Warzaw Pact Forces - myth or a reality?

Make your mind up Eric .. you were either in the Army or the REME ..

Len (Ciphers)

ciphers wrote:

Make your mind up Eric  .. you were either in the Army or the REME  ..

Len (Ciphers)

That was part and parcel of the problem Len, I was REME attached to so many units but loved all of em and they liked me, from AAC to Tankies to RA and on and on. But held my views and stayed with REME but almost transfered to AAC. And that is why I empasised the part about Army and REME.

steve wrote:

Quote :

Hi all,
As RE's to "stop the Russians" we had to drive from Osnabruck to Hamburg; Bedford 3 tonners 4x2 & 4x4; plus a couple of Scammel recovery, some Bedford 15 cwt's
A long trip, with many vehicle breakdowns; we would never have made it if it was for real; before the Russian reached Hamburg
We were lucky
Cheers Tony

In later years the RE's had a more effective way of slowing Ivan down...blowing up autobahn bridges...as a field squadron troop section we carried a microfiche of the bridges that had been built with a mouse hole…then had great fun calculating how much plastic explosive and det cord to use at the bridge...using plasticine and washing line of course…happy days in a 432 late 70s
Steve (33C)

Hi all,
All top secret stuff; take a close look under the important bridges and you may still find evidence of preparations done in the early 1950's; so all you had to do later was place enough explosive in the place provided, light the blue touch paper and retire immediately

In the UK , at the start of WW2 it was common to see a series of small square covers on river bridges. These were to take mines if the Gerries came.

On the Cold war topic, I am giving a chat to a local group about the Cold War etc. I am finding it difficult to trace pictures of the East German border fences. There are plenty of the Berlin Wall but few of the fence. Most of my pictures got lost in various moves.

Any of you bright sparks got ideas for websites , or even pictures of your own that you would share?

Wheyhey,I'm a Staff Sergeant:sleep: 

Staff,

This link might give you the "Heads up".


http://www.grenzbilder.de/die_grenze/die_grenze_slideshow.php


Shelldrake
FM

Sheldrake-SIR

You are a genius. For anyone remotely interested in BAOR, that website is,to use that overused word, amazing. Many thanks for the help.

My pleasure. 

so - which European EU member state has the largest standing army now, is it still Germany? It certainly ain't Old Blighty.

unclevanya wrote:

so - which European EU member state has the largest standing army now, is it still Germany? It certainly ain't Old Blighty.

Take your pick from this lot:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel

Shelldrake wrote:

unclevanya wrote:

so - which European EU member state has the largest standing army now, is it still Germany? It certainly ain't Old Blighty.

Take your pick from this lot:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel

Interesting;

People's Republic of China[39][40] 2,285,000 800,000 3,969,000 7,054,000 5.2 1.7[41][42]

Better hope that China/DPRK/Russia/India and Pakistan do not combine and get their act together and they are atomic nations eek.

And I do believe India & Pakistan still get millions in aid from us !

The Germans may want a third go then again maybe not
Jeremy Clarkson: Meets the Neighbours

BRIXMIS

http://hfsurfing.googlepages.com/BRIXMIS.mp3

The theory of defence held by one Canadian officer was:

We attack at dawn.
That way, the rest of the day is not wasted.

I remember a Canadian C.O. of an infantry battalion in Lahr telling a visiting Brigadier Gen. that we were close enough to Switzerland that if the balloon went up, we could scamper across the border and wait it out.

Oh for the days when the 4 CIBG was considered the equal of a light division by BAOR Command.