Roy (formerly Tela) Barracks, Ratingen

In summer 1958, I was posted to 2 Div OFP at Tela Barracks, Ratingen (in fact although the address was Ratingen it was actually at Dusseldorf-Rath).
A few days after I arrived, 2 Div OFP ceased to exist and was split into 4 Gds Bde Gp OFP and 5 Bde Gp OFP (or some similar name), sharing the same site.  I served in the former for about 12 months.
I have never been back to Dusseldorf since but have fond memories of it and every time I hear the name I think of visiting the city.  But for all I know the site might now be an industrial estate.  Does anybody know if it is still a barracks?
Frank

Welcome to the forum Frank

http://baor-locations.org/RoyBks.aspx.html

The barracks would have been used by units of 53rd (Welsh) Infantry Division prior to being renamed 2nd Infantry Division in Apr 47

Thanks for the unit locations and will be able to update the above page when the new website is available at present it is locked for reconstruction

Not sure of its use today but will try and find out

Best regards
Steve

Frank

Welcome

One of our earlier contributors, Flash, did a superb job in producing an overlay for Google Earth of all the BAOR Barracks known to him.

He did include Roy Barracks. It looks as if the site is currently being completely cleared for redevopment.

Found this on a German website after closing in 1995


and this from today thanks to Google Earth clearly an industrial estate

Thanks to Flash and Steve for info.
Frank

Clearly the German website has the location slightly wrong this is from an early 50s military map of Düsseldorf

E.S.G

5/11/2013, 17:16 Topic: tela barracks
frank i have just signed on to this .site trying to find out more about tela barracks and came on your entry,i was also there from july 58 to dec 59 in the reme workshop att to 5th brg although worked on the 4th vehicles as well,as for where it was i thought it was more in rattingen, up in my loft there is a box with some photos in and my road map of the area in1957 , i will try and sort them out, but looking on google earth where i think it was is now a housing estate. E.S.G

ESG

Welcome

Anything you can add to the story of Roy Barracks or indeed any Dusseldorf related memories wil be gratefully recieved

i have managed to find my old 1957 map of ratingen, and super imposed where i think tela barracks
was onto google earth, but i have tried several times to attach it with no joy, can you help. E.S.G

Greetings, one and all.

I was stationed in Roy Barracks from Dec 1969 to Jul 1972, REME att. 3 BAOR Map Depot RE. 14 Field Survey Sqn RE shared the camp with us, as did the Rhine area MFO Depot, and Rhine Area Courts Martial Centre.
Roy Barracks was situated in Oberhausenerstrasse, Dusseldorf/Rath.

unclegrumble
thanks for the info i was placing it a bit further north but tying it in with my old map i can now see where it would be,as you where in the REME was you still using the same workshop as we did almost
opposite the what was the QM stores,we had a Russian welder went by the name of molinkof did he still work there was always bringing things in to sell.
E.S.G.

E.S.G
The workshops seemed fairly modern, with an excellent battery shop.
If by Molinkof you mean Peter, a giant of a man, I had to tell him that he was being made redundant, as the Admin staff were very wary of his temper. (He once threw a full size anvil at me, across the workshop.) He got a good deal, and I made sure that he left with a good bit of contraband.
The official address of the Barracks was R E Ratingen.

unclegrumble
Sounds like the same chap he was big ,and as you say he had a bigger waistline when he went home at night after visiting his german friends in the cookhouse,i have still got a silver 1935 five reichsmark coin he had brought in to sell, sounds like they had done the workshop up ,in our day you took your life in your hand going into the battery room, with an out of the ark charger on the wall,but we did get extra milk ration for working in there.for our brew up in the back room,as there where only three of us in the REME corporal and two craftsmen,attached to the RAOC i think we got of light when you hear what some of them had to do in REME main workshops.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f58/18/74/23/39/record12.jpg Hello everyone. I could do with some help - I am looking for Francisco Lopez Triviño aka Treviño. I can situate him at working at around 1961 at the Tela Barracks in Rath. Does anyone remember anything about him ? I am happy to answer any question via pm, but would be just as glad to hear from someone who remembers him here on the forum. He was born on the 31st of december 1916 in Benalua, Granada province / Spain. The pic is from 1951. He may have worked as a mechanic. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[quote="JPW"]ESG

Hello,

Being not British, in fact I`m German, I was born in Duesseldorf-Rath, near the Roy-Barracks.
Between 1978 and 1982 I had some close friends in the British Rhine Army(Royal Engeneers) which were stationed there.
Some of them were in relationships with some female friends of mine and we had a lot of fun together. As far as I remember there were not many contacts, usually, between the British and Germans....what has been quite sadly.
I remember, there were most of the time no "Officers" in the barracks afterwork. We were often invited and I remember a cermony, you Brits call Guy Fawkes Day.....5th of November ? It was very interesting for me, `cause I only heard about it in school.
We invited our British friends into our homes, especially about Christmas and birthdays. The parties in the "barracks" and in our homes were remarkable....I remember a Scottish engeneer who was capable to drink historic amounts of "Apfelkorn" - what some of you are remembering, perhaps.

Till today I am astonished about the open habitus to enter the barracks...the first times I had to show my ID-card and after some visits, a friendly hello to the guard has been enough to get in (also for the visitors-protocol/guestbook at the gate) .
(Exception: Alarm-status during IRA warnings or other unpleasent causes - then the controlls were more impressive)
In the barracks, for me as a German, the food-automats were remarkable...the pastets (lever? pork? whatever) where - interesting.

Many times we met at the local pub "Rather Fass" which was our regulary meetingplace.

Are some of you remembering the "Altbier" - a thing between the colour of Lager and Guiness?

What I cannot quite understand is the "isolation" of most of the soldiers - about all ranks. Has it been "ordered" or has there been just no interest under the soldiers?

If there are any questions I can answer - please just ask.
Thank you, the Royal Engeneers, for hosting my visits and the good times I spent with my friends.

I am looking for my old British friends - after about 30 years I forgot most of the names, I`m sorry. But one name is quite complete...
Peter Jones and a mate of him who had a Triumph bike on his room. Perhaps he will read this lines. Beside - all of the guys were Privats.

Bye,
Norbert Schulz
(German civilian from Duesseldorf-Rath)
...and sorry for my basic English.

Willkommen Norbert

I was stationed in Roy Barracks between 1969 and 1972, so I can not help you find your friends.

I do remember The "Rather Fass" bar, and the hangovers the next day. Was it "Schlosser Alt" or "Diebels Alt" sold there? The nights in the Altstadt, and other foolish things young soldiers did when far from home.

The pastets were pork pies and Cornish pasties, an essential to assist the beer to go down quicker.

The units in the barracks were small, a total of about 70 soldiers. A lot of the soldiers could not speak German, and their main hobby was drinking, the Royal Engineers were renowned for their capacity with alcohol. Drink was very cheap in the barracks, so the soldiers spent most of their nights in the NAAFI bar. I learned to speak a little German in Rath, my German friends said that I spoke "Kneipe Deutsch". I still visit Germany each year, and can be understood, so my kneipe Deutsch cannot be so bad.

Good luck in your search. There is a Royal Engineers Facebook page where you may have more success.

Tusch Norbert

Hi all,

My Dad was based at Roy Barracks from 80-83 (I think - we certainly lived in ratingen) and 91-95 when 14 Topo were there. There was a school next door (Roy first/Dalton Middle School) that my brother attended (I went to Windsor on JHQ). I remember Roy Barracks was closed down in 95 and my Dad helped move to Ayrshire Barracks in MG.

Norbert, I also remember some great fireworks displays on Guy Fawkes night that my Dad helped organise.

Great times.

Dave

Hi Norbert,

I was 3 in 1981, so may have been at the fireworks display you were at but dont remember it! My dad was proabaly a corporal or a lance corporal when you were there i think. He was a Warrant Officer the second time.

Yes, married families did not live on camp. We lived in Golzheim near Nordpark the second time we were there. Cant remember where we lived in the 80's, maybe Am Geisterberg, it was near the wildpark.

I also remeber Schlosser Alt, got my first hangover on that, lol. When i lived in London there was a guy on Borough Market who used to import it. Used to by it by the truckload for my Dad.

Take care

[quote="BlueDave"]Hi Norbert,

Hi Dave,

so you have been one of this little kids which were surrounded by their mums :-)
The kids had a lot of fun.

>My dad was proabaly a corporal or a >lance corporal when you were there i think. He was a Warrant Officer the second time.
That sounds like the German "Unter-Offizier" - a rank under the Leutnant. I can only rember privates inside the Roy Barracks.
Married soldiers had more choices, I assume.

>Yes, married families did not live on camp. We lived in Golzheim near Nordpark the second time we were there. Cant remember where
Golzheim today is still a quite pleasent part for living in Dusseldorf. Many people want to live there.
Life must have been better outside the barracks. Much more inside real life, as far as you could realise it as a kid during that time.
The soldiers, not married, in the barracks often spoke about some kind of isolation. Most of the time just work, duty and everyday the same faces arround. Sometimes some beer or scotch/gin. My friend Peter sometimes thought about asking for getting based in Northern Ireland, what was not so funny in that times, for sure. His thinkings were caused by being bored sometimes.
I hope you had a good time in Dusseldorf.

>I also remember Schlosser Alt, got my first hangover on that, lol. When i lived in London there was a guy on Borough Market who used >to import it. Used to by it by the truckload for my Dad.

What rememberings:-) It might be interesting for you that the brewery has been closed in the 90s as far I know.
The brewery areal has been quit large. Dont know what is being built there today.
Perhaps a late revenge for your hangover :-))
Did you like the taste of Schlosser beer at all ? The English mostly prefer all kinds of lager, I think.
At least I got lager in every pub I have been in Broadstairs, Margate or Ramsgate, when I was sent to this nice little towns at the end of the 70s. (Some kind of school-exchange program. I was about 16 yrs old).
Similar Schlosser was the taste of a dark bitter in the Charles Dickens pub in Broadstairs.
Long time ago.

Bye,
dont miss the next Alt-Beer.
Norbert

Norbert,

I loved living in Golzheim. used to ride through Nordpark to get to the Rhine and then ride up to Kaiserwerth and sometimes on to Krefeld along the banks of the Rhine.

Yes, a Warrant officer is similar to an Unter-Offizier.

I loved Schlosser Alt - a cross between a Lager and an English bitter. We drink a lot of bitter in the north of England but you can get some good bitters in the south as well. I also like Weissbier, especially Franziskaner which you can sometimes find here but mostly Erdinger.

Dave

Hi Chaps, I was in Roy barracks from 1963 to 1977 when i got demobbed, coming and going between postings for courses and our survey unit in Barton Stacey.
I can tell you that all the maps are correct at the time they were produced, i.e. the German black and white shows the old barracks as it is today with the Google Earth map showing the same and you can see a new road that has been constructed which would have been just outside the barracks gates.
The black and white with the red and white dotted roads was as it was in the old days, the barracks being in the position Niederbeck, the gates being where the red and white road ends.
I served there first as a driver and the transferring to Storeman Survey, this trade having to be capable of knowing all the various survey trades so that you could replace a class 3 trade in the event of death in a war situation. During piece time though we were responsible for storage and issue of maps, paper storage and preparation for the printing of maps etc., and map updates and distribution and receipts of these to the relevant units all over BAOR. These were done on a monthly basis and involved me and some others going down to deliver to the American map stores in Wiesbaden and raid the PX of various items, mostly cigars.
Peter the welder was used as a general dogs body really as there was never enough welding for him to do and he used to spend a lot of time sorting the discarded items for scrap to sell off, I personally never saw him get angry and always appeared to be a gentle giant.
I played in the RE Ratingen football team until my demob in May 1977 and also a lot of other sports and my last position was in the map office responsible for the correct issue and receipts of maps, charts and publishing's etc..
I have only just found this site so I am sorry it's so long after other postings but I hope this helps with any memories.

Soldierboy

Welcome and thanks for your contribution- as the saying goes "every little helps"

Thanks for the welcome, always find it interesting to hear about my former life as a soldier and hopefully meet up with old friends.
A funny thing happened to me in my club house here in Benidorm, I was taking the micky out of the barman and speaking German to him because he was always ribbing me about my inability to speak Spanish, when a woman at the bar I hadn't notice approach said I used to be in Germany and after a few exchanges it turned out that it was the wife of my ex-football playing and drinking mate that used to live across the street in Raiffeisener Strasser in Ratingen.
Also I went to Specsavers in Benidorm to get new glasses and I said to the manager who was attending to me, that accent is not Spanish and she said no she was from Germany and it turned out she was from Ratingen. So it seems you can't escape in life.
By the way my rank was not private but I can't see how to correct it, been pretty poor if after 15 years I did not have any rank.