17 Base Vehicle Depot

i served at 17 base veh depot RAOC 1971 - 1973 one character i will never forgeT will be Smudge Smith animal!

I only spent a short time at 17 RVD 1961 - 62, but still have pleasant memories of the place.
There were many national servicemen at 17 RVD and one in particular springs to mind by the name of Frank Lockwood who spent a considerable time locked up in the guardroom.
Frank actually ended up doing over 3 years service because any sentence in excess of 7 days confinement did not count towards the 2 years national service.
Pleasant memories of nights in Smellie's Bar just across the road and in the bar known as the HUT next to Geroplatz down town, where, in the park nearby the ladies of the night offered a Knee Trembler for as little as DM5 and considering the exchange rate was DM11.35 at the time that was a good deal.

17 RVD RAOC. Commanding Officers 1959 - 1969

Click on the link to produce an image.


https://servimg.com/view/12408011/5

Paddy,

do you mind if I post that link on the RAOC board?

Please click on the image to enlarge it.

Hi
We had a small Royal Engineers detachment in 1958 1960 or longer.
I spent my last few weeks in July August 1960 at this camp and then returned to Richmond ( Brixton) Barracks to my unit 3 Army Field Survey Depot RE at Bielefeld.
Does any one have any recollection of this time?
regards
Peter

daibach wrote:

i served at 17 base veh depot RAOC 1971 - 1973 one character i will never forgeT will be Smudge Smith animal!

Animal Smith. Came across him once or twice.
I understand he became a Pet Op and finished as a SSgt.
I have since learned that whilst Animal was serving in Belize, he met an American lady, a teacher by profession, whom he later married and they both now reside in USA.

Hi all,

Was 17 Base Vehicle Depot the main supplier of new vehicles to all BAOR units?

From my memory of 1951-1952 Munchengladbach was where we collected our Bedford trucks, I did not go there.

Did this unit also handle the Volkswagens; our Major had a VW and we seemed to have a new one about every 6 months, at that time the German people could not buy a new one, so the Army had them first and then sold second hand to Germans. [After a repaint!!!]
Those early VW models suspension was not the best, a bit unstable on corners.
Our unit wrote one off when a chair "flew" out of a top floor window landing onto the roof, a dasty dent.

Good times,
Cheers
Tony

Hi Tony,
Sorry for the delay in responding.
Yes 17 RVD supplied new & used vehicles to units throughout BAOR and there were hundreds of those little VW Beetles there.
Engine in the back, no fuel guage and a bloody awful gearbox.