"All for Peace"

At a Russian airfield near Berlin one day last week, a passerby paused to ask a cement worker what he was doing. The worker looked up sullenly and muttered: "It's all for peace, my friend, all for peace."

For more than a year, East Germany's bricklayers, asphalt, steel and cement workers have gone through an unprecedented period of full employment, building runways, flak emplacements and barrack? for the Soviet air force. East German taxpayers paid the costs. German labor offices had to recruit thousands of workers. If the labor offices failed, their functionaries were demoted or arrested. If German workers demurred, they were told: "Well, you can go into the People's Police or the uranium mines if you prefer." There is now a massive and menacing concentration of Russian air power in the Soviet zone of Germany (see map).

Russian airmen are proudest of their jets, boast that they cruise at about 450 m.p.h. and are capable of top speeds of 560 m.p.h. Recently, some officers have been heard bragging of a new jet capable of a supersonic 800 m.p.h. "With a ship like that," one Red airman gloated, "we can give America hell. We might not come back alive, but it will be worth it."

Such bits of gossip are scarce, because the Soviet air force lives in strict seclusion; the bright blue shoulder boards of the Red airmen are seen only rarely by East zone Germans. Airmen and service troops are frequently moved from one airfield to another to prevent accurate estimates of their strength. There are also frequent exchanges of personnel between East Germany and the Soviet Union, so that as many pilots as possible may familiarize themselves with the terrain and weather conditions of Eastern and Central Europe.

About 30 airfields in Soviet Germany are in active use, but many others are kept in first-rate condition the year round. Most of the fields are distributed in three thick clusters--one to the north, in Mecklenburg, one ringing Berlin, and the third in the south, in the triangle formed by Dessau, Altenburg and Cottbus. The major fields in Mecklenburg are at Peene-muende and Rechlin-Laerz. Some 200 fighters, a few reconnaissance planes and light bombers are based at Peenemuende, along with 3,000 service troops and 600 airmen, most of them officers.

The most important fields in the Berlin area are Finow, Oranienburg and Strausberg. Each of these fields and most of those in the southern triangle boast at least a squadron of jets. On all the fields there are also fairly heavy concentrations of Russian fighters of older types, as well as light bombers, Stormovik dive bombers, transports and training planes. Many of the new concrete runways are being built with subsurface layers from 16 to 24 inches deep. The old Luftwaffe runways are to be lengthened to at least 6,500 and usually 8,000 feet, which will be adequate to the needs of the Reds' most powerful jets.

So far, the Russians have been able to keep the Western powers guessing about the number of "TU-29s" (the Russian copy of the U.S. 6-29) based at these installations. Many Western observers think that if the TU-29s are present at all, their numbers are probably small--for the time being, anyway. Meanwhile, work on the new airfields is being pushed at top speed. The target date for the completion of at least one long runway and all basic installations had been set for May 1.

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