A training patrol of the 16th/5th The Queen's Royal Lancers visits the Inner German Border, 1979

Photograph, Germany, 1979.

The Inner German Border divided the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), and the British from the Soviet-dominated East. It was in force from 1949 until 1990 and stretched 866 miles (1,394km) from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia. From 1952, it was increasingly strengthened by the East Germans with fences, walls and wire, eventually becoming one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers.

Patrolling the British side - or visiting it as part of a sight-seeing tour to gaze across the wire into the East - was a regular activity for the soldiers of the British Army of the Rhine throughout the Cold War.

Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, the obstacles were removed. Today very few of the watch towers remain.