US Installations details - 03

Prior to World War II, Germany's Nazi government planned to expand the famous AVUS (Autobahn) auto race track, constructed shortly after the First World War. To make the deadly oval shaped race way less dangerous, large banked U-turns were planned. Huge 50-feet high piles of sandy Berlin earth were pushed into place to create the correct high-speed race track curves. A small (1:100) scale model of the planned south curve was created. That model, covered by dirt, is still visible after all these years. World War II interrupted construction of the expanded race track which was later abandoned. Finding the area ideal for a rifle range, U.S. Army occupation troops used the huge earthen banks as back stops and named the former auto race way construction site "Keerans Range."

Next to the AVUS (Helmstedt Autobahn), in the middle of the Grunewald, and beside Kronprinzessinnenweg, was the primary U.S. small arms range in Berlin, Keerans Range.
It was named in honor of Charles L. Keerans, Jr. asst. Division Commander of the 82^nd Airborne Division. He got killed in action over Sicily island. I'm told it happened accidently by friendly fire while he was on board of an air plane.

The range had two main firing sections including a long distance rifle range which was wide enough for several soldiers to fire side-by-side at maximum distances of 300 yards. Larger weapons required trips to 7^th Army ranges such as Wildflecken, Hohenfels, Grafenwoehr, or Hammelburg in West Germany.
In the 1950s Keerans Range was a very simple firing compound with KD (known distance) targets. In the early 1980s it was modernized with automatic eletronic pop-up ("Train Fire") targets. All Berlin Command/Brigade Soldiers made trips to Keerans Range -- especially Infantrymen who will remember the EIB (Expert Infantryman Badge) tests conducted there.

Toward the back, on the right side was a separate small distance range for pistols and machine guns. It was a concrete full covered long building, (under 100 yards distance), with an open front where GIs of the 1950s fired Browning .30 caliber machine guns, BARs (Browning-automatic-rifle), and .45 caliber pistols. In the 1960s they still used .45 pistols but new M-60 machine guns replaced old WW II gear. At the main rifle range they fired new full-automatic capable M-14 rifles in 7.62 mm NATO, which replaced beloved .30 cal. M-1 Garands and M-1 carbines. M-14s were replaced in the 1970s by the brand new 5.56 mm M-16 rifle. In the 1980s the U.S. Army also practised with a new light machine gun called "SAW" (squad-automatic-weapon) and the new Beretta 9 mm.pistol, which replaced the famous old "Colt .45."
In front of the main Keerans Range, tankers of Co. F, 40^th Armor created a small separate range to practice with their tanks (distance under 100 yards). They could simulate firing main guns with sub-caliber adapters. The space was much too small for tanks but was better than nothing. They also qualified on the big firing ranges of West Germany.

Since 1993 Keerans Range (created 1946) has been quiet. Everything is gone. Nature took over. Now high grass and fragant wild flowers have replaced military precision and the smell of cordite. Gruni-pig (wild boar) families now reign where Range Masters once ruled. Looking on the crunched ground one still finds "old witnesses" from the famous Berlin Brigade: empty (and sometimes live!) U.S. cartridges. One can still find small calibers from the 1950 'til 1990. On the bottom prints of the shells you can read the year and ammunition plant of manufacture. I have found back prints like DEN, DM, SL ,TW, WRA, WCC, FA, RA and LC with the year prints between 1941-1989. Like the Berlin Brigade, Keerans Range is only a memory; never to be forgotten by grateful Berliners!
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