8th Royal Scots in Schleswig-Holstein !!

I am presently assisting a great friend of mine who served with 8th Bn Royal Scots fighting in the Reichswald and the Rhine Crossing in 1945 with putting together his wartime history.

In June / July 1945 the Bn was in Schleswig Holstein in the area of Neumünster , has anybody any information on their time in that area in particular exactly where the Companies of the Bn were located ?

Many thanks

Paul

 

Paul.

I am chairman of the 8th Royal Section 1939-45 and would like to know if your friend is a member of the Royal Scots Association. There are still 36 of his War-time colleagues members.

There is a card with a brief history of the 8th Battalion put up on the Forum in WW2 Unit Documents.

A great deal of information about the Battalion is also in Augustus Muir's First of Foot.

Keep in touch.

Joe Brown.

 

Paul.

I am chairman of the 8th Royal Section 1939-45 and would like to know if your friend is a member of the Royal Scots Association. There are still 36 of his War-time colleagues members.

There is a card with a brief history of the 8th Battalion put up on the Forum in WW2 Unit Documents.

A great deal of information about the Battalion is also in Augustus Muir's First of Foot.

Keep in touch.

Joe Brown.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for that , he isn't a member of the association but i'm sure he would be happy to be in touch with some of his old comrades , his name is Francis " Frankie " Grant and served with C Company.

I took him back to the Reichswald and the Rhine Crossing last year on a Battlefield Tour which was very emotional for him.

regards

Paul

 

Forgot to mention he was also involved in Crossing the Elbe as well Joe, after Scheswig -holstein he was sent to Neuengamme when it was used as a Denazification centre !!

cheers

Paul

 

Paul.
Thanks for letting me know about Frankie Grant. Please kindly pass on my king regards and if you will let me have his address I will add him to the 8th Section of the the Royal Scots Association. I will also send him a DVD which has been produced by the son of a former 'C' Company man who was in charge of the Company Signals terminal. He was with 'C' Company from the Normandy Bridgehead until wounded during the Company attack on Goch. I am sure he will find it very interesting.

If you read my War Memoirs you will be able to tell him of my background.

Up The Royals!

Joe Brown.

 

Will do Joe i'll ring Frankie tomorrow and let hm know about our contact and get back to you,

cheers

Paul

 

Joe,

Apologies for not getting back to you sooner but unfortunately Frankie has been in ill health for some time but thankfully he is getting back to his old self now !!

He would be very interested in seeing the a copy of the DVD you mentioned.

cheers

Paul

 

Good Afternoon!
I am from Bad Bramstedt, a little town about 13 miles South of Neumunster, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I am doing some internet search, which British units served in my home town in 1945 and later. I found out, that Bad Bramstedt was HQ of 44th Lowlands Infantry Brigade. 8th Batallion Royal Scots was also in our town and at least partly lived in houses in my hometown.

I have special interests in Fotos that show my hometown at that time and the life of British soldiers there. Do you have any idea who could help me out with some material or tell me about other sources I should contact? That would be great!

Many thanks in advance!
Karl-Wilhelm

 

Karl-Wilhelm

Welcome

You can add the 11th Hussars, the 7 Armoured Division Reconnaissance Regiment, to your list of units based in Bad Bramstedt. They were briefly based in the town in June 1945 awaiting orders to move to Berlin. I believe also that a Squadron of the 15 Scottish Division Signals would also have been based in the town to provide communication facilities for the Brigade Headquarters.

 

Karl-Wilhelm
There are several mentions of Bad Bramstedt in the May 1945 war diary for 8 Royal Scots on this website: www.15thscottishdivisionwardiaries.co.uk
I'll have a look for further mentions after May and also see if there's anything in the 15 Div Signals war diaries, which I've not transcribed yet.
No photos though, I'm afraid ..
Adam

 

Bluebell Minor & Adam: you are great! Thank you very much so far.

 

Karl-Wilhelm
3 pages of the 8 RS War Diary for the beginning of June 45 showing them leaving Bad Bramstedt on the 11th.
And I've so far not been able to find any mention of Bad Bramstedt in the 15 Div Signals War Diary for May.
Adam

 

Thank you very much. It will take me some time to read and interpreted it, but I know someone in Bad Bramstedt, who is quite skilled in it.

 

Are there any records of British units based at Ploen (should be with an umlaut)?

 

Roy

I am a proud "Old Boy" of King Alfred School Ploen (was there in the mid Fifties)

The British Army (and Royal Navy) in the Ploen area is one of my specialist areas of research

Will contact you privately to confirm your exact needs.

 

Roy, Bluebell Minor:
Plön is about 50 km away from me, but I have never heard about this school. Just found the Wikipedia artice about it and also saw that on YouTube you can find something about it. Unfortunally (as always) a lot of "old" information has already gone or will go soon as the eye witnesses are old now and never have spread their knowledge in a wider audience.

Here in Bad Bramstedt (my parents came here directly after WWII) it is tough enough to get first hand information or written notes. If I can support you somehow - taking photos i.e. of the actual site - please let me know.

 

Karl-Wilhelm
Thought this might help ...
Adam

 

Oh, that is a great transcription!
Please help me to understand:
"Locations no change - Bn remains in BAD BRAMSTEDT area disposed as
follows
Bn HQ 419930 with HQ Coy.
A Coy area BAD BRAMSTEDT with Coy HQ 419943"

Bn = Batallion, Coy = Company, HQ = Headquarter, right?
A Coy = Company A. Is it a fighting unit or similar like the modern German "1. Kompanie" = Headquarter support & Logistics?
What do the six digits mean (419930 and 419943). Map Cooordinates? What kind of Map System? It is not UTM

 

Yes, that's right - the Battalion is split into HQ Coy, A Coy, B Coy, C Coy, D Coy and S (Support) Coy - not sure about the modern German equivalent, although there'll be somebody here who does know.
The digits are map coordinates and refer to the maps issued at the time (I think they were generally 1/25,000, 1/50,000 and 1/100,000) but again I defer to the experts on the forum. If you can get hold of the original maps (and there are some held with the war diaries in London), it's interesting to be able to pinpoint exact locations on the ground.
Does anybody know if the whole series of maps for North West Europe is actually available somewhere?

 

What a strange mapping...I was in the military myself and try to find out how it works.
Even if we do not have correct location of the units, lets see. I take the first three digits as horizontal position (xx,x) and the second three digits as vertical position (yy,y)
BAD BRAMSTEDT, HQ 419 930
WAHLSTEDT, HQ at 624 980..... Wahlstedt is in deed approx. 23 km east of Bad Bramstedt - and about 3 km to the north
BOOSTEDT 5004, HQ at 507 042....is approx. 9 km east of BB - and about 10 km to the north
RICKLING 5904, HQ at 598 037...is app 19 km east of BB
GROSSENASPE 4600, HQ at 470 005....is app 5 km east of BB - and 6 km to the north

That fits roughly...and is strange.
- Why should british troops use km-units in coordinates? In british miles it does not work.
- Zero point then is then 42 km west of Bad Bramstedt - on the horizontal line....and 7 km to the north. That is in the middle of Nowhere.

The system also works for the named villages/citys in the SCHWERIN area - but with another Zero point. Crazy!

Advantage of this system:
- If you do not know the zero point, you do not understand the coordinates
Disadvantage:
- You always need new Zero Points...and this can cause errors