URBAN MYTHS

3) Would have been an interesting Marching out!

brum wrote:

2). At this time we had had our pay arrangements moved to German banks. (Commerzbank, Dresdener Bank, und so weiter.). part of this process resulted in us being presented with a little wallet. stuffed with Euroschecks, (apologies for any misspellings). Incoming Infantiers believed that as long as you had cheques, you had money and were buying stuff with reckless abandon, until the Powers That Be put a stop to it.

It wasn't only the Infantry who believed that, Gunners, especially the distaff side, were also under the impression that this was the case. The Lolly Sahib told me that money paid into Military German Bank accounts was cleared through the main Commerzbank before being dispersed to the various other German Banks, if this is true, it would be interesting to know how much the Commerzbank took on each transaction? Incidentally, I served alongside one of the Inf Bns in Belize to which Brum is alluding. Fantastic soldiers but somehow different..........

"alluding," Sir ?

I never alluded nuffink, (so I didn't).

Drunken escapades... c'mon, 'fession is good for the sould, so they say.

Now who has a drunken escapade, a tale to tell. A tale to tell your kids and grandkids from those far of days of mispent youth... assuming you can remember them.... hehehe.

I have many, about the antics of certain unknown soldier who managed to creep into the RHQ and Colonels office at Francisca Barracks and leave 'one curled out' like a peice of chocolate rope upon the Colonel's desk. To this day nobody ever knew how the geezer got into a secure area, or who actually did the deed. I certainly beleive that some of the tales are in fact true.... or then they could just be drunken tales from the NAAFI Bar anad Corporals Mess......just to impress the young soldiers who were newbies to the regiment

Drunken escapades?? I would write my memoirs but I require someone to tell me what I was doing between 1971 and 1977!

One that was oft repeated was the Old German lad and his dog at the level crossing, where he'd tied his dog to the lowered barrier to go and help a stranded motorist remove his broken down car from the railway line. Having pushed the car from the tracks, the old lad stayed on the other side of the line until the train passed. Once it had done, the barriers on both sides were raised, promptly hanging his dog.

The other one was the wife of (insert rank and unit) who gave her unruly offspring a slap whilst stood at the bus stop. On seeing this and elderly German lady complained that they didn't hit their kids in Germany to which Mrs Atkins responded that we didn't gas our Jews in Scotland/England/Wales/NI*

(delete as applicable)

Apparently the one about the Stalwart being driven half way over the channel is true, though.

I heard the one about the Cent firing a blank cartridge into the gasthoff. Legend has it that it was 4RTR. Also heard the one about the geezer with the Stallie, apparantly he got a job with Foden as a test driver when he'd done his time.

There was also a legend about someone who had a secret way into the cookhouse at York Kaserne, Muenster. Quite happy to confirm that was me and it is true.

Another Urban Miff, (or WAS it ?  ).
Way back, in the 60s, the story went that a bunch of soldiers got the bright idea of sleeping under a Centurion tank to avoid the rain.
The story went that the tank sank in the soft earth during the night, crushing the unfortunate soldiery.
True or not, I get claustrophobic just thinking about it !

brum wrote:

Another Urban Miff, (or WAS it ?  ).
Way back, in the 60s, the story went that a bunch of soldiers got the bright idea of sleeping under a Centurion tank to avoid the rain.
The story went that the tank sank in the soft earth during the night, crushing the unfortunate soldiery.
True or not, I get claustrophobic just thinking about it !

Not just Cents. This urban myth goes back much further than that and was the reason why we were prohibited from sleeping under armoured vehicles in peacetime. We had a S/Sgt appointed to oversee H&S at work, fondly called the "Tank Park Rat". That was one of his constant reminders.

In wartime though all H&S rules go out the window and I know for a fact that our guys and others slept under their panzers in the two desert wars.

Like you I get very claustrophobic thinking about it - I've even had nightmares about it.

I think that started in 1953 on Exercise Holdfast where 5 TA lads attached to 6 Armoured Div for the exercise were supposed to have been killed doing just that.

Len (Ciphers)

i heard about the tank disaster in the 50s , i heard it happened at sennelager on excercise , as for the old man and his dog , the same thing happened in england somewhere in the 70s i remember reading about that in the newspapers ,as for wanting a secret way into our cookhouse , no bloody way thanks , YUKKKK , now we have read about the myths wot about the mythessss , ginger

There was an incident of two Danish soldiers sleeping under a tank or near a tank exhaust and die of aphyxiation.

I well remember handling the trafficc on it. In the mid 60's.

ref to the tank incident,i joined the 12th l.a.a, in jan 56 and some of the regt was on the scheme called commonwealth,and it was 53/54,and they said there was a few killed and injured,as it rained all night and where the tanks were parked up the side of a steep hill the ground gave way,and some of the tanks slid down the embankment onto the ones encamped below

brum wrote:

I was present at the birth of three "urban myths".
In Hemer, we shared a barracks with an Infantry Regt that must remain nameless.
Every so often the two battalions of this regiment rotated.
During the move of the incoming battalion, we had their MFO boxes etc. stacked under gun covers on our square.
1).It was said that a freezer was among the stuff that we were accommodating, and its contents defrosted and leaked blood down the slope of the parade ground and evoking images of victims of IRA executions being smuggled out of NI.
It was said that the owner of the freezer thought that its contents would stay solid long enough for him to make the move into his new home.
2). At this time we had had our pay arrangements moved to German banks. (Commerzbank, Dresdener Bank, und so weiter.). part of this process resulted in us being presented with a little wallet. stuffed with Euroschecks, (apologies for any misspellings). Incoming Infantiers believed that as long as you had cheques, you had money and were buying stuff with reckless abandon, until the Powers That Be put a stop to it.
3). A member of this mob was a model railway enthusiast and, to expand his burgeoning layout, thought it expedient to knock holes in the walls of his lovely, ex-Canadian married quarter, to allow free movement of his rail network.

1) Believable, but not substantiated.
2) True, confirmed orally by senior members of aforesaid regiment,
3) As above.

It used to be said, on a TV programme, "The truth is stranger than fiction" !

I lived in one of those lovely Canadian married quarters for a while.

Quote"I lived in one of those lovely Canadian married quarters for a while."

Now occupied by Turks and other D.P.'s

This is not a BAOR myth, although you might know better.
It concerns an unknown RAF station in East Anglia in the 1950s. Electrical work was going on using one of those big 6 foot reels of heavy mains cable. Work stopped for the day and the next morning the reel was empty. The usual overnight security for those days, with the main gates controlled by the SPs.
The story went that some cunning worker fed the cable down a manhole inside the camp to another outside the gate where it was picked up by the rest of the gang.
True? Who knows?

Chemist wrote:

This is not a BAOR myth, although you might know better.
It concerns an unknown RAF station in East Anglia in the 1950s. Electrical work was going on using one of those big 6 foot reels of heavy mains cable. Work stopped for the day and the next morning the reel was empty. The usual overnight security for those days, with the main gates controlled by the SPs.
The story went that some cunning worker fed the cable down a manhole inside the camp to another outside the gate where it was picked up by the rest of the gang.
True? Who knows?

Sounds like a wind up to me !  

Have we had the wheel barrow one?

Suppose to have taken place in an American Base in Newfoundland. The Newfie left left the base each day with a wheel barrow full of wood cut offs for his stove. M.P.s checked, nothing hidden in the wood cut offs. He was supposedly taking wheel barrows.

Something similar to the Spanish/Portuguese border story, but with a man with a bicycle. Checked on suspicion everyday and nothing found. HE was smuggling bikes!.

But this one IS true, I knew the lad involved.
Back in the 80s the Skoda was a bit of a joke, but a lad who worked in the Pet. Lab at 4PD Warendorf was a proud owner of one.

He was stopped by a Squaddie on the gate of Oxford Barracks, "could I look in your boot sir" and went to the back of the car. "You can " said the lad "But that's the engine"."Oh yeah and I suppose you've got another engine in the front". 2How did you guess "said the lad , and showed him the secondhand engine he had just bought.
What always surprised me about this story was that the Skoda had enough power to cart the spare around.

blinking good cars were skoda . i had four and never broke down at all , ginger

Not   a myth really happened.

Lahr Germany, New Years eveing 72/73. Our W.O. Tech who was invited to celebrate New Years evening the Jnr. Ranks Mess is going out the main gate at the air base with his wife, at around 0100 hrs. He gets stopped by the Meat Heads and asked if he's been drinking. The answer, "Yup". How much says the meat head? I dunno says our W.O. Meat head asks him to step into the guard room for a breathalyzer test. No prob says the W.O. (Now up untill then all breathalyzers were done by the German police as we had no qualified people. And now they did. Whooppee). So the W.O. failed miserably. Meat Head says he's being detained and charged with D.U.I. W.O. says you can't I wasn't driving. Meat Head says, " Beg Your Pardon". W.O. says wife is driving, go look. Yup it was a right hand drive. Our W.O. was former Brit, was planning on retiring back to the U.K. had purchased a right hand drive Ford Cortina. Guess the Meat Head lost his woodie on that one. And this tale is true, it was the talk of the Sqn. And yes his wife was sober.
.

That's really bad, who would buy a Ford Cortina?

i bought one for 25 quid in the 60s , somebody pinched it after a couple of days and i got 150 quid back on the insurance , now that wos a bargain , ginger