Drinking Dens

Detmold, Pothof's, the King George V and the crabbe kellar,

but yes Dusty

Bilelfeld, HM's and the mueller bar and the schnell imbiss on the junction by oerlinghausen.

spent way to much time in all of them.

Hi Brum, I was 51/24 but lived in Sennelager, you? Hardrations, you must be of the same vintage as me, the Hole in the Wall and the Blue Tavern are still etched in my brain, what about the Nord Pol and the one with the"Batwing" doors opposite Lenien Strasse (where you met 'afterwards' to boast to your mates!)?

Small world Shelldrake, 76 myself !

I suspect I'm a bit older than you, I was on the Nienburg/Paderborn move.

Your knowledge of appointment titles leads me to ask if you were a signaller.

brum

It is indeed, Brum, I was a bit of a square peg in a round hole and did a bit of everything from Clerking to Launchers to MT but no Signals. I joined them in 71 and left (under a cloud) in 76, you would remember Harry Hutch, Norman Fishwick, Ivor Johnson et al?

first drink in baor was in the westigerhof in HEMER only cos i lived in there for my first 18 months.got to know a few drinking holes in the hemer /iserlohn/menden area.one of our canadien buddies steve has already put a few threads on here about some of the out of the way bars in the dips and rises around hemer .weaned on iserlohner pils and wobbely(warsteiner)but also enjoyed the weekend trips to dortmund to watch the footie...graham...

Shelldrake wrote:

It is indeed, Brum, I was a bit of a square peg in a round hole and did a bit of everything from Clerking to Launchers to MT but no Signals. I joined them in 71 and left (under a cloud) in 76, you would remember Harry Hutch, Norman Fishwick, Ivor Johnson et al?

Oh I was DEFINITELY earlier than you mate !

In '64 the Powers That Be realised that 24 Msl would be staying in Paderborn forever. Morale was allready bumping along the bottom at this time so the order came round that anyone wanted a posting out of the Regt should apply. I think around 120 men left the 24, me among them. (BAOR history folks !).

Ivor Johnson was a name I remember. How about Willy Fitzsimmons ?

24 has a website, just type in "24 regt" on Google.

(Nice avatar by the way !)

brum

I can well imagine that the morale had gone in 24, it was a pretty boring (but necessary) existence with a Msl Regt. You could plan your life with pinpoint accuracy from one year to the next - NSIs, Skiing, Adventure Training, Grape Picking, NSIs, 6 weeks at Reinsehlen followed by Village Deployments in the Autumn and not forgetting NSIs!! I was actually in a Fd Regt before 24, it was just when NI kicked off, we were Strat Reserve and needless to say went a few times. I was getting a bit cheesed off with it and I knew that the Msls didn't do NI so applied for a posting, got to 51 to find out that they were given the honour of being the first Msl Bty to go to NI! Frying pan and fire. Ivor, as you know, was the BQMS and went with 76 to 26 Regt as a TSM, sadly he is no longer with us and Willy Fitz was posted to the General Walker Hotel as Duty Kellermann!!

Shelldrake wrote:

I remember (hazily) most of them, I think Jocks was Zum Tower, ran by an Ex Bdr from 24 Msl Regt. There was also the Heidekotten on Ring Strasse which was decked out (early 70s) to resemble a Country and Western Bar.

I thought that he was ex RCT? Having spoken to an ex colleague recently. apparently 'Jock' is driving trucks in Sweden. I remember the Heidekotten but I didn't frequent that place on a regular basis.

You may well be right Rocky, I do know that Zum Tower was run by a guy called Ozzie Austin and his wife, he was ex 24, that would be around 71/72.

Shelldrake wrote:

I can well imagine that the morale had gone in 24, it was a pretty boring (but necessary) existence with a Msl Regt. You could plan your life with pinpoint accuracy from one year to the next - NSIs, Skiing, Adventure Training, Grape Picking, NSIs, 6 weeks at Reinsehlen followed by Village Deployments in the Autumn and not forgetting NSIs!! I was actually in a Fd Regt before 24, it was just when NI kicked off, we were Strat Reserve and needless to say went a few times. I was getting a bit cheesed off with it and I knew that the Msls didn't do NI so applied for a posting, got to 51 to find out that they were given the honour of being the first Msl Bty to go to NI! Frying pan and fire. Ivor, as you know, was the BQMS and went with 76 to 26 Regt as a TSM, sadly he is no longer with us and Willy Fitz was posted to the General Walker Hotel as Duty Kellermann!!

I think the straw that broke the camel's back, with most blokes, was Site guard. A complete bty, tied up for a week, guarding the Yanks who were guarding (or not), nuclear warheads. Soul-destroying stuff.
I seem to remember that non-RA units were also dragged in as time wore on.
A party of signallers would stag it out in a cell in the guardroom with a C45 radio, checking comms with the site every 30 minutes. The daft thing was, if they got no answer to a call they would pick up the phone to ask what was going on !

To avoid boring everybody else, could you drop me a PM. The history of Willy Fitz sounds interesting.

brum

An RA Mate of Mine, CPL Andy Powell was posted from HQ RA 1 (Br) Corps to was it 21 Missile Bn in Minden or Menden?

Jim, I think that could be 21 (Gibraltar) Msl Bty, part of 50 Msl Regt in Menden.

That's it, thanks Mate, I used to have a red 50 Missile Regt sweatshirt he bought me.

Going off topic, but how could I forget Site Guard!! I remember doing one at Hemer when the American MPs turned up and arrested all of their soldiers who were allegedly higher than the guys in the towers.

anybody remember the hugh place in the woods behind rheindahlen, it had all sorts of names , the antics . monkeyhouse, factory, etc, it was a hugh building with big wooden churchlike pews and refectory tables , the booze really flowed in that place but the pride of the big drinkers were the ladies of the wrac , most of them could drink the blokes under the table , it nearly always ended in a big punch up near closing time , if there was a closing time, but i had some really fantastic nights there, ginger

The Snake Pit, Hohne - a lovely place for cocktails of an evening!

What about the Blocke Hutte in Munsterlager. And i remember a couple of nightclubs in the Luneburg area but the name evades me. Was late 80's early 90's.

Used to remember the option for driving to Luneburg was the normal road or out the back of camp in munsterlager was the Tank road option. The tank road cut a good 30 minutes of your travel time and was nearly always empty. The 2 major drawbacks was 1 for obvious reason's it wasn't safe and wasn't allowed. And 2 the bugger put a lock on the gate at the end of the road. No problem as the bolt croppers always come in handy....

Quote :

anybody remember the hugh place in the woods behind rheindahlen,

Never got to visit it,but heard many tales from mates at 28 Sigs who used it..The WRAC girls from the "Big House" used it a lot.

Tony Miller wrote:

Hi lads,
Any of you guys ever drink in Hans Meyers, or the Muller Bar in Bielefeld in the late 60s early 70s. I served with 14 Sqn RCT at the time. But spent a lotta time in these 2 pubs. Great memories and times (sigh).

When were you with 14 Sqn mate. I was there early 70's. My first posting in actual fact. really liked the place, except for working on Austin 1800 staff cars

My two favourites were Mutti's bar, Mönchengladback, and the Sedan Klause on Natruper Strasse, Osnabrück, run by Heinz and Käte, a lovely couple. Hard to believe it was 50 years ago.

We still had to be careful where we went in the early 50's, Herford in 1952, there were still some pub's where to get a pint was an ordeal, you would wait forever for service, mostly they just ignored you.
Birdwood Barracks, Bunde was close to town but never had the opportunity to visit a local pub, it was generally the NAAFI.
When in Munster the only pub we seemed to be accepted in was the one right next to the railway station, the Bhanhoff Gasthaus. Beer always seemed free of foreign bodies, barman's spit.
The only places that seemed to accept us were in the outlying villages during exercises.

Len (Ciphers)

brum wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

I can well imagine that the morale had gone in 24, it was a pretty boring (but necessary) existence with a Msl Regt. You could plan your life with pinpoint accuracy from one year to the next - NSIs, Skiing, Adventure Training, Grape Picking, NSIs, 6 weeks at Reinsehlen followed by Village Deployments in the Autumn and not forgetting NSIs!! I was actually in a Fd Regt before 24, it was just when NI kicked off, we were Strat Reserve and needless to say went a few times. I was getting a bit cheesed off with it and I knew that the Msls didn't do NI so applied for a posting, got to 51 to find out that they were given the honour of being the first Msl Bty to go to NI! Frying pan and fire. Ivor, as you know, was the BQMS and went with 76 to 26 Regt as a TSM, sadly he is no longer with us and Willy Fitz was posted to the General Walker Hotel as Duty Kellermann!!

I think the straw that broke the camel's back, with most blokes, was Site guard. A complete bty, tied up for a week, guarding the Yanks who were guarding (or not), nuclear warheads. Soul-destroying stuff.
I seem to remember that non-RA units were also dragged in as time wore on.
A party of signallers would stag it out in a cell in the guardroom with a C45 radio, checking comms with the site every 30 minutes. The daft thing was, if they got no answer to a call they would pick up the phone to ask what was going on !

To avoid boring everybody else, could you drop me a PM. The history of Willy Fitz sounds interesting.

brum

Just seen this (bit late but you know me!). We had to guard a site once because the RA who normally did it were in NI. Circa 76 (?) Quite a small compound with big underground bunkers or so we were told. Had live ammunition for once. One day we were all deployed in the prone position and had to face out and shoot any bugger that came near. We were told not to look back at the Yank chinooks as they came in with loads slung underneath on pain of being court martialled. Most boring thing I have done but I was the OC's driver and I did get to drive him to the bank one day. Pretty silly really as he walked in with a pistol strapped to his waist and I sat outside with a loaded SMG or might have been SLR? Good job the coppers never came and I was double parked. Don't know to this day where it was?

There was one duty that was even more boring that 21st Sigs used to do. This was at Roetgen near or in the Ardennes I think? A relay station about the size of two football pitches. No booze and night duty for a week or so. Also live ammunition that was so old it probably wouldn't have worked properly anyway. Next door was a dirty great German station with massive satellite dishes but they used their sense and had MOD (German equivalent) police with doggies. Spooky with all those fir trees virtually right up to the wire.