3 Base Ammunition & Petrol Depot, Bracht

Was there any truth in the rumour that in the 70s and 80s there were more Jerricans at the Port of Zeebrugge than in 3 BAPD?

Well, with the number of squaddies that carried a can to help them get to their destination on the other side of the channel; I would imagine every layby within 5Km of the port would have a stack of them.

Just reading a book about the invasion of Normandy and the gallop through Europe once the allies broke out. There was a massive shortage of jerry cans because the Yanks filled up their vehicles and slung the cans away rather than putting them back on the supply wagons.

The French and the Belgian civvies must have had thousands frittered away once the armies had passed them by.

Like most others, on the run down to Zeebrugger we would fill up at Wankum, and fill two jerry cans. We would stop along a stretch of road just before the post and top off the fuel tanks. As you couldn’t take the empty cans on board the boat we used to abandon them. It didn’t matter how far you threw the empty can, you inevitably heard a “clank’ as it landed on top of a previously discarded one. Apparently the local field owners did well out of recycling them. A friend of mine from Werl (called kipper, I cant remember his real name, but he could sleep anywhere) fitted a Bedford RL fuel tank into the boot of his Taunus 17m. Caused quite a stir when the guy at the BP station started pumping, and it just kept on going and going.

Ok, but I get the tight fisted prize. I dropped mine in a lay by near Zeebrugge and found it there on the way back!! And got another one for my trouble! See - us medics were recycling in those days!!

So it was you, Chris, I wondered what had happened to it.

In my day it was 3 BAD and stored Ammo only - you lot are bloody ancient and I am surprised you made your horses drink Petrol - I'm calling the RSPCA!

Themaadone wrote:

In my day it was 3 BAD and stored Ammo only - you lot are bloody ancient and I am surprised you made your horses drink Petrol - I'm calling the RSPCA!

Durin' the War.................

Was known as 3 BAD after the war, and renamed 3 BAPD when the RAOC took over POL when the supply part of the RASC merged in 1965, having a number of POL Sub-Depots at 4 PD Nienburg (Bulk & Packed) 6 PD Arsbeck (Bulk & Packed) along with Dilborn & Ratingen Packed POL sub-depots. No POL was ever stored at the Bracht Depot. (OK the MT Lines had some )

I took part in a Bulk POL exercise on Hohne Ranges in 1978 where we supplied 2.5 Million Jerrycans of Packed POL mainly Petrol & Diesel to a NATO exercise, and scrapped the cans when empty to close down Dilborn & Ratington Sub-Depots. We had 10 Tonners coming in, and 10 Tonners leaving filled with empty cans on an hourly basis. About 250,000 good ones were sorted & cleaned, and palletised as war reserve while many hundreds just disappeared! the rest were scrapped.

Name reverted back to 3 BAD in April 1979 on the opening of the new build 4 PD at Warendorf Bulk Petrolium Depot and the NATO Central Patroleum Pipeline System (CEPS) at which time all Pet Ops moved to Portsmorth Barracks and established control of the new Depot.

I didn't know any of that Mike, it's one of those things that need to be written down or lost forever...

Martin

It is written down, if you look up Bracht in the LOCATIONS page of the site you will find the history of 3 BAD. There is a wealth of information recorded in the location section, it is well worth browsing in you spare moments and any contributions would no doubt be well received.

Bob

I did my RPC 1 in 3 BAPD.

Yes Bob, I re-wrote the Bracht Page, But will update it with the Jerrycan info.

BAOR Locations is a never ending 'work in progress' and new snipits of info are always being added.