Rheindahlen - The Kremlin

happy days indeed . ginger

I can remember we were always warned about 'SOXMIS' vehicles floating around outside Rheindhalen or near other baracks. Can't say I ever saw any Roosians spying on us in all the time I was in BAOR.

I do remember that as young Sodjiers we were warned about allowing ourselves to be 'compromised' in honey traps, or boozed up states, or kinky sex with donkeys or goats.... why goats or donkeys beats me!!!!

Trouble was, the more I though about this, the more paranoid I became, until at one point I didn't leave the confines of barracks for several months in case I was 'turned' by KGB into a double agent........ ????

But, hey, I came through all these tribulations that young, greenhorn soldiers go through (I ahd a very sheltered upbringing )..... I never did get to go down for a visit to Kanalstrasse to see the nice ladies sitting in their shop windows.....

I served with 24 Msl Regt, stationed in Ubique Bks on the B1 in Dortmund, in the mid 70s. Ever Tuesday, regular as clockwork, a Russian artic "broke down" opposite the Bks, apparently the driver was a well know Captain in the KGB. Should have come on a Saturday, only the guard were in camp.

Shelldrake wrote:

I served with 24 Msl Regt, stationed in Ubique Bks on the B1 in Dortmund, in the mid 70s. Ever Tuesday, regular as clockwork, a Russian artic "broke down" opposite the Bks, apparently the driver was a well know Captain in the KGB. Should have come on a Saturday, only the guard were in camp.

Was he buying western goods to flog back over the boarder Shelldrake ?

No Dee Z, he was trying to spy on me and my mates with a view to killing us.

Didn`t work ,did it

Always one step ahead of the Posse!

I never did get to actually visit the 'White House', the HQ of BAOR in any official capacity. But I visited all the other 'places of interest' that squaddies do whilst at Rheindahlen. I was once selected as part of 28 (BR) Sigs water polo team because I was quite a good swimmer. The problem was I wear glasses and am quite short sighted. So when I was in the swimming pool, playing against another regiment, I couldn't see where the ball was coming from. Needless to say I was deselected as part of the Regimental Water Polo Team.

The best part of Regimental Sports was the pee-ups afterwards in the NAAFI or elsewhere.

One of the other stories I heard, was that the WRAC accommodations had to have a wire fence, and gated entry erected around it due to the numbers of lusty young men who used to either climb in through the windows to 'service' the horny, love lorn and lonely WRAC girls.

The RMP used to raid it sometimes looking for wayward Lads who where in the wrong place.

So, are female accommodations in the 21st Century British Army still separated from the Lads accommodations, or are they all mixed now. I believe that the Officers Mess sleeping accommodations is mixed nowadays.....

I saw a programme on TV about Afghanistan and a female Bombardier lived in the same marquee as the lads,they had individual small tents all round the sides.

I remember going to the Big House in late 1982 in a staff car to collect my OC who had been attending some sort of officers briefing day.  I pulled up at the gate to be told by an over paid civvie in a uniform that I was "out of bounds" and to leave immediately.  I asked if he was military to which he replied that he wasn't.  I asked if the building was military to which he said it was obviously. So I told him that I was military, the car was military, the building he was guarding was military therefore I was very definitely "In Bounds" and he was not.  The stand off lasted 20 minutes until another staff car pulled up behind me with an officer in the back who told the civvie to let us in. Oh happy days

unclevanya wrote:

The only one I can remember was the 'Shack', a German Bar, the 'Queensway Club' (RAF one) and another NAAFI run club for us lot, the Squaddies.:  

The NAAFI club was called "The Marley" if I remember correctly. The German bar might have been called the Oarser (very definitely the wrong spelling) which was famous for fried chicken. Pops and Eddies were 2 German bars out the back of JHQ on opposite sides of the road to each other. Famous only for its Spaghetti Bolognaise. Other clubs of note were the independent squadron clubs. 68 Sqn RCT had one called (I believe) the 468 club

Our usual Friday night pub crawl was:
The Belgie Bar, the PMC, the Marly and finally either Pop's and Eddie's or the Gravel Pit in Möchengladbach.
Belgian, Dutch, British and German bars - all of the nations of NORTHAG covered in one night of drinking.