Hi folks, I wondering if anybody can help.? My grandfather, Sgt John Bolland was an instructor with 152nd Regt RAC before being posted to the Gunnery Wing, AFV school in January 1945. It was always thought that he deployed to Germany in January but since his records show he embarked for BAOR in June 45 this was obviously not the case! We have some old photos that John took whilst in Germany which seem to show him with a unit of 7th Armoured and several references to the 11th Hussars and Kellinghusen. Does anybody have any information on 152nd Regt or in particular the Gunnery Wing in Germany. I'm guessing that they were deployed to Germany to continually train the various units of British troops. Interestingly, his service record shows he trained on the Valentine tank, yet all the photos we have of him are with armoured cars. Regards, Mark
Mark, is there any chance you can up load the service record? (If you select watch thread from the right hand side of the screen, you should receive notice somebody has added something to your post). Year or date of birth/area may help also. Cheers - Maria
Good evening Leslie, I don't know if it's my computer but I can't see what you have attached. Regards, Mark
Mark See attached RAC Training Regiment document I found on the web a while back. It gives a fairly good overview of the schools that were set up in Germany after the war had ended and the reasons for them. Cheers Matt Mark Apologies I tried to upload the PDF but it was too big (4 MB) and didn't realize I'd sent the message - Try this instead www.baor-locations.org/ractrgctr46.pdf Regards Matt
Fascinating document. I wonder when they changed the name to Bergen-Hohne? The camp referred to was until recently the home of 7th Armoured Brigade - and now empty. The displaced persons occupying the camp were the what were described at the time as Polish Jewish survivors from Belsen concentration camp. Originally all of the survivors from Belsen went into the barracks, but the christian Poles were separated after a series of disputes. Bergan-Belsen camp was politicised and a centre for lobbying for and organsing emigration to Palestine. Paradoxically the camp at Fallingbostel, which housed the Polish Christian Displaced Persons now houses Syrian refugees.