lan,

Unfortunately I cannot readily put my hands on any photos taken during my Inkerman days although I believe there are a couple around somewhere-If I recall correctly there is one taken at Aldershot whilst I was in"B" Coy., undertaking motor cycle training.

I was sent to BOAR after training, initially to Bielefeld for a week and then posted to 7th Armd Div Provost Co at Celle.The company HQ was initially Celle, but moved to Verden. I was only in Celle for a week before being posted to No.6 Section at Soltau I was fortunate to spend all of my service at Soltau We were a small detachment 1 Sgt. 2 Cpl's and about 12 L/Cpls.

Soltau as you may recall is on the edge of the Luneberg Heath which was a major tank training area. Many tank regiments would train in the area and much of our time seemed to be spent dealing with incidents, such as attending to traffic accidents involving army vehicles, that arose out of the training exercises and "schemes-that were held in the area. We had two Ford Willis Jeeps, a Bedford 15cwt truck and about 10B SA motor cycles.

In summer time, riding the old BSA was quite pleasant and we had a lot of freedom to go off on our own to do "enquiries" within the various regiments that were garrisoned at Munster Lager or Fallingbostel. There, two towns about 20 km from Soltau came within our section's area of responsibility. Most of the L/CpIs had about 10 ongoing cases at any one time, such as accidents, petty thefts, wilful damage and so on. Cases that the SIB weren't in.

One of our interesting tasks was to keep an eye on the members of the Russian Military Mission who were allowed to roam around the area but were not allowed in restricted area's such as the tank firing ranges. I recall on a number of occasions being tasked to find the Russians who were reported to be in a restricted area and escort them out.

On one such occasion Centurion tanks were trying out a new stabiliser for their guns and the Russians were obS interested. I set off on my trusty old BSA 500 SV, (top speed 45mph if you flattened yourself down on the petrol tank), and after being directed by a German farmer found the Russians hidden behind some trees overlooking the ranges They were not spying but the four of them were sitting in a line over the trunk of a fallen tree,like a flock of black crows on a clothes line, their trousers around their ankles-answering the call of nature, and smoking their vile black cigarettes. After exchanging greetings in my best English, German and Russian they agreed they were in a verboten area and woud leave I said I would escort them out of the area when they were finished. Escortwas not the appropiate work. They were in an Opel car-top speed about 90mph, and once we were on the move they took off and he poor old BSA had no chance of keeping up. I suspect they just doubled back once they had lost me!

I don't know if it was your experience but one of my recollections-is the inadequacy of most of our equipment, clothing and so on. Trying to keep warm in a Jeep in the middle of a continental winter with only any army greatcoat over a battledress uniform was not easy.

I ended as I started a L/Cp and after demob I thought I might join the police force but decided that I had had enough of uniforms. After a couple of years or so in business I went to Southampton University become a qualified social worker and joined the Probation Service. I was a Probation Officer first in Grimsby and later Southampton before taking up an appointment here in Perth WA.with the Community Welfare Dept. I eventually became Assistant Director of the Dept before making a complete career change and moved to head up the Liquor Licensing Authority in WA in 1989. I remained in that position until my retirement three years ago. I now do some consulting to the liquor and hospitality industries.

I trust this little note is of some interest to you.

GeoffAves.

Monday April 14th 2003.