HMS ROYAL PRINCE KREFELD

Help please

I recently received a very useful boost to my ongoing quest for information on the Royal Navy presence in Germany in the 1940s/50s when I met an individual who had done extended National Service with the Royal Navy in Germany.This included a very short time in Krefeld.

We have already established that HMS Royal Prince was based in the area with, inter alia, the task of ensuring a safe and secure transit for all commercial barge along the River Rhine within the British Zone using fast patrol boats crewed by the Royal Navy. A second task was to maintain a small cadre of Landing Ships crewed mainly by Royal Marines to provide an emergency river crossing capability across the Rhine in the event of any surprise attack by the Soviet Forces from the East. We have established (and my contacted confirmed) that these vessels were kept in what is now the commercial harbour on the west bank of the Rhine to the south of Krefeld.

However the vessels were not permanently manned and the crews lived elsewhere in Krefeld where there was also an Admin Base. I have discounted Bradbury Barracks which was the sole occupancy of Royal Signals Regiments. The existence of Milne Barracks, in the south east corner of the stadt was mentioned during discussions in the very early years of this site.

Unfortunately my contact cannot remember exactly where he was based during his short time in Krefeld but his thoughts do indicate it might have been Milne Barracks

We do have one or two contributors to this site who served in Krefeld in the early/mid 1950s or who are familiar with the area. Can any one remember where or give me a lead as to where the RN/RM personnel might have been based please?.

It would appear that the National Archives at Kew hold 'A report of proceedings of the Royal Navy Rhine Squadron Autumn cruise 1954' which might be of use although I don't think it is on line at present so probably a personal trip is required. The file No M/276/288/54 might give a starting point as I should imagine there might be a fair bit about the unit salted away.

Murphy's (Sod's) Law strikes again, just got back from a fruitfull half day in Kew in the interests of researching topics related to this site.

Will have to add to my ever increasing shopping list.

I played football against them twice 1953/4 and I remember that after the matches we were taken to a small mess some way from the ground but adjacent to where their boats were tied up. I remember
there were other buildings there which would suggest that was where they were accomodated.
What I DO remember was the food - eggs, chips and bacon, bread and butter and a couple of beers - unheard luxury for us in those days !!!

A great step forward... Thanks

Thanks to private exchanges of information involving Alan 8376, Paderborn 3 and confirmed by Cliffo I think I now have the answer to the location of HMS Royal Prince at Krefeld, the entrance to the commercial barge basin. All has been swept away over the years as the area has been redeveloped for the still substantial commercial river traffic and there is now no trace of the former Royal Navy presence there.

I am most grateful

The Rhine Flotilla - a site used for reference in earlier correspondence (updated in 2017) may tie together other studies

the information/content contains the personal studies and papers of the owner of the site, and he has claimed copyright on his intellectual rights: (https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/intellectual_property)[All me own work, gov!]

http://www.godfreydykes.info/THE_ROYAL_NAVAL_RHINE_SQUADRON_RNRS%20.html

Enjoy tis interesting!

Paddy

Thank you for this link

The "home team" has far more detailed accurate information on the Royal Navy/Royal Marines deployment in Germany in the 1945/46 period but this link confirms the various RN deployments in the early 1950's ubder the single title HMS ROYAL PRINCE.