Winterberg Leave Centre

Does anyone remember when the Winterberg Leave Centre closed down and who took it over? It was a beautiful location in the Saurland where I imagine the skiing was great although I was never there in winter. Last time I was there was probably in 1959. I suspect it ceased to be a BAOR leave centre in the early 60s.

As i remember it was still going well into the '60s.I used to ask for volunteers to go to Winterberg,and when not enough was forthcoming then some were "detailed".But on return all agreed they had a great time,and when could they go again!Next time I'm in that area I'll have a decko and come back to you!
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Don

You had to press-gang people into going to a leave centre? My God, you Royals must have been a tough bunch to deal with!

Thanks for the info Don. It will be interesting to see if we can generate more stories.

Rod

As far as I can see, Winterberg was still in operation in July 1962.

If you look at the webpage shown below it gives details of Winterberg (item 72)

The rest makes interesting reading as well. Look at the name of the Minister (for those old enough to remember)

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1962/jul/04/baor

Paul.

Yes, it does make interesting reading. However I don't see any mention of Christine Keeler being available for optional recreation.

Rod

The RAOC had its own Holiday Lodge at Sonthofen and it was always fully booked for Exercise SNOW QUEEN between 1 Dec till 31 Mar for BAOR Unit Adventure Training and for Family and Corps Groups for R&R between 1 Apr till 30 Nov. We also held a 2 week Christmas & Easter Family Ski breaks as well.

I see that, according to the web site Paul recently linked that there was a secret (?) RAF station there as well. It's a sad day when you don't learn something. From reading the stories I gather it was some sort of listening post, something like the the one at Putlos.

I have just returned from Wintterburg (Aug) the rest centre is now the joint services winter training centre run bybthe Bundesservices, with one British Army liason WO1, they cover xcountry down hill ski-ing bob slay running 2 and 4 man teams, most of it now is single person rooms. There is a large caravan site at the side with a lot of English owned caravans that are there as static sites my daughter has one of them.
the area of Winter burg is now a lot different with a large cyclecross area and mountain bike trails,which in winter become the X/C ski runs.
If any one can give me the instructions to upload photos on the site I will send some

Brian

recce83 wrote:

Yes, it does make interesting reading. However I don't see any mention of Christine Keeler being available for optional recreation.

Rod

Officers only!!

Catching up on my recorded stuff, last night I watched a programme about 617 Sqn and
The Dams Raid.

There were shots of The Moehne and Sorpe dams as they are today. A lovely part of the Sauerland that used to be "on our doorstep".

Made me quite nostalgic. One our regt's ex-members now lives near the Moehne dam, lucky bugger !

The Moehne Dam was, by far, the more picturesque of the two....we lived not far from the Sorpesee at all, in a wee village called Mellen, not far from Balve. The Sorpesee was, literally, just over a couple of hills from us. Of course, later, we lived in Soest so of course spent many Sunday's strolling back and forth across the Moehne Dam like everyone else did back then.

I remember the Sauerland with considerable nostalgia. When we lived in a town called Beckum (there are two Beckums, by the way....one's a city the other a small town, almost a village, out along the Hoennetal. We lived in the latter, up on the hill above Sans Souci and the turn off to Balve) I could look out a small window in my parent's room that had a view down into the valley below and the often-mist enshrouded wooded hills of the Sauerland beyond and, even then, it made my heart ache knowing it wouldn't be long before I'd never see it all again.

brum....you say one of your regiment's exes lives near the Moehne dam....do you happen to know where? Delecke, perhaps?

The Sorpe dam was no where near as majestic as the one on the Moehne....a very low, rather nondescript almost like an earthen dam sort of thing. I much preferred the Moehne!

It seems I was barking up the wrong tree Stephen. I've been in touch with the bloke who I thought lived near the dam but actually he lives in Post Str. Hemer.
(He sent me two present-day photos of the town, neither of which I recognise of course. Horror of horrors, smack in the middle of one of them is a Mc Donald's, is nothing sacred ?)

brum

We visited the Moehne dam a few times, it was a lovely and interesting area.

brum wrote:

It seems I was barking up the wrong tree Stephen. I've been in touch with the bloke who I thought lived near the dam but actually he lives in Post Str. Hemer.
(He sent me two present-day photos of the town, neither of which I recognise of course. Horror of horrors, smack in the middle of one of them is a Mc Donald's, is nothing sacred ?)

brum

Ehehehe...given the rivalry between Hemer brats and Soest brats, such an error borders on capital offence, brum!!!!

I come across present-day shots of Hemer, Iserlohn on Flikr quite often and have a helluva time trying to "locate" them in my mental memory map....shots of the old Married Quarters, easy. Shots of Hemer or Iserlohn themselves, a bit problematic. Soest, it appears, hasn't changed much, really, although I am sure some of the suburbs have....certainly what were once farmer's fields back in the day are now covered with houses and blocks of flats, but I can usually orient myself somewhat. However, I also knew Soest better than Hemer, having lived in PMQs there but only going into Hemer for school and the odd teen dance. And then when I lived in Iserlohn and would moped into Hemer to hang out with my British mates, our drinking hole was out in Stephanopel (Katz') and we never went into Hemer proper, for some odd reason.

BTW, you should post those photos your buddy sent you....perhaps someone here can be of assistance in pinpointing where they are.

And, yeah, I'd heard a McDonald's went up.....actually, one of my contacts on Flikr mentioned that a McD's was going in a location she had posted a pic of....down the end of Zeppelin Strasse on that main road leading into Hemer downtown in one direction and, ultimately, into Iserlohn in the other.

ah the mohne and sorpe,two great walking places,lucky enough to have lived in both hemer and soest.where stephen lived in balve was outstanding and the mohne was where i saw my first topless bathers(female).when i first lived in hemer i stayed at the WESTIGER HOF for the first 18 months and the owner was a great bloke called ziggy he later move to the sorpe and then on to the margeretensee,another great place for walking. ....graham...