The Browns, 18a Niedersachsen Strasse, Detmold

Thursday September 18^th, 2014

Just over 50 years ago, dad – Chief Petty Officer Bernard Edward George Brown – also known as Buster or Bomber - was posted from Lee-On-Solent, near Gosport, where the family were living at the time, to Detmold in Germany. 

Detmold is located just over an hour from Hannover, half an hour from Bielefeld, with Berlin 4 hours to the East, and Essen 2 hours to the West.

Although dad was Royal Navy – more precisely Fleet Air Arm – he and 2 other Chief Petty Officers were "on loan" to the Army Air Corps. I vaguely remember one was called Bill Sellars, and the other definitely Ernie Selwood. I went to school in Detmold with Ernie and Mary's daughters Yvonne, and Vivian. Both Ernie and dad were posted to Culdrose in Cornwall after Germany, and both generations all stayed friends. Vivian eventually married Keith in the year above me at Redruth Grammar school, and I worked with Yvonne in my first job at Lastonet in Redruth, Cornwall, and she had already married Tony. Everyone eventually moved away from Cornwall, but we all remained in contact for many years to follow.

Most Fleet Air Arm engineers had helicopter skills, whereas dad was "fixed wing". I am sure he had always said it was to train Army Air Corps engineers on small propeller planes like the Auster, but it could well have been the reverse. After a few months on his own, dad was able to arrange for the family to join him, and we all lived in a flat at the top of a German family's house in Horn, which is a village 10 minutes from Detmold. Soon after that we moved into a house on a married quarter estate in Detmold, on the edge of the Army/Army Air Corps base. 

The perimeter fence of the base (Hobart Barracks) was in front of where we lived, and there was a footpath which skirted the fence taking us to the gatehouse and then into the base where the school was located, as well as shops, and even a cinema. Of course there were lots of Conqueror, Chieftain and Challenger tanks, helicopters, and planes, as well as barracks for the soldiers and airmen who were among the tens of thousands of British, American and Canadian forces based throughout West Germany during the Cold War. The NATO forces were always seen as a possible delaying factor to an invasion by Russia and the Warsaw Pact countries, with 6000 NATO tanks heavily outnumbered by 50,000 Warsaw Pact tanks, although it was always debatable how many of these might have worked effectively! But there were enough to worry about. . .
 

Dad and Charlie Cable

As children we had little concerns about the Cold War, but I always remember the locals being a little concerned, especially when they saw dad in his Royal Navy uniform, which looked very much like a Russian uniform, and particularly when they were so used to khaki uniforms!

 
I also remember having concerns about dad's gas mask. This was always under the stairs with dad's kitbag, and we were allowed to try it on, but with dad saying "It is not a toy". I remember asking what is was for, and getting some sort of reassuring answer, but at the same time asking him that if he needed a gas mask why didn't mum and us children have one?

Like all the dads, our dad was often away for days at a time on military exercises. I remember one particular time when we were all woken up in the middle of the night with bright search lights at the front of the house, and soldiers loading up trucks to take all the military "back to base". Many times we would ask when dad was coming home, and many years after that realised mum really did not know, and looking more worried than usual. I also remember the night (Friday November 22, 1963) when Kennedy was assasinated, and mum and dad worrying how that would affect things in Western Europe, while trying not to worry us children.

Today I wish I had asked mum and dad more about those times. . . – and other times.

It was always on my list to revisit Germany. I have been to Cologne many times with work, and also to Hamburg, and Frankfurt, and although Detmold is not on the usual tourist trail of Brits in Germany, we headed in that direction from Bruges.

We parked the caravan at the only site we could find in the area, a town called Lemgo, and on our first full day set out to see what I could remember from my childhood. I could certainly remember we lived at 18a Niedersachsen Strasse in Detmold – some things you never forget. Maybe it was mum sewing our address into our school clothes that did the trick. . . Putting the address into the SatNav we were amazed that it accepted it!

As we drove closer, I expected the area to be cleared and replaced with an Aldi or Lidl or both, but it was so strange to see the married quarters estate pretty much as it was in the 1960's. Trees were taller, and there were satellite dishes on roofs. 

I thought the skylights in the roof were new, but looking at an old photo once more, they were there in the 1960's.




 

All of the houses appeared empty – but not boarded up – and looked recently painted. Although all appeared unoccupied there was no sign of vandalism – which is something that you would expect in such a location in the UK. I parked the car in front of the house next to where the base perimeter fence used to be.

There are now expensive looking houses where that perimeter used to be, but the footpath I used to walk to school was there. With hindsight I should have taken a stroll along it, but just took a few photos.








On leaving the area of the house, we went out of the estate a different way to what we had come in. As we turned the corner, we saw a small area of grass and I remembered Santa Claus arriving by helicopter and landing on that grass. 





There is no way that would be allowed today – maybe it wasn't then – but it was great at the time for all of us. Of course, I knew that Santa Claus was actually our neighbour, and dad's Army Air Corps friend "Charlie Cable", but I didn't spoil it for my sister Lynda and baby brother Adrian! Now I remember my dad's Air Corps mate's name, but no idea who the children were, although they must have gone to school with us. But then they weren't Santa Claus were they?




Just to confirm - brother Adrian was still a baby - Lynda and I weren't far off! 

The photo above and right were taken at the back of 18a Niedersachsen Strasse in the 60's.






We then headed in the direction of where I thought the base was. The base is all public land and buildings now, with most of the buildings closed up, but many of the hangars have been taken over by businesses for commercial ventures. There was one business called Hangar 21 which I have since discovered holds cultural and entertainment events in a cleaned up hangar:
Hangar 21 


What was quite strange was that the control tower is also still standing. Land had been cleared on the edge of the base where there once would have been hangars, and a supermarket built, and there is a new road network being constructed near there. I would guess that in time the unused buildings will be cleared, and the area will change completely.






It was nice to see people walking their dogs on what was the airfield, and the area did still seem to have an edge of town feel. Maybe in the absence of any physical monument to remember the many thousands of British service men and women who served there in the Cold War, and of course the German Luftwaffe personnel who served there during the Second World War and before, it would be good if the land remained as a public open area. . .







That was stage one of the stroll down childhood memory lane, and we headed down into Detmold town itself. To be honest I don't remember much about the town other than the castle, which being a castle is still there. 

It's a pretty town, and after a stroll we found a nice bar, a bit trendy, 








but with outside seating in the sun to enjoy our first beer in Germany. 

Lunch was a little less enjoyable!

After picking up a few leaflets at the tourist office, the next place on the tour was Hermannsdenkmal. Whenever someone visited from the UK, this was one of the nearest interesting places to take them. As a child the statue was just an impressive statue, so going back 50 years later it was still an impressive statue, but I could now attach some very interesting history to its origin. I seem to remember dad being able to drive quite close to the statue, but there is now a massive car park (with charges!) and a reasonable stroll through the trees to the base of the statue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermannsdenkmal

From there the next visit on the tour was to Die Externsteine, which is a geological feature of 5 sandstone pillars, not far from Horn where we first lived in Germany. Again a popular place to take family from the UK when they visited. 

Nothing much has changed in 50 years – not surprising in rocks that have been there millions of years. But I seem to remember being able to see the rocks from the road where now you drive up to a car park and walk to the rocks. We had bought a joint ticket to climb up inside Hermannsdenkmal, and then to the top of Die Externsteine – but one climb in a day was enough to be honest!


It has taken some time to write this post, but in googling some of the places we have visited, and things we have done, it has been really interesting to find things that have changed. For example, at Die Externsteine in 1958 there were around 224,000 visitors a year, and I would guess this was around the same a few years later when we used to visit. This compares with visitor numbers of up to a million today, which probably explains the elaborate visitor displays, car parks, bar and restaurant that were not there in the 60's. And the reason why the road may have been routed away from the rocks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externsteine

It started to rain as we left Die Externsteine, but there was still enough of the day left to return into Detmold and find the Detmold Brauhaus and enjoy a "pint" of the local brew.

"Baby" brother Adrian suggested when we spoke recently that it must have been an emotional return. It was. But in a very positive way. Even as a 10 year old (at the oldest) we had some great times, and very happy times. It enabled us as a family to travel much more than we had ever done before. We had memorable camping holidays in Holland and Italy, and in travelling South to Italy, also visited Austria and Switzerland.
All in dad's Ford Taunus – VF 94 B ! Like the address in Detmold, I remember that too!
The only negative emotion is that they aren't around for me to ask questions about the time in Germany. . .

While we were in Detmold, Gail and I also visited some of the day-trip destinations I remember from my childhood there - Hamelin, and the Möhne and Eder dams, but it is best I leave those stories for another day.






It occurred to me that although I had mentioned my mum, there was no photo in this post. To put that right, here are a couple from one of those memorable camping holidays in Italy. 

It looks like they were both taken on the same day - unless we only had one set of best clothes. . .