Anyone who served with Raymond Smith 1947-49 in Germany

Please bear with me, I am unfamiliar with the terminology to be used but I will give it my best!

My Grandfather, Raymond Smith, completed his British National Service between 1947 and 1949 in Germany. I have a heap of photo's with no descriptions or names written on them apart from portrait photo's that must have been exchanged between the guys when departing. The back of one of those photo's says "B.A.O.R4" 1948. That snippet of information lead me to this site.

If anyone served with my Grandfather or knows of the following gentlemen please contact me. Chances are I have photo's of these men and I would love to contact them or their families to share copies of these photo's. Ray died in 1998 after a brave battle with cancer and only being 17 at the time it never occurred to me to ask about this time in his life.

Les Borden (served approx. 1947)

Les James (served approx. 1948)

Les (a third gentleman with the same first name, but no further information)

'Pado' or 'Dado' (served approx. 1948)

It was Pado / Dado who wrote B.A.O.R 4 on the back of his photo. Apart from this information there is very little to go on. There are vehicle numbers in some of the photo's (I think they were personal carriers), some pictures of large guns set up and hidden with tree branches.

Some 'homebase' photo's include large 'hanger' type buildings that seem to have housed all the vehicles etc. a Hockey field, basketball court and maybe a big quadrangle area??

A photo of a competition leader board was also taken, but I am unsure of its relevance to the time in Germany... it says the 19th Field Regiment Monthly Intertroop M.T. Competition.

If anyone can help me with any information I would most appreciate it!!

Kind Regards,

Lauren Smith
Victoria, Australia.

Lauren

A few thoughts

BAOR 4 was the military post code for Dusseldorf in the late 1940s

Information elsewhere on the site indicates that 19 Field Regiment Royal Artilllery was based in Caernarvon Barracks Dusseldorf at that time.

Steve, our real expert on the area, is away at present on urgent family business but doubtless will add more when he returns in about 10 days time

Caernarvon Baracks was adjacent to the main airport for the area to the north of the city(known as Lohausen) but was demolished some 15 years ago when the majority of the British Army units left the area

There are others on the this site who have served in the Dusseldorf area , they too may be able to add further information

Now this it extremerlallry interesting! I've always been intrigued by stuff like this and if anybody's still alive and can offer solutions and information, then more power to their elbow(s).

It's probably likely that yon fellas (if they're still alive - and I fervently hope they are!) passed on any info to their offspring, who could also furnish a few details from memory.

This could prove to be very interesting indeed!

MsG

JPW wrote:

Lauren

A few thoughts

BAOR 4 was the military post code for Dusseldorf in the late 1940s

Information elsewhere on the site indicates that 19 Field Regiment Royal Artilllery was based in Caernarvon Barracks Dusseldorf at that time.

Steve, our real expert on the area, is away at present on urgent family business but doubtless will add more when he returns in about 10 days time

Caernarvon Baracks was adjacent to the main airport for the area to the north of the city(known as Lohausen) but was demolished some 15 years ago when the majority of the British Army units left the area

There are others on the this site who have served in the Dusseldorf area , they too may be able to add further information

Hi Lauren
Thanks JPW but not a real expert but have the following recorded
1 Apr 47 RHQ 17th Field Regiment RA at Caernarvon Bks, Düsseldorf redesignated 19th Field Regiment RA, with 25, 28 and 67 Fld Btys redesignated from 10 Fld Bty, 13 Fld Bty and 26 Bty of 26/92 Fld Bty respectively the regiment supported 4 Inf Bde Group known as 4 Gds Bde Group from May 50 and remained until Sep 54 17th Field Regiment RA were in Austria after WW2 before moving to Düsseldorf
Regards
Steve

Thanks for replying so quickly folks!!

Do you think it would be of any benefit posting some of the photo's of the men I wish to find or do you believe that would be an intrusion of privacy??

I have some location photo's I will post within the next few days. They may not mean much to anyone, but they are great records of the time my Grandfather served overseas and the conditions in which the guys lived.

Thanks again

Lauren