Hi there walther.
Just a quick one. I was very interested in your description of your organisation. Do you have any links or could explain more please.
I am interested in that sort of thing for a current project I’m doing.
In relation to the “Walt” it is not meant as offensive. It is a term used in the British Army, that can be used for a variety of reasons and against hold on got to go somewhere.
Not all of us…
I personnaly dont know what qualification being in the military has to do with being interested in ww2.
Certain specifics can add to the debate, but I am sure that military service does not necessarily enhance the debate.
In fact in some cases it may even denigrate it.
Sure.
The organisation is called Technisches Hilfswerk in German and is the federal disater relief agency and has about 60,000 mostly voluntary members.
It goes back to the Technische Nothilfe of the 1920s, which founded by a German Jew named Otto Lumnitsch, with the intention of getting engineers, tradesmen and students of engineering to use their skills in disaster relief.
Unfortunately during the Nazi period Otto Lumnitsch was forced to leave the country and the Technische Nothilfe became the Nazi air raid relief organisation and was as such banned after WW2. In 1953, Otto Lumnitsch, who by then had returned from exile, founded the new Technisches Hilfswerk in the fderal republic of Germany. The first big alert was during the devastating floods in the Netherland in the same year.
During cold war (I caught the tail end of it) our main job was to train to rescue people from bombed out buildings after air raids and to rebuild infrastructure.
The organisation is part of the federal department of civil defense, which is in turn under the control of the federal department of the interior.
Being a non combatant rescue organisation, albeit using military engineering methods, we were officially tolerated by the western Allieds in West Berlin (the East Germans and to a lesser degree, the Russians accused us of war mongering and spread lies that we were something like the Poeple’s militias in the Warsaw pact countries), in fact during the late 1980s, our unit’s base was once visited by the last American commander of West Berlin, Major General Haddock, who wanted to know which facility he had in his sector.
The structure I described was used during Cold War, with seperate rescue and infrastructure platoons, after cold war many units got cut down due to cost cutting, so instead of having three platoons, you would have only one, with the former platoons turned into sections.
Here is the only article I could find in English language:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THW
This is the official website (in German) of the organisation:
http://www.thw.bund.de/
And this is the site of the unit I spent most of my active time with:
http://www.thw-berlin-neukoelln.de/
Here is a picture of our unit’s pontoon ferry durin an exercise in May 1982 on the Wannsee lake in Berlin, the Berlin bus was carried for fun. The guy crouching down in the leftmost pontoon is my late father, he was just tidying some ropes when the picture was taken. The guy on the ramp on the right is the commander of the ferry, signaling to the outboard motor operators. He became later my platoon commander.
Training in the 1950s:
This 1960s truck used to belong to the Berlin signals platoon and contained wireless equipment. I’m quite sure that it doesn’t exist anymore. I also looked at the modern pictures of my old unit and only recognise a few people (mostly now in higher positions), also all of the rugged semi military trucks we used to have during cold war have been replaced with modern one. The uniforms look different now as well, instead of the old grey Wehrmacht inspired uniforms (which was IMO very practical and comfortable to wear), they use stuff which looks like modern firefighters.
There exists a special quick response unit for alerts in other countries called SEEBA, the members of it are volonteers living around Frankfurt airport and have their equipment loaded into airportable containers. This unit was funded after the devastating earthquake in Mexico in the 1980s and can be on the way to any destination worldwide within a few hours.
Jan[/img]
This bloke (a recruit doing his basic training exams, in this case securing a ladder, showing his skills with ropework) is wearing the old uniform, which was in use from the late 1960s to the early 2000s (the same I’ve been wearing, except for the yellow sign on the back, this was just added recently). He should have bloused his trousers over his boots though.
I also noticed that they cut down my old unit (which I haven’t visited since 1998) from three full platoons to one.
Apparently the guys also got hold of a Soviet PTS-M tracked amphibious vehicle, probably from NVA stock. I know that one of the former platoon commanders used to be a tankie and was always looking for some tracked vehicle to play with… ( the flood control unit at the river Rhine of the same organisation has three WW2 DUKWs they still use)
Jan
Cheers Walther.
PTS-M, did it have the trailer as well, Do you know?
We have a few DUKWs still in use in UK too. They are used, I think, up North somewhere where the beach is very long and not steap.
They are good because they can just drive in to the sea. The beaches are particulary treacherous because of their gentle slopes. The tide can come in very fast, and can also cut parts of the beach off as they rise.
So the DUKW is very useful.
Any way walt comes from a charecter called Walter Mitty.
He was a wet, henpecked bloke who always dreamed of being a hero.
It is used to describe those who try to be something they are not originally although has other uses also.
It is mainly banter.
Here is a THW DUKW in use during a flood in Dresden:
The DUKWs are mostly being used, where you have deep stretches of water (where a normal truck can’t pass) alternate with shallow stretches, (where a boat gets stuck)
Jan
I always thought ducks were ace.
One came up for sale once, but it was too far gone to do anything with.
Well for me any way, would cost too much money and require too much engineering skill and equipment!!
That’s not being racist, if anything sterotypical, anyways some of my family lives in England.
I did Training in the W.A Army and im for the defence of my Country.