Hi Brian, John,
nice to hear how you spent your time in Germany…
there is nothing more exhilarating than being in a Chally at full speed smashing through a hedge or 5 bar gate then ripping a road to shreds while on a full on Div Ex in Germany and not caring about who is paying for it all lol
really, John? I have seen the aftermath of your exercises here in my area very well…A litlle more caution would have been nice 
There was a joke around in the autumn exercises: A German Farmer calling the damage control officer reporting for heavy damage on his fields. Well, says the officer, the exercise starts not earlier than tomorrow! Oh really? said the farmer. Then I will call again tomorrow in the afternoon…
Well, old times, which felt safer then the actual crisis. Despite the damage of your tanks, I loved to visit your exercises for pictures very much!
Andreas
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My apologies Andreas, I know I’ve said that before to you … I think we were less restricted over there on the big Div exercises countrywide as we played everything in real-time and the battle movement was done how we would do it for real…it was so much more realistic… And as crewmen, we all knew that any damage done would be paid for with no questions asked…I know each exercise the damcon expenses ran into the millions of DM…
I remember my first big FTX in the mid 80s, our OB Chieftain (Mk9) was coming down a hill onto a road, slid on ice, down a dip, and the turret brace slipped and the barrel went through a corner of a house (in one wall and out the other and the wagon badly damaged the side of the house with its hull…) …the house was the equivalent of a UK listed building due to its age, and the tank couldn’t be moved in case of further damage, so the only way to prevent more damage was to oxy acetylene cut the barrel in situ … Then drag the tank sideways away from the house… That alone was close to DM 500k, which was a massive amount in those days . … I glad you felt safer though with us all there … I for one totally loved Germany, and would go back in a heartbeat. 
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John,
that was your unit with the Chieftain??? I remember to have seen pictures of that in the daily newspaper. You know I was in an armoured unit myself; we got listings of usually happening damages like smashed curbstone, squaremeter of potatoe field, trees, garden fences etc. And, we were told, just in case we would have been accused to have caused such damage by careless driving or by intent, we had to compensate the damage on ours AND get a sentence on top. Well, a collegue drove through a childen´s sand pit with his truck because he was angry about an order of his RSM-and he paid himself. Yes, it was a lot safer these days. Most of us Germans appreciated your presence in our country. Except of the farmers maybe…
Andreas
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Yeah, the investigation cleared the driver. Once you start to slide with 60 plus tons you basically just sit tight, brave brace brace and enjoy the ride … You have zero control… The driver was a lad called Jack Horner, it was C Sqn RHG/D … Blues and Royals. He actually got high praise as he stayed opened up and try to steer away from the house once he was off the ice patch.
I hear ya. It was the best time of my life. I remember watching a few documentaries about NATO maneuvers when I was a kid growing up in the 70s, then there I was as an 18 year old on some of those same fields and roads on exercises, Erlangen 85-87. Just wish I would have taken more pictures!
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Currently no real updates as I am on Holiday 
but …… the postman did bring me my next Cr which is intended to be the KFOR version. Dilemma solved 
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Have just spent sometime reading through this excellent thread Marc (whilst waiting in hospital for my wife to have a minor toe op!)
A great learning experience for when I get round to tackling my Tamiya Challenger 1, esp with @Johnnych01 usual extremely helpful detailed input, not to mention his, @BootsDMS and others memories of training in Germany, back in the day. Thankful to all you folk that served back then, for your part in keeping it to just that!
Terry
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