Serving in the RAF in Germany
By Colin Noad - 03/07/2008
I arrived at RAF Butzweilerhof, just a couple of miles outside Cologne, in August 1958. As a newly qualified MT (Mechanical Transport) Mechanic, I was posted to the station’s MT Servicing Section, situated just off the main square, opposite Station Headquarters.
I did not then realise that the Station Headquarters building had once been Cologne Airport’s main Terminal Building, which had miraculously survived the war - despite the fact that “the Brits knew where it was”. And we should have known, since Imperial Airways were operating from there prior to the war.
I had never been abroad before and did not even possess a passport - not unusual in the 1950s - but the first shock to the system came when we were taken to our new home. Nearly all of the vehicles had their headlights on, despite the fact that it was not dark but just raining. At that time, we didn’t switch our lights on in the UK until it was actually dark.
The second shock upon arriving at Butz was seeing the fifty or so Command Reserve vehicles parked on the square: these were our bread and butter as we had to service them and run them up regularly, just in case the balloon ever went up. I was never quite sure how this motley collection of German built Magirus lorries would help us win the war against the Eastern bloc’s tanks, but mine not to reason why... The batteries were invariably flat when we went out to give them their monthly engine runs - so we just had to hope that the Russians would give us sufficient notice of any attack for us to get them all running beforehand!
How did we know we were in Germany?
On camp you could have been at virtually any RAF station. However, at the time of my arrival, most of our RAF vehicles were of German manufacture. We were paid in BAF’s (British Armed Forces currency) but we could pre-order Deutschmarks for spending out of camp. Later, after the transition from 2nd Tactical Air Force to RAF Germany, we were paid entirely in DMs and had to request any sterling that we might need for returning to the UK on leave.
The German Railways system (Bundesbahn) maintained a railway spur line into the Station and they used their locos and rolling stock to bring supplies in and out for us. The authorities knew our terminus as Cologne Depot Number 9 – a rather grand description for what amounted to just an unloading platform and an engine shed.
One could happily stay in camp and never venture out, but I decided to learn German - helped by the fact that we had German engineers working in MTSS. Needless to say, I learned to swear fluently in German fairly quickly! Cologne was on our doorstep and so I had many opportunities to take myself off and talk to the natives.
The WVS (as it then was, before becoming “Royal”) used to organise coach trips out and about, which enabled those of us without personal transport to see some of the sites - the ladies 'manning' the WVS club were charming, friendly and helpful.
And The Malcolm Club introduced me to those heavenly amber liquids contained in the brown bottles of the Rhine and the green bottles of Moselle. Before arriving in Germany, I had never drunk wine (again, not so unusual in those days).
Daily life
At work, the RAF staff’s days mostly consisted of maintaining the Command Reserve and other lorries (such as the wide spectrum of specialised radio vehicles). By contrast, the German civilian workers usually took care of cars and vans - mostly VW Beetles and VW vans.
We also had a paint shop and it was there I found my own niche. I was a pretty average Mechanic - if a thread could be stripped, it was usually me who did it. However, when it came to spraying and brush painting, I was your man. I found it both creative and enjoyable. Most of the vehicles were painted a rather boring overall green. However, for the canvas tilts that covered the rear of our lorries, we used a foul-smelling greeny-brown bituminous gloop that resembled liquid pooh to smear over those. Not such an enjoyable job!
My very favourite vehicles to paint were those of the Butzweilerhof-based Bomb Disposal Flight. On those vehicles, we were actually allowed to paint vast areas (such as the wheel arches) in a bright, vivid, red! On top of that, there were large areas of white including the German wording “Bomb Disposal Unit” that appeared in very large lettering, for obvious reasons.
We used to collect our stores from the other side of the site. We had a funny little Lister, three-wheeled open backed runabout to do this. We called it “Thunderbird”. Driving this was more like fun than work. However, we did have to fire it up with a starting handle, as it had no electrics - apart from the ignition itself.
Occasionally we would get a chance to go off-site to repair or collect broken-down or crashed vehicles. I well remember one such ‘adventure’ where three of us went (in a large Ford Köln coach), all the way to Ingolstadt, down in Bavaria. We stayed in a hotel there - another first for me (my, how times have changed). I then had to earn my crust by replacing an exhaust pipe on a lorry, in freezing cold temperatures, out in the elements, working under an open sided ramp. We left the coach there for the use of the detachment, whilst we returned to Butz in the lorry.
Another trip that I took was in a VW Beetle, to Borgentreich (near Kassel); this wasn’t quite so much fun as I crashed it on the way back. The weather was really cold and when I rounded a corner onto a straight stretch of road, I saw two civilians flagging me down. I braked and the car span several times before backing gently into a tree. I discovered that they had been trying to warn me of black ice - but the only problem was that they were at one end of it and I was at the other.
Other duties
I volunteered for the Station Guard of Honour. Most of our duties involved parading for the AOC’s visits and, sadly, quite a few funeral ceremonies. However, I did once get to travel to southern Germany, to take part in the NATO 10th Anniversary parade, held on 4th April 1959, in Mainz. Butzweilerhof supplied the 36-man RAF contingent and we stayed at a US Army camp located in Wiesbaden, whilst we were there. We all thought that we had died and gone to heaven!
I learned to drive whilst at Butzweilerhof and so I sometimes covered regular runs, such as the shuttle service to the RAF Hospital at Wegburg and the frequent trips to the Astra cinema at Volkspark, where the main Married Quarters were situated.
Amusing times
It wasn’t all very serious and cold-war like. For instance, the most important part of preparing for the AOC’s inspections, for us, was loading all of our ‘gash’ gear and bits that we had mossed away “in case they came in useful”, into a 3-tonner. Come the day of the inspection, that lorry found itself on special duties, off the Station. Once the inspection was over, the vehicle returned, was off-loaded, and we had all of our treasures back once more.
At this time, the Belgian Army occupied the airfield on the flying side of Butzweilerhof. On the approach to the camp there was a level crossing, without barriers, right on a sharp bend. The road there was cobbled and got extremely slippery in rainy weather. We christened this “Belgique corner” as it was not at all unusual to see their private cars, or even military lorries, in the field, where they ended up after missing the bend! Happily, there didn’t ever seem to be any injuries. Belgians did not have to pass any driving tests at that time.
There was a very funny incident at the main gate during one dark rainy night. It would appear that one of our ‘favourite’ RAF Policemen had been having a little personal game of trying to get the barrier down as soon as possible after vehicles came in. Unfortunately, with all of our vehicles being painted dark green, he managed to drop the barrier between a lorry and the trailer that it was towing! The trailer was damaged slightly but the barrier came off much, much, worse! We were so sorry to hear about it next day but the tears were of laughter. It served him right!
The finale
I managed to visit Cologne at the end of 2007. Prior to that, I found a couple of web-sites specialising in all things Butzweilerhof. One of the contacts I made offered to take us out to the old place and the other contact arranged for us to be shown around the restored Terminal Building. The restoration is indeed impressive. We were there only days before the bulldozers moved in to flatten pretty well everything else on site. My contact informed me that I was the last RAF person to see the place before the final decimation. We returned to the city on the good old local tram, from Ossendorf.
If this story has sparked off memories of your years in the armed forces, we'd love to hear from you too - just email jayne.warren@maturetimes.co.uk. And you'll find plenty more interesting stories in our Military Memories section of Readers Say.