St. DAVIDS BARACKS HILDEN

growing up here in Hilden and remembering the days in the middle of the sixties, when i was a schoolboy and parts of the british army was still settled in Hilden, i start to bring out some photos for those who would like to share some memories - starting with :

PART ONE

Housing estates at Hochdahler Strasse :

I think, these Houses where used by longer serving members of the BA and their families















After the british army left hilden, the houses where given to germans, working for the state, the borough council or the town, i.e. teachers, fire-brigade, police, army or public service.

This estate was situated at Hochdahlerstrasse and the back colums where surrounded by Hagdorn Str. and Engelbert Street and Mettmanner Str.

very close was and still is the football ground of VfB Hilden 03, a very very traditional amateur side, beating Borussia Mönchengladbach at Bökelberg in Front of more than 30.000 by 3-1 (in 1939 in think)

walking distance to the town centre from there was less then 5 minutes, driving to the Baracks (situated in the Forest between Hilden and Haan, Wuppertal Direction took less then 5 minutes as well.


more to come soon

cheers

Ulli

I have been on holidays now for a couple of days but will continue to report about St. Davids Barracks soon.

Whoever would be interested in screenshots about and around Hilden is very welcome, please send PN then.

Apart from this, i will try to get in contact with army officials to get permission to take some photos from inside Waldkaserne, formerly St. David Barracks.

I used to know a fellow from Cardiff, who served here in Hilden. His first name was Vernon and after his service time, he got married here, ran a garage at Walder Str. and was a real character.

Saddly Vernon passed away a few years ago but will be remembered by a lot of people here. When you brought your car into his garage and workshop, you could be always sure, getting it back, properly fixed and all to a more than fair price.

cheers

Ulli

Ulli

Your photos of the Hochdahl Estate brought back memories of my time in Dusseldorf in 1981/2. I think the estate was still in use by the British Army then as overflow accommodation for units from HQ Rhine Area in Dusseldorf and also Krefeld/Rheindahlen

Will contact you by PM as I believe you might be able to help me with the deployment of the British Parachute Brigade who were in the Braunschweig area in 1948/49 including the Tannenburg Kaserne (Waggen Fliegerhorst?)

@ JPW :

thanks for replying , i will be able to deliver pics and infos from Düsseldorf as well - if you want to.

as you write : "waggen, Fliegerhorst" this is now called airport "Braunschweig" and you are right, it is based in Waggum and surrounded by Braunschweig-Querum and Braunschweig-Bienrode.

My Home Baracks, Tannenberg-Kaserne was there right at the airport and was used before during ww2 by the Wehrmacht or Luftwaffe, after that by the US-Forces, then a good while by the English and finally handed over to the Germans again.

Barracks there are closed now and used for somewhat facilities to the airport.

At my time, the airport played only a minor role but now there is (i.e.) the Luftfahrt Bundesamt based there

for more info , please check here :

http://www.flughafen-braunschweig.de/

you might be more interested in this site here, wich is a similar site to BAOR-Locations - covering lost military places all over Niedersachsen :

http://www.relikte.com/

Unfortunately, i can not set a direct link to Tannenberg Kaserne, but if you click on top - ÜBERSICHT (overview) and then scroll down to Flugplätze (Airports) then go to number 68 and you will be at Tannenberg Kaserne and the former military area arouund the airport

I`d say, if not known here - the site www.relikte.org could be interesting for other observations as well - as it is loaded with information, even about ex pow camps etc.

cheers

Ulli

I am not sure about this - i think, that was totally closed down then

Ulli

Many thanks for the link to Tannenburg Kaserne Braunschwieg

Unfortunately no information on the British units I was looking for but some fascinating background information on other barracks used by the British in the early days of BAOR

@ JPW,

thanks for reply and PN - as i was in contact with the webmaster from www.relikte.org, i will contact him again and ask him, if he can help out with further information.

They might have more infos there


cheers

Ulli