Sennelager Range and Training Area

Courtesy dml 34 an early Range and Training Area orientation 1:25,000 map produced by Printing Group RAOC in a field location,
appx Jul 45 as part of the Range Standing Orders and Admin Instructions



Amt Neuhaus didn't get to be named Schloss Neuhaus until 1957.
Non-tactical locations were not shown (Staumuehle PoW Cage, Eselsheide PoW Cage/ Civil Internment Centres)

Excellent find however much later than Jul 45 (BAOR came into force 25 Aug 45), 109 Medical Company was a 7 Armd Div asset and they arrived Oct 46, also my first record of 24 Training Field Ambulance is Jul 47 however have yet to research RAMC units in detail

The map came from a booklet called "The Training Centre, British Army Of The Rhine, 1947", so the information printed on the map presumably dates from 1947. The map itself obviously could be older. (The booklet was printed by Printing and Stationery Services, Control Commission for Germany (BE)).

Of possible interest is this paragraph:- 'Perhaps the most notable addition to the Brigade recently has been the formation of 809 Armoured Transport Squadron RASC. The headquarters and two troops are now organised and have been undergoing training with the assistance of the School of Infantry and 1st Royal Tank Regiment for the past three months. The squadron is equipped with RAM II armoured personnel carriers and training of all four troops is expected to be completed by the end of July 1947.' Note that the Brigade mentioned is 4 Training Brigade RASC in Churchill Barracks, Lippstadt.

In the news again (no idea how long the clip will be available)

https://www.facebook.com/ForcesTV/videos/249130962826029/?t=4

Urban Dry Training Area (sometimes referred to as Tin City) has been used to prep UK sldrs for all recent conflicts ...   the crinkly tins is gone, but there are a few ISO containers, some brick and lots of very large mechanically filled sandbags))

accommodation blocks visible at the end of the clip are in Training and Land Fleet premises in Athone Barracks  (yes, it was refurbished!) - still distant from civilisation (Paderborn / Sennelager / Marienloh/Bad Lippspringe) but handy for the Ranges

Published Review from 1946

Source:  The Palestine Post published 19 April 1946

BRITISH TROOPS TRAIN IN Germany by The Times Military Correspondent

HALF-wav between Dortmund and Hanover, on the main road (B1) which has been in part superseded by the Autobahn (A2), is the little town of Paderborn. To the north lies an area of heath and pine, with the lightest of soils, which had for some years been used by the Germans for Panzer and Panzer Grenadier training. Part of the Sixth S.S. Panzer Army carried out the final stages of its training for the Ardennes counteroffensive here, was visited by Hitler, and quitted the area to go straight into action.

It was immediately decided; to establish the British Rhine Army's training centre in the Paderborn area, and high hopes were founded upon its being able to open on a full scale without delay, since there were four large and well-equipped German barracks accommodation. Matters, however, did not work out like that. "Displaced persons" had found refuge here by tens of thousands. When those of one nationality had been sent home it was found necessary to take into the area large numbers of another. So, though some classes began almost at once and the organization has been expanding ever since, some of the barrack accommodation is still in the hands of the DPs. Yet the available housing is considerable, and as a training centre this possesses advantages rarely equalled, with its hundred square miles of ideal country. half of which is completely cleared of inhabitants and 'contain ranges of many types as well as one evacuated village. School of Infantry In one respect the British have departed from the object with which the Germans selected the area. The B.A.O.R. Training Centre is in no way specialist, but provides courses up to five weeks in the widest possible range of subjects. It contains 10 schools, with 15 wings; and the most important of these, the School of Infantry, merges all types of instruction such as are carried out in separate schools in the United Kingdom and contains five separate wings. It was in the Tactical Wing of the School of Infantry that I saw, carried out by a demonstration platoon, one of the best small exercises I have ever witnessed, an assault on a farmhouse supposed to be occupied by a hostile rear-guard, covered by all available infantry weapons .— rifles, Brens, Piats, and mortars— the rattle and roar and the billowing cloud of the smokescreen creating a realism unknown in the training of the past. Interesting the Soldier.  
The outstanding characteristic of modern army training is the effort made  interest and attract the soldier. The trainer of today is avowedly something of a showman  He employs all the arts of the advertising agent and, like him, he has something to sell. Whether or not he is a trifle too popular, flags the walls with too many pretty and amusing gadgets in his shops, may be left to the discussion of the experts; but he succeeds in what he sets out to do. He does catch the soldier's attention. Of course he has small difficulty where he is teaching subjects which every man is anxious to learn nowadays such as painting, carpentry, welding, maintenance and repair of vehicles. But a less popular subject like physical training is "put over" with great skill and showmanship, mainly as preparation for games and athletics, while the man who is not enthusiastic over the prospect of musketry in bitter cold is won over by the most ingenious of ranges which appeal to the schoolboy element hidden in every one's heart.  If there is anything more fascinating than this type of mechanical ingenuity it is to be found in one of the smallest branches of the training centre, the war dogs school.
Dogs and dog handlers are trained for five duties: guards, tracking, patrols, carrying messages, and mine detection. The first named seem to be the most valuable in Germany now; it is estimated that a single dog, with one or two men, is as effective as 15 men in watching a prisoners' camp or protecting a farm from raids. Yet the tracker and patrol dogs, which do not attack but signal their discovery of the lurking human being by pointing as though he were a grouse, are even more interesting, and the messengers dogs, obviously looking upon their gallop through exploding bombs as a delightful game, won everybody's affection by their keenness and eagerness to begin.

R.A.S.C. Training Brigade Outside the training area, at Lippstadt, some 20 miles west of Paderborn, is one of the outstanding sections of the school, the 4th Training Brigade, R.A.S.C., which has over 1,000 officers and men in training. This contains three battalions — Mechanical Transport,  Army Catering Corps, and Supply and Clerks. At Neuhaus, north-west of Paderborn, is the R.E.M.E. school, with its various "up-grading" and specialist courses. Here workshops, repairs and practical training are carried on together, since it is responsible for all the upkeep of vehicles and electrical equipment in the training  area.

East of Paderborn, in lovely hill country like Wiltshire on a bolder scale and with sharper gradients, is Bad Driburg, where the mother of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands is still living. (related to Prince Philip)
This is the seat  of the Schools of Military Intelligence, of Administration, and of Hygiene*.  The first named is designed entirely to meet the needs of the forces of occupation, to train or refresh field security and intelligence officers and other ranks.  Among its courses is one in the German language lasting 10 weeks, which is not so short as it sounds since virtually all pupils possess some knowledge of German to start with.
The School of Hygiene sets out its appliances as well as its grim warnings and exhibits in striking manner the "minor horrors of war," horrifyingly magnified, mingle with posters which show in lurid fashion how they are encouraged by dirt and lack of hygienic care.
(* School of Hygiene trains in the Summer months at Bad Driburg and reverts to Barrack Accommodation at Sennelager in the Winter)




Keeping Things going - The School of Administration must be invaluable, since the need —to take a single example — for good adjutants and orderly room staff was never greater.
The School of the Corps of Military Police (ie not yet Royal ) shares the great barracks known as Sennelager II ([i)]Dempsey[/i]) with the Infantry and Physical and Recreational Training Schools (and an ATS Band!). 
At Bad Lippspringe itself is the School of Offensive Air Support.  (on the grass Airfield)

 There is scarcely room to speak of other establishments, the camouflage workshops, range factory, demonstration squadron of the R.A.C.,  RA demonstration/support battery, sportsgrounds — then under snow - or the reception centre, huge quartermaster's stores, and German labour units at Senne railhead. (Crocker Barracks ).  There is a great air of enthusiasm about the whole centre. It has difficulties to contend with, especially finding suitable instructors in spite of demobilization, and in a few instances in finding suitable students, since there is no point in giving instruction, except in mainly vocational subjects, to pupils who are not serving for another four months as a minimum. It is unfortunate that the School of Artillery could not have been located somewhere near.
The advantages, however, are great, particularly in the splendid German barracks at the disposal of the training centre, and it appears to be getting full value from them. I shall not speculate upon its future, though I suspect that a certain lavishness may later on fall to the axe of financial restraint. But I feel sure it will survive and do good work as long as the occupation lasts. On the final morning I was privileged to attend the conference, presided over by the chief of the staff, General Dowler, at which the generals discussed point by point what they had seen and its relation to their own needs. This was something of an ordeal for the commandants, nearly all young, but they faced it with the equanimity bred of competence and knowledge of their subjects. The generals were thinking less in terms of tactics than might be expected.  Their first concern, in this difficult phase of demobilization, was for administrators, mechanics— men who could keep things going.