No unfortunately I kept nothing from my Army wanderings except for a couple of Beer Hall mementos from Japan ... wished I had now. As for the Soxmis unit in Bunde I don't think it was there in my day (1952), certainly there was no NAAFI shop, just the camp (Birdwood) NAAFI .. we (HQ 6 Armoured Div and HQ 6 Armd Div Signals) were the first occupants of Birdwood in 1952 after the Division reformed and became part of 1 Corps.
Len (Ciphers)

In the 1970's Birdwood Barracks was home to a RCT Transport Regiment and there was a small NAAFI Family's Shop outside of the camp close to the Married Quarters Area

The SOXMIS Mission House Compound was the outskirts of Bunde

some more info here:

http://baor-locations.com/BirdwoodBks.aspx

and here

http://pub40.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=3402386187&frmid=22&msgid=729333&cmd=show

Hi Guys, I am proud to say that I served with the White Mice team for quite some time. I was that person that turned the lights off, so to speak after the unit was disbanded. Some great times.

Yes, the Soxmis were located til the end at Bunde and the RMP used to sit at the woodyard to follow them once they left the compound. The RMP saved the woodyard owner a small fortune in security having marked police vehicles at his entrance nearly 24/7 all year round.

Interesting that Soxmis types had ration cards for the NAAFI...now that's Detente!! LOL

Here's a question -- just idle curiousity on my part -- was SOXMIS part of the Russian Intelligence Service (i.e. KGB)? I imagine it probably was or linked in someway. Lot of fellows out of a job once the USSR broke up, I would imagine.

Not all SOXMIS were part of the intelligence service, clearly they were intelligence gathering trained and they did collect info & pictures to be passed on. Some of the officers were however, special forces.

the small naffi shop was well outside the camp

the married quarters were in Hunnerbrook which is 8kms away.well they were in 1968 and i never saw in the 2 years i was there any somix personal in the naffi or there family .

they did come on the camp to go to the medical centre but were only allowed under escort.

the camp was shared with 2 div signals regiment and 33sqn and 4 sqn rct and a small aac section plus reme workshops. in 1970 i was posted up the road to 2 div hq at lubbecke but continued to go to birdwood on a regular basis.


ciphers your photos of the camp new are much the same as i remember in the 60s the camp was much the same just a little worn round the edges.
have got a photo of the guardroom some where and a few of the camp but but they dont show much mostly people and trucks lots of 33sqn on excercise in bavaria and the south of france,all of my photos of tunis barracks, lubbecke went in a burgalry

Therte is a bit about SOXMIS on my website at:

http://www.redcap70.net/SOXMIS.htm

the area work office PSA were responsible for the building and horticulture maintenance and it wasn' t untill the late 1980's that they let us in to do anything to the gardens.that was quite an experience

Stephen, more importantly if the Soxmis gained intelligence and they were not being followed by marked RMP Vehicles who was following them? perhaps they were given enough rope!!! Dead letter box's !!! Thought provoking heh ;-) 007 eat your heart out.

For those who would like more information, the "official" BRIXMIS site is here: http://www.brixmis.co.uk/

Ahh there you go logic flies out of the window when there is a game in play, the treaty was signed in 1946 and much happened over those years. It had to be seen to be fair, and off course it was to a point and appeared to many to be so. It was a game of cat and mouse, hence the RMP Patrols were called White Mice, fact.

Soxmis gained what they thought was what they needed and, so did both sides to be honest, they gave us what they wanted us to know and some stuff got taken by their observations etc, and the same went for all sides. It was a game for the politicians.

Sadly you cant' always gain the upper hand, but it can appear to be so, read some more Bond Books, in principle its all there in some form or another. I will say that beyond Bond it was real and it was exciting to be there and experience it and like all stories it was also very boring and mundane at times.

They knew we were there to police them, it was the rules of the game, we also knew that they were there to gather info and ensure that both side were really playing the game regarding arms troops and whatever, but in truth they got away with very little and I beleive this to be the same for Brixmis, although clearly Brixmis were there in much larger numbers and could perhaps really play cat & mouse, personnaly I hope that they did.

during the early seventies brixmis had some new arrivals to there ranks two sas hugh mcleod and ken connor armed with nothing more than expensive cameras and night vision equipment. they were not based at the olympic stadium with the rset of brixmis but at the lakeside mansion at potsdam,they were given a driver wayne fury from the royal corp of transport.

there mission to photograph any new soviet artillery so western analysts could calculate the capabilities and possible impact in case of war.

so we were as active as soxmis if not more so between 1945-90

i have not given away any secrets by naming anyone as it is well documented in plenty of books on the cold war