Minden

In a very cold February 1966, after three years in sunny Malta, the 1st Battalion re-formed in Minden, West Germany, as a mechanised infantry Battalion in 11 Infantry Brigade – part of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR).

It was stationed in Clifton Barracks, an old Wehrmacht barracks used by the German Army during the Second World War. In 1967 the Battalion took part in exercise 'Hunters Moon' which was held on the Sennelager training area.

This exercise was conducted with US and French forces. The exercise scenario was linked directly to the need to maintain a capability to safeguard access to West Berlin.

 Preparation was the key to success within a mechanised Battalion – a point demonstrated during exercise 'Eternal Triangle' in 1966 where the Battalion did not have a single case of any of its 62 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC's) having to be sent away for second line repairs, resulting in congratulations from the divisional commander.

One of the skills required in a mechanised Battalion was the ability to cross rivers in their APC's. The Battalion carried out this training on the river Weser at Hameln.

The drivers and commanders had to have a clear understanding of the limitations of their vehicles. A soldier from the Battalion who was a driver at this time remembered 'It was quite hairy, you were trapped in the driver’s compartment attached to all sorts of wires, and received instructions from the commander who stood above you, I was very aware of the water only inches from my face on the other side of the rubber floatation screen'. Having negotiated the river the next task was to exit safely on the far bank. The same soldier remembered that 'After driving into the water you had to pull hard on the tiller so you pulled the vehicle into the flow of the river, then rev the engine as hard as possible, keeping this up until you reached the far bank, remember we were blind and had to act on the commander’s instructions, then the skill was to get both tracks to dig into the far bank simultaneously.

If you failed a trip down the river followed. The Battalion soon earned for itself a reputation for efficiency not only within the Brigade but throughout Rhine Army.

Apart from training on the vast areas of Sennelager, Soltau and Vogelsang, often with a squadron of the Royal Scots Greys or the 16th/5th Lancers, the Battalion flew out to Libya in February 1967 for five weeks training. In 1968 they moved down to the South of France at Larzac a large training area for company and Battalion training.

On the 30th May 1969, as a formal farewell to the town on Minden, the Regimental Band and Corps of Drums marched through the town ‘Beating the Credits, an ancient ceremony dating back to the time when a regiment about to leave a garrison town or base sent its drums and fifes through the streets of the town to let the local traders know that no more credit should be extended to the soldiers of the unit.

The Battalions claim to fame was that during its time in Minden of never having to use the low-loader recovery vehicle to bring a Battalion vehicle back from exercise. With that the Battalion moved to England with Catterick as the next posting. 

During it's time in Minden the following Regimental Journals were published

  

  

  

  

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Some photos from the Battalion's time in Minden