I was stationed in Germany during the Cold War. I was at a NATO Site near the French border. We were told if the Soviets came through the Fulda Gap that we only had minutes to live. We were a very high priority target. So much so that the US Air Force did low level practice bombing runs over our site. If we were under attack or overrun we were expendable. They would destroy the contents of the bunkers so that they didn’t fall into enemy hands.
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I have fond memories of those days and the GAP.
Our Regimental deployment positions had us in the middle of the 3rd Shock Armies main route…we didn’t really look forward to it kicking off for real… Just thinking about it now makes me want to read Ref Storm Rising again …
I spent a week down at the Gap on an exchange visit with a tankie Regt there … That was good.
I might as well just get my Army pension transferred directly to Tankograd; they keep coming out with Cold War titles par excellence!
However, for what it’s worth I’d like to see them branch out into the stuff that was going on the other side of the IGB. All those massive Warsaw Pact exercises - Waffenbruederschaft anyone?
I spent 2 years in the middle of the gap stationed in Fulda with the 1/11th ACR. I drove M551s and M60A1s when we turned in the Sheridans. A platoon would spend several weeks at OP Alpha on the border. It was a strange feeling being 3 feet from the Iron Curtain. Will probably get the book for nostalgia if nothing else.
I was stationed in Schweinfurt, Conn Barracks, 3-64 Armor, 3rd ID (84-86, 90-92). Our General Dispersal Positions were 11 km west of the E. German, Czech border. My tank companies position straddled autobahn 303 and we were a blocking force against Soviet and E German formations. We were told if we could not hold our positions, the long bridge behind us would be blown. Essentially we would have been left to fight to the death.
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Ah yes, the days of TIT and DIP.
TIT = Tanks, Infantry, TOWs
DIP= Die In Place
Has anyone read “Red Army” by Ralph Peters?
Fun fact! The British were stationed where the Americans should have been stationed and vice versa!
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This is kind of covered in the Red Army bock.
I know RTR were there in the mid 80’s to very early 90’s while I was in Detmold and Sennelager … cant remember which one out the 4 it was though. Would that be about the same period you were over there ?
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I stayed in Hildeshiem on the way to Wildflecken. I only know that there was some sort of tank regiment there. I was invited to sneak off the base, which of course I did, and caroused with the Brits.
A great time was had by all, but the next morning I’ll never fogrget. Bangers and mash. Some of the prettiest browned sausages I’d seen up to that point. Unfortunately they were not the same type of pork based bangers from the night before. These were bread sausages that had little flavor at all. Thenk God for Dad’s sauce.
Maybe the morning sausages are designed to soak up the alcohol from the night before. 
Well, if you were eating bangers and mash, you can rule out 4 RTR… They would of had you eating Haggis for breakfast lol…
1 RTR were N West, predominantly Merseyside, 2 were London and home counties, and 3 were the South West of England
John,
The excellent website “BAOR Locations” has 1 RTR serving there (Tofrek Barracks) from Nov 84 - 92:
Tofrek Barracks (baor-locations.org)
If you scroll down from the attachment there’s a pretty interesting set of pics from 1 RTR.
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I forget about that site…I often have a scroll through looking at the old Trg areas and barracks or places I went to … 
Geez, Rob you and me chewed some of the same dirt back in the day - your ‘visit’ to Wildchicken was while I was there with 1/68 Armor. We were at the far end of the Kaserne, you left our motor pool banged a left and you were essentially on the tank trails to the ranges.
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Which one did you get?
I think the qualifications were done with the P8 (USP-9), the G3 and the MG3. Most people (from what i’ve heard from friends that have it), that you’d get solid quals on the pistol and rifle, but the MG was harder because of the ROF on the MG3 was something some soldiers wouldn’t expect (900-1200 RPM versus 500-650 RPM with the M60).
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Well, I’m probably one of the few Brits who ever got there; I was in my last tour with the Regular Army (prior to my last 6 months in the UK) and I’d volunteered to assist what was then the recently formed Allied Command Europe (ACE) Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), which at the time was a somewhat modified former Brit HQ at Bielefeld, with most other NATO nations thrown in. It was still finding its feet and I ended up in what became Air Branch (hitherto the 1st British Corps Air/Army Aviation branch). This was all grist to my mill having been around more than enough HQs to make a difference (or so I liked to think), anyway, long story short: it was decreed that the Brit Army Air Corps units in Germany would undertake their annual fitness for role test in Wildflecken; in other words, a test of their TOW-equipped Lynx helicopters. This was unusual as normally they’d be tested at Hohne, or Soltau or wherever they used prior to the collapse of the Soviet opposition, the impact of the Gulf War and so on and so forth. To be honest, the British Army was pretty chaotic at the time (1993).
I was sent down to Wildflecken to coordinate all manner of things; one advantage of working with the AAC was that I went by helicopter, always a good way to travel. The task involved loads of admin, coord and with special attention to VIP visitors; as I say, all grist to my mill and nothing I couldn’t handle. That’s not to boast, but by then I was a fairly capable Warrant Officer with no small experience.
I was actually very impressed with the camp: the usual well-built Nazi-era barracks, and facilities which only the US can seem to provide. I was made very welcome.
The exercise, known as a TOWSTE (TOW (missile) Standard Training Exercise, inevitably referred to as “Toastie”, involved all 3 BAOR-based AAC regiments rotating through the ranges within a week’s time span. I can’t quite remember the details, but it involved the integration of what was then called the JAAT concept, “Joint Air Attack Team”, which meant the Lynxes fired their missiles within a tactical scenario, supported by a US M109 battery, and fast air from the Belgians (F16s), US (A-10s I think), and the Luftwaffe (Tornadoes). This was hugely impressive stuff. I noticed that the TOW targets were nothing more sophisticated than wooden cut-outs on rails, with an attached bucket of charcoal!
Come the VIP Day and I was pretty busy, helicoptering out the great and the good, including the 2 star Deputy Commander of the ARRC, by chance an Italian Major General, whose Clerk I had been when he was a mere Major – on attachment - at a Divisional HQ in southern England back in the 70s. A small world sometimes!
The great and the good also included a Brit Major General, who was the Director of the Army Air Corps visiting from the UK. As we trekked over to the M109 Battery, he espied a Hummer, which he hadn’t seen before. In his patrician tones as only a senior British officer can utter, he enquired of the US soldier who was standing next to it, “That’s a jolly fine vehicle, how do you find it?” The soldier said, and I swear this is true, “Sleeps three Sir”. Priceless.
As you can tell, I enjoyed myself at Wildflecken; apologies for the thread hijack(!)
Still have my “Schützenschnur in Bronze” hanging in my living room. I was at the 1./PzBtl 83 the last 3 years of my service in the late 1980’s, usually driving a MAN 5 to gl truck. When I brought ammo to the range I had to wait until the guys had finished shooting (mainly G3, MG3 and pistol P1) but also other stuff. I always took the chance for shooting and had my record book always with me. So I was one of the very few Transporters who got the Schützenschnur … 
You sir, are a winner.
I was awarded the Bronze. The MG-3was very hard to contol. But was an Awesome Beast to fire. I started to have flashbacks of "CROSS OF IRON"
I never had the chance to fire one. Never had the pleasure of working jointly with the Germans. I bet it would’ve been fun to try and qualify for the Schutzenschnur.
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We had a good time and spent alot of time on tank and small arm simulators.
It was surprising to see how common their training and day to day running was like the US Army.
I mentioned that further up the thread. Kloster = Monastery in German. And yes, it was rarted first or second in the world at the time, depending on which review you read - Playboy or Penthouse.
I married a German and she had relatives in Rimpar by Wuerzburg. We visited that Kloster. That was some powerful beer. I was already out of the Army and working for AAFES at the time.
No but I remember waving to it from the train window.
