Thank you, Tommy

[Skybird]

http://www.welt.de/regionales/duesse...Wohnungen.html

The Brits are leaving my hometown, after 67 years. Have been used to see their flags, Jeeps, trucks and APCs in several parts of the city since my childhood (my family comes from here). Some random meetings with those living in soldier houses up the road I live in, always have gone very relaxed.

When I came here myself twelve years ago, some time later I was invited to a TV barbecue party in their garden during the first football tournament after I moved here. Some very grounded, friendly guys I met on that day, it was a good time. One just has to get used to this queer sense of humour of theirs . Since I am quite black-humoured myslf, we matched well.

Not close enough ties to say I'm sad over the Brits leaving - but it won'T be the same without the Union Jack flying at soccer evenings anymore.

Thanks, and good luck in the places you are leaving for now.

[Oberon]

Thanks for having them, and welcoming them. Makes all the difference to the troops to have a friendly populace to live alongside I'd say.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Thanks for having them, and welcoming them. Makes all the difference to the troops to have a friendly populace to live alongside I'd say.

DITTO

[Herr-Berbunch]

I was never posted there but have been a couple of times on excise, during one I witnessed the handover of Bruggen from the RAF to the Army. The locals weren't to keen, the army guys were quite insular and drunk, we, in the RAF, were drunk also but because we'd joined in with wearing fancy dress we were taken to the hearts of the locals.

I hope that all these years later the army have learnt to mingle.

[Skybird]

To be honest, my parents told me that there were times when the Brits' reputation here was not good. On weekend nights, meeting a group of them could have meant trouble, the "besoffener Tommy" was a proverb, and there were many events of street fightings.

However, that is a long time ago so that I have no memory to that myself (age 45). Today, the Brits here live in - probably self-choosen - isolation of their community, they have some living areas with simple but pretty houses and green places all around where their families somewhat flock together, and the Germans themselves are not overly eager to reach out to them as well. I think it is like that most often with foreign military garrisons stationed in other countries, and I recall it was the same with the Americans in West-Berlin.

But the point is, that where there are contacts between both sides, they are smooth and friendly now, and since long time. Nobody today is used to talk about the Brits the way it was long time ago, and on their side, even on weekends there is not a single negative headline I can remember. People now living in town just do not remember that old phrase of "besoffener Tommies" anymore. People change, populations change, many young ones have moved in, and the old ones have moved out. The needed interaction between the military and the city worked fine by all what the public knows, the times of Brits "street fighters" patrolling the street on Saturday evenings are long since gone, and like the Dutch, who also hold a small military representation here in the city, the living together is smooth, free of problems, and friendly where opportunty for contacts arises.

[Jimbuna]

What is 'besoffener' in English Sky, my translator can't figure it out?

What is 'besoffener'

pisshead.
besoffener tommy=drunken obnoxious British squaddies

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

pisshead.
besoffener tommy=drunken obnoxious British squaddies

Ah, right...nowt new there then

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

What is 'besoffener' in English Sky, my translator can't figure it out?

Drunken - and seriously so.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Sounds about right, if it's any consolation it's similar, or used to be, in the UK's garrison Towns.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Sounds about right, if it's any consolation it's similar, or used to be, in the UK's garrison Towns.

Well, as I said - I have no own memory of things having been like this. It all seems to have changed for the better long time ago.

[Jimbuna]

I remember being in Cyprus in 84 and you were hard pressed to find a bar without an inebriated Brit serviceman inside.

[Oberon]

AARSE has Munster as:

Used to be a BMH there, cracking posting.
Funnily enough there are loads of Germans there.
Best place to nick a pushbike from is the Bahnhoff. This form of transport is needed if:
A) You've run out of money or:
B) If you've puked over your clothes and the boxhead Taxi wont take you back to camp.
Pushbikes should be left on the camp perimeter fence so that once a week an armourer can collect them all, swap the bike parts around, repaint them and then flog them to the QM.....allegedly
I confirm - I was a bike thief. Used to flog them for 20DM a time from under the cookhouse at York Kaserne. Great posting, some very friendly pubs locally who depended upon the 'Tommy' marks. SKC on site at York as well as a NAAFI superstore. Handy Toc H just outside the barracks as well. Good brattywagon came onto the square at York every night.
Other lines along that strip (which used to be the Luftwaffe airbase) were, Swinton (17/21L), Buller (29 Fd RA and 3LI) then there was Oxford (1IG), Portsmouth (8 Regt RCT), and the BMH over the other side of town.

Make of that what you will, but I must admit, the old tales of army lads on the prowl in towns on a Friday night do seem to have abated since the 80s and 90s, perhaps that's because there's less of them about, I don't know.

Either way, my previous post in this thread still applies.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Yeah, successive cuts mean there are much fewer getting in the army in the first place, and that means fewer besoffeners.

[Jimbuna]

They simply don't have the money anymore....it all goes on buying the boots and kit they're seldom issued with now