SOXMIS STORIES

The Education Corps "Watchkeeper" was an Ex Int Corps Linguist commissioned into the RAEC.

Billy Snees SMG was found in the Water Bowser 2 years later when it was stripped down as rust was coming out of the taps - he'd obviously annoyed somebody who then took their revenge. No wonder we never found the damn thing.

I also remember having to scour woods again when Capt Afford R.A. from Bde HQ lost his pistol having left it hooked onto the back door of a 432 during a move Tosser lol.

298HALL wrote:

On an exercise in the early 80's (I was in a Brigade Sig Sqn) an odd voice suddenly broke into the Brigade Command Net. One of our watchkeepers, an Education Corps officer was a Russian linguist and identified the language as russian.

If he is breaking in I thought he must be close by - turns out there was a Soxmis car nearby and the RMP chased them in a Landrover. Thing is, I know Brixmis and the other allied Missions didn't carry radios, assume Soxmis did - otherwise it's a massive and unlikely coincidence !

Later - maybe on the same exercise our MT Staffie "lost" his SMG and the whole troop ended up combing the woods for the weapon, which we never did find. Didn't do the Staffie's career much good and he was posted out soon after......

Of course we found out Soxmis had been sniffing around our locations once we packed up and moved.

I also remember having to scour woods again when Capt Afford R.A. from Bde HQ lost his pistol having left it hooked onto the back door of a 432 during a move Tosser lol.
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2nd Lt Nigel Afford - he hadn't changed then?

We had a lance jack lost his SLR in a barn..Bust and a token fine..One year later found the same SLR in the same barn..Didn`t get his tape or fine back...

A R Sigs colleague was posted to the LCT's (landing craft tank) and on his first voyage was requested by the OM to dispose of confidential waste which he dumped over the side, west of Scotland. Not understanding the vagaries of ocean currents and winds he was arrested some months later as the waste had been handed in by some good citizen. Bust and Colch and rehabilitated. He was a genuinely brilliant guy and whiter than white unlike some of the other riff raff.

The Last Mission : Behind the Iron Curtain by Steve Gibson



part one of possibly 3 you will have to check it out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=60tnkm8Vtso#!

Wonderful exposition and commentary. Brings back many happy memories of Buende/Birdwood Bks.
I didn't realise the significance of many of my military experiences till much later particularly when I sailed into USSR in the 70's as MN R/O. We delivered wheat from Duluth/USA to Leningrad and were some novelty. The sex traps were abundant but the Ruskies were pissed off on occasions to discover
the targets were unqualified Greek 3rd Offs who had thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of their labours but were subsequently persona non gratia in the USSR shown by the Red Stamp on the back pages of their Seamans Book. I, myself got quite a fright in Leningrad...but that's another story.

I seem to remember when a Cipher Cpl, with his keys etc, stumbled into the Duty Brit Offr's bedroom in Soxmis, Buende instead of the Soxmis Offr's room in the mid sixties. It was a big story widely reported at the time. I hope my memory is not at fault. Mea culpa.

Dear Sirs, I am writing the book about SOXMIS.
Its my dad`s car on the photo.


Please, help me with your stories and photos. Don`t let your memories disappear. I really need your help.

I can't remember the name of the appointment of the Brit Offr in Soxmis. 1964/65.
The previous cartoon picture could be titled "you are parked too close to the mil veh. you are fined zehn mark !!!

Brixmis stories

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Hi all.I served SOXMIS in 1978-1980.(Frankfurt am main).

Hi all
I drove the BLO sox is in 89 at bundle. Was part of 26 liaison

Keefffyboy wrote:

Hi all
I drove the BLO sox is in 89 at bundle. Was part of 26 liaison

Hi

Where is Bundle ?

Probably means the town of 'Bunde'.

Dulaigh wrote:

I seem to remember when a Cipher Cpl, with his keys etc, stumbled into the Duty Brit Offr's bedroom in Soxmis, Buende instead of the Soxmis Offr's room in the mid sixties. It was a big story widely reported at the time. I hope my memory is not at fault. Mea culpa.

SOXMIS was contained within the British married officers quarters on the outskirts of Bunde. The British Officer was the British Liaison Officer to SOXMIS. He was allocated a married officer's house on the boundary of SOXMIS. All the actual SOXMIS houses were inside a wire fence. There was a huge red and gold signboard outside the liaison officer's house with a lot of Cyrillic writing on it. It's understandable that someone not familiar with the area would mistake it for one of the Russians' houses. It actually said something about it being the British Commander in Chief's liaison mission to the Soviet Commander in Chief's military mission to the British Commander in Chief. The cpl rang the bell and woke up the Brit Offr. After he realised his mistake, he took off down the road being chased by the Brit Offr in his pajamas and dressing gown. Several other officers, including my father, joined the chase in their PJs and dressing gowns.

We lived across the road and the shouting woke me up. I was 13, I think.

Hugely hilarious and thanks.

Dulaigh wrote:

Hugely hilarious and thanks.

The image of Lt Col Hoerder?, who was CO of the local Sigs Regt, running down the road in his dressing gown trying to catch a spy does have an element of comedy

I'm amazed what my mind has stored from those days. I was totally in-love with Nicola, the 12-year-old hottie who lived two doors away.

Some spies don't quite make it in the James Bond stakes. It was a tragedy for the cpl, of course. I think he got 10 years. I sometimes wonder what set him off. Had his girlfriend just dumped him? Had his boss just told him that he was going to get a bad performance review? He was just so incompetent.

I've been trying to remember more about the time. I can see pictures in my mind. As I said, SOXMIS was located in a group of British Officers' quarters and surrounded by a fence. It wasn't a high-security fence - just a wire fence like you'd find around a tennis court, maybe 20' high. All of the fences between the houses in the SOXMIS compound had been removed and the grounds had been landscaped with paths leading from house to house. We understood that they had turned the individual houses into a commune with e.g. a common dining area. Individuality not allowed.

The officers' quarters didn't have attached garages. These were the days when not everyone had a car. Instead, there was a row of garages (maybe a double row?) that was divided in half by the wire fence. We used to ride our bikes in the area and watch the Russians cleaning and tuning their cars and playing volleyball. We'd sort-of nod with a hello, which they would acknowledge, sometimes with a hint of a smile, but we never spoke to each other. Some of the girls thought that the Russian guys were very hunky

I asked my mother many things about the Russians. They seemed so different and why did they stare at us? We'd just come back from Malaya and we'd lived in Quetta, so the "different" bar was quite high. My mother explained that the SOXMIS people had to leave their children behind in Russia as hostages in case they were tempted to defect. The sad bugg#$s missed their kids.

On the other hand, maybe they were all spetsnaz.

Very atmospheric and understandable. I do hope Chippy recovered from his experiences.

Very entertaining but what became of Nicola or was it unrequited love?

The Brixmis officers were some of the most effective gatherers of military intelligence behind the Iron Curtain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007nf6t

The BRIXMIS Programme is well worth a listen. More is the pity that no one has done a similar programme on the British Liasion team with SOXMIS in Bunde.

Hi,
I am a freshman in this forum, collecting info about the six Military Liaison Missions for some years, but a lot of questions are still waiting to be answered.
Is anybody out there who served at Checkpoint Alfa (Helmstedt / Marienborn) with the RMP processing the border crossing of the Soxmis personal on their way between the soviet HQ in Wünsdorf and the Soxmis location in Bünde?
Wolfgang