Hi Dave,

In the named time-frame I had to do my Service in the Bundeswehr with the Army. Ok.k it’s now siome time back, therefore don’t nail me down on the exact no of units.

I was in a barrack that housed
· 4 companies of LeoI –tanks each consisting of 4 platoons with 4 tanks each; each company would also have some small vehicles like DKW-Munga and one or 2 MAN lorries for transport of stuff
· 2 training companies
· 1 supply group for food, medics, the sparkies, vehicle maintenance, ABC-defense group etc. (especially the sparkies could have had the M113 with long antennas)
· a separate to this was a so called “Separate Company” of Hunter Tanks consisting of
· 3 platoons with so called Kanonenjagdpanzer (hunter tanks with gun) each consisting of 5 tanks
· 2 platoons with so called Raketenjagdpanzer (hunter tanks with wire guided rockets) each consisting of 4 tanks
· a sparks group with 2 M113 and a Mercedes Unimog lorry
· a food supply group with 2 MAN-lorries
· a medic unit with a small hospital on a MAN and a medic-tank (of French origin)
· a maintenance group with 2 MAN and 1 Unimog
· an ABC-defense-group with a MAN and a Unimog
· a leader group for leading personnel with numerous DKW-Munga

I was in the separate company with ~150 soldiers; it was a very long train - exceeding the limit of normally 120 axles by far - when we travelled to Hohenfels training site in Northern Bavaria in January of 1974:
5 4-wheel personnel carriers (old D-Zug-Wagen) from before WWII
25 tanks on 24 4 wheel flatcars
~12 normal flat-cars with 2 wheels for the lorries and small vehicles

The train was drawn in 1 part by a 216 from Wolfhagen to Kassel (all downhill)
By a 194 to Nurnberg
By a 044 and a pushing 050 to Amberg

And back by a 150 from Neumarkt to Kassel
By 2x 216 to Wolfhagen railway station and then in 2 parts up to the barracks due to the excessive gradient

Vehicles were all what we called NATO – olive green and VERY CLEAN as our kissem was very much looking after this! Also the DB was very reserved in allowing dirty vehicles onto their cars as they later would have to be cleaned and moreover the dirt would have been a safety hazard.
Camouflage painting was only used on the training area:
In Wintertime it consisted of some white paint and some white clothes for the soldiers
In summertime it was twigs from nearby trees and some mud
Everything had to be clean and shipshape before entering the barracks area – we had a special cleaning pond and area for this.

Hope this answers your questions somehow.

Klaus