citizens are thought to have died by shooting, mines and booby traps while attempting to cross it during the 45 years between 1 July 1945 and 1July 1990. It was finally abandoned three months before the formal reunification of Germany in October 1990.