Operation Steel Box

As an action dragon (also: operation dragon ) is a transport action referred to, which took place in September 1990.

From the U.S. military depot Miesau Army Depot near the village Clausen ( Rhineland -Palatinate, County Southwest Palatinate ) poison gas shells were removed and transverse transported through Germany to the Lower Saxon port Nordenham where they shipped and were taken for further destruction to Johnston Atoll in the Pacific.

Prehistory

For years, camped in the U.S. depot near the village Clausen many dangerous warfare agents, including 400 tons of the deadly nerve agents VX and sarin acting. In total, there were 102,000 poison gas grenades that were taken away.

Citizens and politicians in Clausen was not aware that in the depot store toxins. Even protesters ran for years before a false camp, because it was in the early 1980s suggested that the chemical warfare agents in the warehouse Fischbach ( Circle Southwest Palatinate ), in the so-called " special weapons " were in the form of atomic warheads, camped.

In 1983, confirmed the Department of Defense of the United States, the existence of chemical weapons in Germany

The deduction of chemical weapons was preceded by an agreement between the then Government of President Reagan and Chancellor Kohl in 1986. Accordingly, it should be withdrawn by 1992 all chemical weapons stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany and the U.S. military destroyed outside the country. Then the plans for transportation, which took three years to complete started. It had reviewed, among other things, all provided vehicles for their safety and the proposed roads are blocked. On March 6, 1989, the U.S. Except Minister James Baker was known in Vienna a transfer of since this year incumbent President George HW Bush that a faster removal of these weapons was intended.

Removal and destruction

Transport by road

Beginning with the 26th July 1990, the toxins were Clausen and then transported by truck at walking pace through the narrow streets of via the federal highway 62. Since the highway from the Squirrel Mountain tunnel was not completed at that time, was the transport through a temporary gravel road to the motorway junction Landstuhl West. From there we went over the Federal Highway 6 into Miesau Army Depot. The procedure took a total of 28 days.

Transport by rail

As of September 12 took trains transport to the North Sea. The depot itself is interconnected in the form of siding with the railway network. The shells had to be stored in special capsules. To exclude an impairment of electric traction in the network of the German Federal Railways, was also set to do a completely removing it by two diesel locomotives of the series 218. Responsible for this was the depot of Kaiserslautern, was the purpose locomotives from the Federal Railway Directorates Karlsruhe, Munich and Nuremberg. In addition, a route has been established, which should avoid densely populated regions such as the Ruhr. Accordingly, the removal via Ludwigshafen, Worms, Darmstadt, Aschaffenburg, Giessen, Kassel, wages and Bremen took place.

The operation lasted until September 19, and were always carried out in the evening and at night. Several security measures have been planned with, so there was always a Begleitzug for all shipments, as well as emergency braking, fires and a raid of terrorists before the actual removal simulated.

Other measures

For use helicopters arrived, the police, the Federal, the railway police, paramedics accompany the armed forces, specially put together units from different Bundeswehr fire departments, as well as numerous ABC reconnaissance vehicles of the Bundeswehr during this operation. In addition, the security of the airspace effected by the FlaRakGrp 42 with Roland ground - to-air missiles.

They were then transported by rail to the port Nordenham Lower Saxony, where they were taken and shipped for further destruction to Johnston Atoll in the Pacific.

Critical voices

The U.S. military tried to symbolize modern technology security the doubting citizens in Clausen and near railroad tracks. In contrast presented German authorities in the investigation of the used for the removal tractors fixed partially massive security defects such as defective brakes.

After the withdrawal

In 1990, the deduction was celebrated with a great ceremony in Clausen. Among others, the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl was a guest. In addition to the depot a memorial was erected to peace, consisting of a stone of red sandstone and a commemorative plaque.