MEMORIES

Hi Don.
Now you have got me thinking. I don't actually recall a library or librarian. It was all a long time ago now of course but it does not ring a bell.

Hello Adam, I note that you were short on photographs of Detmold-I was stationed in Detmold 1952-54 but Lothian Barracks not Hobart. I take a party of 9th Lancers over to Detmold in October for the fourth year running. I run a website www.ninthroyallancers.org which features some photographs of Detmold the town taken by a REME chap (friend of one of my daughters) in the eighties-there are others taken in February 1951.One photograph which is common to all of us no matter when we served and that is in the Gallery Album Regiment No 1 showing "C" squadron of the 9th Lancers marching to Church Parade and in the background is the bridge that runs across the main road into town.I never remembered much of the town but this landmark I instantly recognised.
Detmold was a good posting.

Best Wishes

Denis Haydock

241444 wrote:

I wonder if anyone can remember the other regiments that were stationed in Detmold in the late 60's early 70's.

And lets not forget 71a/c wksp, what a @#%& hole of an outfit that was.

Who can forget the AAC blokes who argued over whether or not aviation fuel would burn with a match? Wrote off a helicopter and spent a lot of time in jail I believe?

Married pads at Hakedahl or Little London to the locals.

Funny little helicopter on display at Hobart barracks and a tank at the other end. Was it a comet?

Remembrance day parade with the Blues and Royals marching up to Hobart from down town and falling over like nine pins on the ice because of their ammo boots and we all had DMS. We thought it was funny anyway.

When I was there in '73 we had the 9/12th Lancers in Hobart, the LG in Lothian, the LI in Lemgo, can't remember their Bks, and yes 71 Acraft.

I have many happy memories of my time in Detmold with HQ Army Avn, at the top end of camp, when I was there we had the Royals in Hobart along with 3rd Rocking Horse Artillery, at Lothian it was the 3rd Carbon Queers followed by the RDG just before I left, we lived in Erikastrrasse joust over the road from Lothian, and I used to walk in to work through the married quarters and across the sports field. I was at Detmold from Sept 66 to June 68, names I remember are Ian Milner RA he married Christine Marsh, her father was Capt Marsh RAOC 71 Ac Wksp, Dave Cheesman RA, Neil Stubberfield RA, Frank Bradshaw RA, Ken Parfitt REME, Smudge Smith REME, Keith Reide RAOC, Col Angus Cameron-Gow AAC, Maj Pat Musters AAC DFC, would love to hear from anyone who knows any of the above and thier whereabouts now.
Regards Pete Duckworth

Hi Doc,
You probably knew my Father-in-Law , ASM Chas Moriss.
I landed in Detmold posted with 3RD Carbs band in '62. We held a guest night in the Sgts Mess to welcome members of the other WOs & JO's from the area. Chas was there with his wife and daughter Christene, and Bingo ! we have been married now for 44 years !!

i remember the crab keller very well, [wasent to keen the morning after] somebody must remember ruth.

Doc Savage wrote:

I have many happy memories of my time in Detmold with HQ Army Avn, at the top end of camp, when I was there we had the Royals in Hobart along with 3rd Rocking Horse Artillery, at Lothian it was the 3rd Carbon Queers followed by the RDG just before I left, we lived in Erikastrrasse joust over the road from Lothian, and I used to walk in to work through the married quarters and across the sports field. I was at Detmold from Sept 66 to June 68, names I remember are Ian Milner RA he married Christine Marsh, her father was Capt Marsh RAOC 71 Ac Wksp, Dave Cheesman RA, Neil Stubberfield RA, Frank Bradshaw RA, Ken Parfitt REME, Smudge Smith REME, Keith Reide RAOC, Col Angus Cameron-Gow AAC, Maj Pat Musters AAC DFC, would love to hear from anyone who knows any of the above and thier whereabouts now.
Regards Pete Duckworth

......Ken Parfit was posted to Bielefield in early 1970, he then applied for and got a transfer to RD duty at Depot, the last time I saw him was in Nov of 75, he was then a s/sgt, a good man ar' Ken. regards, Ian.

Hi.
I was married above the cookhouse had my reception in $th armoured workshops reme sgt's mess my father in law was ssm topper brown a great bloke . still miss him.

detmold, now that name brings back memories of some fun nights,i first arriived in detmold in 1971 posted to the AAC, directions to get anywhere in town started with,out the front gate down the hill, and when you get to the swinging tit,etc,etc. an other thing we had to do on a regular basis was wash and polish the skeeter outside 655 sqn.

Hi.
When i married my fist accomidation was the pub as you went down the hill on the right .
For the life of me i cant remember the name of it but what a place to live,cant remember having an early night to bed he he

i cant remember the name either,but someone will put us right,a small friendly woman,chubby,and always cheerful,some of the older ex pats used to have their buffs nights in there my friend adam and i used to sneak in to make the numbers up and get a free meal.

Yes i was one for a short time gerry hayes got me in but shortly afterwards i moved to cyprus . so i lost tuch with the buffs,still have my lodge medals though.

The first bar outside the gate was the three quarters ( well that what we called it ) the next one was the Half Way and the one at the bottom of the hill was Bobs' bar ( the ice bar) accross the junction was Potthoffs.
We all used to congregate in the Long Bar in town and then to the disco called the " why not?"

happy days and pub crawls

was with 4 armd wksps 1976- 80

bob...I notice in your "Places Served" that you were stationed in Soest...what dates were you there and where abouts did you live?

As you may have discovered from other posts of mine, Soest was and remains my adopted "home town." I loved living there!

Hi Stephen.
I was with 5 Armd Wksps in Salamanca Barracks ( Fort York I think it would be )The one with the 2 churches outside the gates.The churches look like they are houses now but I cann't be sure.The guard room is a Schnell Imbiss.Warsteiner have a distribution centre there as well .
I was there 1986/88. We lived at 9a St Lorenz Weg just behind the NAAFI .
Went back in 2007 for a visit. The MQ patch is a mess , over grown bushes, pot holes in the road. Our MQ had a bloody hooka (?) pipe in the kitchen window.I think its full of immigrants. That was the second time the wife burst out crying. She wouldn't stay and take photos but I took some of the barracks.
We are going back but it won't be until 2011.Soest was a good posting.

hi bob,iam fairly new to the computer world,but when i started looking around different sites i to could have cried ,to think of all the bull wasted,it was hobart bks that got me,dave.

It's a very true saying. Never go back!

bob wrote:

Hi Stephen.
I was with 5 Armd Wksps in Salamanca Barracks ( Fort York I think it would be )The one with the 2 churches outside the gates.The churches look like they are houses now but I cann't be sure.The guard room is a Schnell Imbiss.Warsteiner have a distribution centre there as well .
I was there 1986/88. We lived at 9a St Lorenz Weg just behind the NAAFI .
Went back in 2007 for a visit. The MQ patch is a mess , over grown bushes, pot holes in the road. Our MQ had a bloody hooka (?) pipe in the kitchen window.I think its full of immigrants. That was the second time the wife burst out crying. She wouldn't stay and take photos but I took some of the barracks.
We are going back but it won't be until 2011.Soest was a good posting.

Wouldn't you have possibly been in what was known as Fort Chambly Bob? That's where the Canadian RCEME Work Shop was. Fort York was an infantry camp. The RCR or Canadian Guards and ws taken over by the Germans I think a ground to air missile unit.

bob wrote:

Hi Stephen.
I was with 5 Armd Wksps in Salamanca Barracks ( Fort York I think it would be )The one with the 2 churches outside the gates.The churches look like they are houses now but I cann't be sure.The guard room is a Schnell Imbiss.Warsteiner have a distribution centre there as well .

I keep getting which fort became which barracks confused...I think Salamanca was the former Fort York, but I see Hardrations thinks it wasn't.

When I was in Soest in 73, having returned from Canada to work for a German construction company (dreadful job, btw), I knew several of the squaddies from Salamanca. A young woman I chummed with, and whose family essentially adopted me, dated a couple of them, one quite seriously and through her, that was how I met the guys. Most of them were okay fellows, a few were trouble,though -- like anywhere.

Yes, I believe at least one of the churches is now a private home. I know one of the churches down in Deilinghofen outside of Hemer has been converted to a private home...which I think is rather cool.

I had to chuckle about the guardhouse becoming a schnell imbiss. Structurally, that would pretty much be a perfect fit. Given the tendency for soldiers, to say nothing of the teens, to eat far too many bratwurst or currywursts, it is even more appropriate.

What is pretty much perfect, in my opinion, is Warsteiner Brauerei having a distribution centre there. Of course! Vast amounts of Warsteiner, along with Veltins and a few other brands, were consumed, either on site or off, so this is perfect! LOL

bob wrote:

I was there 1986/88. We lived at 9a St Lorenz Weg just behind the NAAFI .
Went back in 2007 for a visit. The MQ patch is a mess , over grown bushes, pot holes in the road. Our MQ had a bloody hooka (?) pipe in the kitchen window.I think its full of immigrants. That was the second time the wife burst out crying. She wouldn't stay and take photos but I took some of the barracks.
We are going back but it won't be until 2011.Soest was a good posting.

Ahhh...you were there after me then, over a decade. I am of course quite familiar with St. Lorenz Weg (like all the streets in the MQs, it is a Canadian name. In this case a Germanized version of St. Lawrence, a reference to the river stretching in from the Atlantic, through New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario and a major "player"in early Canadian history).

I lived at 10-A Kanadischer Weg, right behind the heating plant.

I've heard the former PMQs are now largely immigrant, just like the ones down in Hemer as well. Mainly ethnicly-German Russians, East Germans and, I am guessing, Yugoslavs and Turks. Too bad about the state of the area; potholes I could live with but the overgrowth of vegetation is just pure neglect.

So many of our (both Canadian and British) holdings have been allowed to go derelict. It's a real crying shame, it really is.

The actual units, or flats, are quite large by German standards. The one we lived in on Kanadischer Weg was a 2-bedroom in a 2-storey block. My room was a bit small -- enough room for a single bed (with a 'pull out' on the underframe), a bureau/chest-of-drawers, a "schrank" or wardrobe and a desk/chair. Very bright though.

The living room/dining room area was comfortable and quite roomy. We of course had the Canadian MQ furniture which was quite bulky and heavy but solid, quite unlike the balsawood you bunch got saddled with!

I have no doubt any families moving into these former MQ's would think themsevles quite lucky as other "wohnungs" of comparable age were nowhere near as large or if they were, they wee very expensive.

During one of my many 'Net searches re Soest, I came across a real estate site and some of the units in the old MQ area were listed. All in all, they were going for a reaonable price,especially compared to the prices being asked for the pokey, although interesting, owned flats in the half-timbered houses in the inner city/old city. I forget the price range,but seems to me the former MQ's were going for 90,000euros. Of course, some of the units were also rentals...probably a significant number were.

I've seen photos of the Soest PMQs taken by both Canadian and British who have gone back and, all in all, the area didn't look too bad. Certainly better than the former PMQs in Hemer which look very grey and dismal and rather 'slummy.' But then, the Soest PMQs were always "better" than the Hemer ones, even under the Canadians. I suspect since Soest was the Canadian HQ for the Brigade, various monies for the upkeep etc of holdings was channelled to Soest first and Werl and Hemer and Unna after. Perhaps not, but it seems logical to me (in an Army sort of way).

When I was living in Soest in '73 I spent a fair amount of time visiting friends in the PMQs. Even then, sad to say, the area was starting to go down a bit. These buildings are, after all, nearly 50 years old. Hehehe, we all start to slide a bit at that age!

The former Protestant Chapel in Fort Prince of Wales is now a sheet metal shop with living quarters in the top half for the owner and family.[

The owner and wife, she is Irish he of course is German.
They are quite friendly to those who have been posted there and are willing to let you have a look around.

So while I'm at it, here is the German newspaper slant on the day they demolished the Catholic Chapel in Fort McLeod in Deilinghofen.

I live in detmold now, and I went into the celler and found some stuff from the 70s, The evac plans if the Russians turned up.

'' The first sign of an attack, that there might be a large exsplosion in the area''

You f*****g think so, Im glad that if I was off fighting that people who made those plans were the best people to look after my family NOT. lol.

I was attached to the Queens Own Hussars, Hobart Brks 1980--1981. Best unit I had the pleasure of being attached to. My MQ was up on the 'Hack', Poggenpohl if I remember correctly.