EX GERMAN SERVICEMEN WORKING FOR THE BRITS IN BAOR

No worries Brum, thanks for trying, I will have to try and find out more info

Les

a few moons ago now when i first went on ERE posting to the AAC at detmold there was an old germam civilian who used to do the fuel account,his office,a pokey little room in the gods of the hanger had a small window that looked out over the airfield, he would often reminice about the olden days when the germans used to fly out of the airfield, he never went into much detail,but he was certainly old enough to have been there then.

When I was with HQ BAOR Sig Regt in Herford 1952, we had a German civilian radio mechanic , I mean radio technician (sorry about the old title - it was intended for the 'older' members). He was an ex fighter pilot and we used to creep up on him and go raata tat, raata tat, raata tat and laugh when he used to answer 'achtung spitfire' to his imaginary fellow pilots.

jimsigs1

When I first started working in Stony Mt. prison here in Manitoba in the kitchen, I found out that we some former Wehrmacht veterans. One had been a POW in Russia, another was in the Q.O.R.'s ( Queens Own Rifles) after the war, the rest were just your old vets. They were standing around the butcher area where I was working one day talking about Germany and Berlin as I was working (we were in a lock down, long story) and slowly I started to realize they were talking about being on leave at various times in Berlin during the war. They kind of cooled off their jets when they realized I was understanding a lot of what they were discussing. Still an interesting look into war time life for the average German soldier. Funny enough one of them came from my wife's home village we eventually found out. We also had Oscar Fix an old Wehrmacht vet in the SSM Bty I last saw him in Israel in 75. Funny world that. He did his UN tour in the Golan heights and was on his way through to Egypt on rotation back to Canada. We had one of those black humour conversations, I won't go into detail. He was actually Volk Deutsche from the Ukraine. One time while on Exercise in the Celle area(1966) a lady came over from a local farm and asked about getting the slops for the pigs. Oscar was interpreting and on finishing with the request. Looks at her and says, " you come from a certain village in the Ukraine". Startled she said, " Yes, how do you know?". Oscar says, " Because I went to school with you." Well the lady had a small screaming fit,and runs off to get her husband who had also gone to school with Oscar. Some days in the SSM Bty were just out standing. This was the same time some Gunners did some horse stealing. Oscar was involved in that for translation. Another story for another time.

Hi there,
I heard a story about lots of German P.O.W.'s that came over to Canada to be locked up after the war stayed on and as the story goes most became quite successful,in fact I heard most of the banks in southern Alberta were founded,owned and run by these ex P.O.W's.
The only evidence to back this up to my knowledge is that there were camps all over the place including Medicine Hat and Lethbridge,plus there are several German/Canadian friendship clubs in the area!!
atb
pinky
HUSSAR