Martial law, under the Russians, was declared in Hungary on December the 9th. Then, on December the 17th, because of the continuing Middle Eastern tensions, petrol rationing was introduced in the UK and was not lifted until the middle of May 1957.
The Egyptians, in the last days of December, allowed the commencement of the clearance of obstructions preparatory to the reopening of the Suez Canal. This clearance work, with much help from Royal Navy experts, was completed when the Canal fully reopened in April 1957.
By the end of 1956 the international situation had become a little less tense but, undercover, the superpowers, America and Russia, were still vying with one another in many different ways and continued testing each others defences and reactions.
It was at this time that those of us at RAF Borgentreich were able to use much more sophisticated radar equipment, and ceased using our mobile radar site in the muddy field. We moved into a hardened underground bunker at Auenhausen and changed our designation from 537 Signals Unit to 210 Signals Unit. We had an increase of personnel and, with our new radar, could 'see', in clearer definition, a much larger volume of sky. It almost goes without saying, our C & R activities were largely devoted to monitoring the airspace to our east. We also continued our constant watch over the air traffic making its way along the three air corridors to Berlin from the west. With the new radar we had a far better electronic view than previously.
Sir Anthony Eden, now a very sick man, resigned as Prime Minister on January 9th. His place was taken, next day, by Harold Macmillan.
1957 was not without its tensions and shows of strength in other ways. In May and June the UK carried out nuclear tests at Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean. Not to be outdone, the Russians successfully test-launched an inter-continental ballistic missile. This was something the USA did not yet have.
International one-upmanship continued later in the year with the Russian launch of two earth satellites, the first in October, and the second, with a dog called 'Laika' on board, on November 3rd.
Just a month later, after frenetic activity, the USA launched its own first intercontinental ballistic missile. The Americans had been wrong-footed and were playing catch-up.
Earlier, we at 537 Signals Unit at Borgentreich, with our comparatively primitive radar (although it was the best available to us at the time), were unable to undertake much in the way of surveillance work and could see precious little of any Eastern Bloc aerial activity. We were, of course, alarmed at the international situation and its tensions. Many of us wondered whether we might be posted away to other more active locations. We knew that if tensions increased, particularly during the time of the Hungarian riots, and if the Russians chanced their arm and made border incursions into West Germany, we may have to make a rapid exit from our site because we were just an hour's tank drive from the East-West border.
With Borgentreich being so close to the East German border, and just as close to the American Zone, explains why we had so few aircraft allocated to us for control. To put it another way - we were out on a limb. The nearest British Forces of any consequence were the military units at Paderborn some distance to our north.1 Our location, though, was of significance, for had there been any form of Russian attack it was likely that they would have considered the border between the British and American forces to be a weak point at which to test the West's defences. We knew we had done our job once we had shouted the alarm. In a nutshell, we were expendable.
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1 These were army formations. Apart from the small RAF Unit at Scharfoldendorf, the nearest RAF base was even further away at Gütersloh. There was also an early 537 SU satellite unit at Waggum near Braunschweig.
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