exercise snow queen 1

In September 1964 I arrived at Quebec Barracks in Osnabruck to join the 1st Baattalion Duke of Wellingtons Regt.I was in the Army Catering Corps and had just finished ny 3 years training in Aldershot.

In November I was told ( volunterred ) that I was going on Exercise Snow Queen until about April the next year.This exercise was to be based in the villages of \Rettunerg and Kranzed at the base of Mount \Grunten bot far from Sonthofen and the Austrian boeder in Bavaria.

The purpose of the exercise was ro teach soldiers how to downhill ski.They would be coming for 2 weeks ,they paid a small amount for this privelige because downhill skiing was considered to be a military skill,unlike cross country ( langlauf ) skiing whose courses held at Winterburg in the Harz Mountains ,you didnt have to pay to attend.

Amongst the permanent staff in the house at which we were based apart from myseld , was signaller from Brigade HQ who was a skier ans Sandy Cowie a Scot from HQ was also a ski instructor.
The house,local farm and ski pull was owned by the Neumair family their son and daughter were both Bavarian Youth champions.

When there was no snow we took the skiers !! to Sonthofen Ice rink where they were taught the rudiments of ice skating.

I went on the first four Snow Queens until the Dukes left Osnabruck prior to going to Hong Kong.
I moved down the road to Mercer Barracks to join the Kings Own Scottish Borderes who took over from the Royal Fusiliers.I went on Snow Queens again with the KOSB until I returned to the UK on a POSB course in Aldershot , prior to going to Northern Ireland in 1969/70.
I spent most of my time skiing in Bavaria and when we had no courses on we would go to Austria and other parts of Bavaria skiing.

So that`s what all my taxes paid for... Nice job if you could get it.

Gordon. wrote:

So that`s what all my taxes paid for... Nice job if you could get it.

We had a bloke like that. He worked at the British Kiel Yacht Club and there could be intervals of a year or more between his appearances in the regiment. Only the old sweats knew who he was !

In 1959/60 I managed to spend the winter in the Harz at the 1Div Winter Warefare Trg Centre near Bad Lauterberg. My job as a Cpl VM was to look after the vhicles we had there, still managed to get in some skiing most days. Most of us on the permanent staff had a great time - happy days !!

brum wrote:

Gordon. wrote:

So that`s what all my taxes paid for... Nice job if you could get it.

We had a bloke like that. He worked at the British Kiel Yacht Club and there could be intervals of a year or more between his appearances in the regiment. Only the old sweats knew who he was !

We had an officer who was almost unknown in the company, due to him having a 'skippers ticket' he was always at Kiel.

I did Snow Queen in 1980 & 1981 (Actually, could have been 81 & 82...) Loved it, took to skiing like a duck to the wet stuff. A few years later when at Paderborn a small group of us would during the winter months often drive down to Winterberg on Saturdays for a days skiing. Happy days.

Hi there,
My regt. had a Snow Queen hut in Oberamergau.....went once,tore my hamspring and ended up helping the cook !! had fun in the American forces bar in Munich.
atb
pinky
HUSSAR

The first time I went on snow queen the RAOC ski hut was in a place called Bolsterlang, the following year it had moved to Sonthofen where the skiing was better.

Wilf wrote:

brum wrote:

Gordon. wrote:

So that`s what all my taxes paid for... Nice job if you could get it.

We had a bloke like that. He worked at the British Kiel Yacht Club and there could be intervals of a year or more between his appearances in the regiment. Only the old sweats knew who he was !

We had an officer who was almost unknown in the company, due to him having a 'skippers ticket' he was always at Kiel.

We had a few "Gladiators" like that, normally disappeared around PRE time!!

Had a class trip when I was in Hemer (so that was Grade 9....I'd be 15 or 16 years old) to Bieberweir, in the Tyrol in Austria (no relation to Justin!) for skiing. Dinky little village, not much there at the time at all. One main street, a couple of gasthofs, a bakery (where my group was billeted...others got to stay at the gasthof's pension), a church, and a scattering of houses. I guess we were there for 3 or 4 days.

The ski lodge, if one could call it that, was on the outskirts of the village...walking distance but still bit of a hike. Nothing fancy at all!

The ski lift was T-bars. Now those took some getting used to....we all kept wanting to sit down, which you don't do on a T-bar unless you want a heavy piece of wood whapping you across the back of the head or the side of the face. Have that happen a couple of times you soon learn how to use the damn things!

Most of us had never been on skis before (I know, I know....virtual blasphemy for a Canadian kid, but there ya have it!). The first thing we do? I mean, after mastering -- after a fashion -- those damn T-bars? Head up to the top of the bottom, aim our skis downhill and zoom down the slope....straight down, crouched down, whooosh!! As far as I know, we didn't wipe any families out! Almost.

It was great except as I neared the end of the run, with the ski lodge and several of my school mates and teachers gathered around in front of it looming up ahead of me, it suddenly dawned on me I had no idea how to stop!!! So I just sat down. A rather inglorious end to my sterling career/careen down the Austrian slopes, but at least I didn't barrel into the crowd, sending bodies flying in all direction like a bowling ball hitting pins!

Okay, I remember having a great time although I am anything but a fan of snow and cold (anathema for a Canadian kid). I liked skiing, but geez....couldn't we do it in warmer weather??? LOL And getting up at some ungodly hour to be on the slopes by 9am...ugh!!

I remember Snow Queen, as a young junior leader i went to the RCT Ski lodge in Hinterlang not far from Sonthofen near the Austrian border, when i say lodge, it was in winter, in summer it was a cow shed !!! we had to walk to the village for a beer and the hike back was a bit hard and being only 17 and not used to German beers.
We used what we called the jet engine for heating, it stunk and made your eyes water.
Our sking was normally at Mount Oberjoch, in those stupid ski whites.
But it was a laugh and i look back with fond memeroies

Did the Snow Queen in 1975 at Steibis near Oberstaufen, Sonthofen. Was excellent.

We were looked down on a bit by the rich Germans in their fancy cars and ski chalets. We all had red jackets and wore denim jeans so we stood out a bit.


We had a huge amount of snow when I was there and the roads became blocked.

The previously snickering Germans were stuck in their chalets for days, but we had supplies dropped including lots of beer from your local friendly RAF in their Pumas.

Being based at Hohne we used to ski most weekends when the snow arrived on the Harz mountains. Great stuff !

BAOR was a holliday for a lot of people..

Gordon. wrote:

BAOR was a holliday for a lot of people..

Mostly for Corps personnel, not for us Gunners - always on the Qui Vive!

Gordon. wrote:

BAOR was a holliday for a lot of people..

Not true, us HQ Clerical types got no fun trips. I managed 1 snow queen in 6 years.

Gordon. wrote:

BAOR was a holliday for a lot of people..

It was, but there was a huge shortage of women in particular, especially 'out in the sticks' at Hohne where there is still no urban areas close by.

It was drink drink drink, with Ulster and a few exercises in between drinking sessions, in my time on BAOR.

I knew of a few who died of alcohol poisoning.

I did Snow Queen in 1969.I drove an old Merc Benz 911 all the way from Berlin down the corridor to Helmstedt daring not to exceed the speed limit in case the VOPO (East German Police) stopped us and the RMP's having to come out from their cosy little offices at the checkpoint at Helmstedt to escort us to an inevitable charge of speeding as we had to stick to the speed limit set by them from the checkpoint in Berlin to Helmstedt.I think that we had just over two hours or so to do the journey to the border.Our journey down through West Germany as it was known in those days took us through Braunschweig,Fulda, Wursburg,Nuremberg, Regensburg,Regan then on to our destination to a town called Bodenmais not far from the Czech border.
We lived in a farmhouse accomodation just outside the town.We stayed with a family called the Baumgartners who were absolutely lovely hosts and they made us very welcome. We cooked our own meals as we had a cook with us for the duration.The Baumgartners had a small nursery slope at the rear of the farm that we used to teach the troops the basics.A fresh lot arrived on a weekly basis by coach and took the trained skiers back to Berlin. We went to a mountain range called the Grosser Arber for ski-ing which had some great runs and restaurants for a wee drink when we could.We used to attract attention from the locals when some of the Jocks were a wee bit inebriated and tried to ski doon the runs.We also brought a couple of the regimental pipers who entertained the locals all I might add for free booze.The doodlesack was great hit with the Germans.

We also frequented the local disco's in Bodenmais which was a nice little town in those days.The local lassies were nice also.I stayed there for nine weeks until the snow began to melt as Spring was approaching.On the day we were leaving for the return journey to Berlin in April, it snowed continuously, the snow was about eight feet deep on both sides of the road but sadly we could not stay for another day.We bid our farewells to the Baumgartners who I might add were sad to see us go as we made quite an impression on them even to the extent of helping them to deliver a couple of calves when the cows were giving birth.We also left them with some rations that we had and the kids were given loads of sweets.Yes I really enjoyed Snow Queen it was a welcome break from the tedious duties back in Berlin.I enjoyed the driving experience also and going through the various towns and villages Germany is a really lovely place.On looking at the Google Maps etc and seeing how the country has developed over the years, it makes the UK look as if it is in the dark ages,only my opinion folks.

I know I'm opening old topics but having just joined and reading through the forums, a lot of memories are coming back.

Did Snow Queen 73/74, had a great time. Not sure the name of the place we stayed but it was right below the Kehlstein and the village was once an SS garrison. The chalet we were in had about 14 storey's of cellar. Most were blocked off but we managed to get down a fair way through air shafts etc.

The bloke who owned the slopes that we were on was the bar manager of the General Walker Hotel. We spent a few nights there after hours. Great times.

We went back to the same place in the summer for more adventure training - climbing, absieling, canoeing, drinking...