York Barracks

Hi,

Just joined the forum today. I was posted to 4th Guards Armoured Bde HQ & Signal Squadron from January 1974 till May 1977..

I revisited Munster in November 2012 and took a few photographs of the entrance to York Barracks and the Schnellimbiss across the road.

Will post the pics as soon as I'm authorised to do so on here

Cheers
Tim

Turn out the guard !

We've got another Scaley !

Best I could do at short notice - 2 Sqn 63 Sig Regt TA. 1966

Len (Ciphers)

Tim

Welcome.

There are a number of contributors to this site who have connections with Munster (myself included). Look forward to seeing your recent photos of York Barracks which I believe was handed back to the German civilian authorities last month

Good Morning JPW,

Thank you. I understand that one has to be a member for at least a week before one can post photos and seeing as I'm away on holiday from today I won't be able to post them until I return. The link for sending photographs for publishing doesn't appear to work.

I live in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. which is about 2 hours drive away from Munster and I visited Munster about two months ago. York Barracks was of course still there, but looked a little run down. Weeds have grown near the entrance and the barrier had replaced by large black steel plate gates and it all looked rather unkempt.

The road in front of the entrance, the Albersloherweg, is now a dual carriageway. The "schnellimbiss" across the road is still there and it even has the same perspex advertisements that were there in the early seventies.

Do you happen to have a link to where I can send the photos ?

Tim, use PhotoBucket or send them to me and I will post them for you. Was at York Barracks in 1952-54, 20 Armoured Brigade Sig Sqn. 6 Armoured Div.

lenpayne@shaw.ca

Len (Ciphers)

Our regt was posted to Portsmouth Bks, Hoherheckenweg, in, (I think ) '65.

I've had nicer postings but at least we marched into a brand-new quarter.

MARCH !! .... MARCH !! .... Planks don't march, they saunter.

A early Happy New Year to all .. just in case I get fried.



Len (Ciphers)

Let's see now, 1966,

England won the World Cup, oh, and us Planks had been wearing No2 Dress for 5 years . . .

oh, and our Guards of Honour were dressed by size from the right !

TA Brum, TA

Len (Ciphers)

I've got a medal from Nijmegen (No LS&GC though). Those Scaleys look an "Absolute Shower". (Apologies to TT!)

Shelldrake wrote:

I've got a medal from Nijmegen (No LS&GC though). Those Scaleys look an "Absolute Shower". (Apologies to TT!)

I am also the Nijmegen medal having.
I was thinking of slapping it on for Remembrance Day. (Looks a bit like the Italian Surrender Star).

brum wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

I've got a medal from Nijmegen (No LS&GC though). Those Scaleys look an "Absolute Shower". (Apologies to TT!)

I am also the Nijmegen medal having.
I was thinking of slapping it on for Remembrance Day. (Looks a bit like the Italian Surrender Star).

You should, I always wear mine, contrasts awfully good with my SAS Beret.

I spent 12 yrs at York Bks, 1988 - 2000.
Not a bad posting.
But a loss to us squaddies non the less.
atb
pinky
HUSSAR

My first BAOR posting in 1969 to the 3rd Carabiniers.  We moved to Herford in 1970 (I think) driving all of our vehicles.

Hussar wrote:

My first BAOR posting in 1969 to the 3rd Carabiniers.  We moved to Herford in 1970 (I think) driving all of our vehicles.

I was QOH 68-71.

I remember seeing the 3rd Carbs in Cyprus when we were there in '69.

Never could understand why the geniuses in the MOD thought it was a good idea to amalgamate a regiment that recruited in N Wales & Cheshire with a Jock regiment.

Presumably to bring a touch of class to the Carabiniers.  

Never could understand why the geniuses in the MOD thought it was a good idea to amalgamate a regiment that recruited in N Wales & Cheshire with a Jock regiment.[/quote]

Brum

The amalgamation was the result of the 1967 Defence Review following the then Labour Government decision that there should be no permanent British military presence East of Suez apart from the Gurkhas in Hong Kong. British Defence Policy would be based on the NATO Alliance with BAOR the priority commitment

As a result two/three Royal Armoured Corps Regiments were surplus to requirement . The RTR came down to four Regiments and amongst the former Cavalry there was a problem. The vast majority had either amalgamated in the 1930s when mechanisation (ie the tank) replaced the horse or subsequently in the late 1950s with the end of National Service.

The amalgamation of the 10th and 11th Hussars to form the Royal Hussars was fairly logical

This left the 3rd Carabiniers (originally 3rd Dragoon Guards) and the Royal Scots Greys (originaly the 2nd (North British) Dragoons as the only unpaired Regiments, disbandment of one or amalgamation were the only options

Earlier 1950s amalgamations had seen the Kings Dragoon Guards (! DG) and The Bays (2DG) form the Queens Dragoon Guards and in the 1930s the 4th,5th, 6th and 7th DG had reorganised to form the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards and 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards.

The Royals (originally 1st Dragoons) had amalgamated withe the Royal Horse Guards to form the Blues and Royals

Amalgamation of the 3DG and the GREYS to form the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards was therefore inevitable. I believe the QDG then took on the role of maintaining the Welsh Cavalry traditions.

Inevitable of course but not a happy marriage. I don't think many amalgamations were.

Thanks for the background information though.

Thanks for that, we never had this explained to any degree. Still a pity that the 3DG all but disappeared.

Although a Scalyback, I was serving with the 7th Queens Own Hussars in Tidworth 1957/8. I well remember their amalgamation with the 3rd Kings Own Hussars who were serving in BAOR at the time. I was Regimental Orderly Sgt and one evening, a fellow arrived at the guard room asking where the Sgt's mess was. On checking my list of 3rd Hussar personnel it was established this unfortunate guy had was only a Cpl , A/Sgt and was not notified. You see, both Regiments were told to freeze all promotion six months prior to the actual amalgamation but the 3rd still carried on promoting, where there would eventually be no establishment for these guys.
Now THAT was one of the items which caused a lot of resentment in the coming months.
Jimsigs

Hi Gang, I was posted to York Barracks back in 1966/67 as a Regimental Clerk and typed the Regimental Part 1 orders and then took the stencil (more tippex correction fluid than stencil) and carefully attached it to the studs on the Gestetner Duplication machine, inked the drum and then cranked the handle some 200 times (or more depending on the number of pages)

The Typewriter, just like the copier was also a human powered device. I was only 17 and right out of Junior Tradesmen Regiment Troon.

I had the Electronic and Radio bug and got thrown out of doing the cushy guard duty which the clerks did at the RHQ overnight, as a direct result of receiving QSL cards from the eastern block countries as a short wave listener, lost my security clearance and got thrown in with the rest doing guard duty overnight and spent a lot of hours walking round the whole barrack perimeter fence at silly O Clock.

I loved the big stable, show and training hangers, a left over from the 1st and 2nd world war and of course at the time the Barracks were way above the normal standards of the British Army. In the 60's there were still a lot of German Language signs both outside and inside our Barrack block.

I went from 6 platoon spiders (similar to the Maze Prison in NE) in Troon with central ablutions, and coal fired central heating that never worked to the luxury of just 4 to a room and showers and baths that really had hot water and worked all year round.

I remember only too well when as DUTY CLERK we had a shout and I had to phone all the very senior NATO officers and announce a BUG OUT for exercise. It was 3am. After the first few calls I got to the point where I was telling very senior officers to get on with it and stop questioning the validity of my orders, as time was passing and I had just 15 min to pass on the codes to everyone on the list. I did managed with 19 seconds to spare. Then of course I had to Bug out as well and simulate the total destruction of all classified material in the HQ.

I was just 18 years old. Wow had the Cold War got hot, I would have been the 'man' who called out the entire 6th Inf Brigade, but of course we were so well conditioned (oops sorry trained) that at the time it seemed no big deal.

More ramblings at a later date for sure.

Gremmendorf Kaserne (York Barracks) was a great posting in 1952, spent a couple of happy years there with HQ 20 Armd Bde, 6 Armd Div.

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Rigmar

Welcome

Look forward to more of your memories of Hunster in the mid60s

Well I was just a Young Lad then and being underage, age 17 I did not go downtown much at all, but I did enjoy the local countryside (how built up it has become now) and the summer of 1967 was wonderful, with lots of sunny warm days.

I do remember on my 18th Birthday, my friends and room mates dragged me off to the NAFFI and got me very drunk indeed.   On that night there was a disagreement about the updating of the JUKE Box (it was never updated!) and the next morning there it was, the Juke box that is..

Right in the Middle of the Parade Ground... Oh dear heads should of rolled for that one, but they never seemed to find out who was responsible, it was of course just a co-incidence that it was my Birthday that night.

The very next week a new Juke Box turned up, and it was updated every month after that...

As a direct result of my interest in Amateur Radio and Short Wave Listening, I got a mysterious invite to go back to the UK for an Interview.   The following month I was posted to 224 Signal Sqn. Loughborough to start my training as a Special Radio Operator.   I never returned to York Barracks after that.  My next posting was to 13 Signal Regt.

It took a little while but in 1977 I attended night classes at the Aberdeen College of Further Education in the Gallowgate to obtain my Class A Radio Amateur Certificate, a condition of entry to the Marine Radio Officer's course at the same college.

I passed both and became an Officer in the Merchant Navy and GM4 HIG AND met my future Wife at night classes at the same time.

Like so many who lived in Aberdeen, I did the offshore Oil and Gas thing, before joining the Merchant Marine as a Junior Marine Radio Officer which led to re training as an Electronic Technical Officer or ETO where I remained until retirement at age 65

The training I got in the Army, Touch Typing, Morse Code, Electrical and Electronics theory and practical training helped me all my adult life.   I mean who in 1965 could see how useful being able to type was going to be when the BBC and Sinclair computers turned up in the early 1980's or that the ability to send and receive Morse Code would get me into Marine Radio College when the only education certificate's I had were Army!

The hardest thing I ever did was study for the Maritime General Radio Communications Certificate or MRGC for short, out of a class of 48 after 2 years full time only 11 students were left of which 8 passed and I came 5th in that group I was later to go on to study for the Marine Radar Maintenance Certificate, where my training was to get me into the local paper after I helped save a ship at Sea via Amateur Radio, but that is an other story for a later day.

And all because at age 15 I was to join the British Army as a Junior Tradesman...