RAOC Gazette - page 188
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1977 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1977 |
| Late date | 1977 |
| Transcription |
exchange shops dealing with about two hundred thousand receipt and issues per year. One interesting point emerged regarding manpower. In 1970 the Bielefeld Barrack Omce handled one thousand quarters. It now caters for almost double that number and although there have been increases in the number of BIAs there has been no increase in officers. When one considers that there are now two hundred and seventy ledger items for each married quarter it is not surprising that shortage of staff was considered the major problem, Something new, something borrowed But what about something old? No one can say that the Army does not try to make the maximum use of its resources. It would be very difficult to find a 1943 Rigid Frame BSA Motor Cycle, still in working order and ready for issue in the storerooms of any civilian firm, though it is stressed that there is only one of that vintage in Corps Troops Central. Whether old, new. borrowed or blue and despite the problems, this unique unit is doing the extremely important job of maintaining the teeth arms under difficult conditions and, like most of the Army, trying to do it with the minimum of manpower. Something blue Moving north out of the Ruhr valley one finds the remaining units based more logically in the Corps area. Snuggled under the South West side of the Teuto burger at Gutersloh the Ordnance Field Park, consisting of some one hundred officers and men and eighty vehicles, are housed in more military style. With an inventory valued at some £220,000 and equip- ment costing a further half million pounds, the Unit holds over ten thousand ledger items required to keep the Corps Troops units supplied with vehicle and technical spares, general stores and batteries. A problem is that of keeping regimental training and day-to-day technical work correctly balanced . . . . . a point aggravated by the need for the Unit to service dependencies operating in a purely peacetime role. Moving over the Teutoburger to the North side of this historic range of hills on which Herman conquered the Roman legions, one arrives in Bielefeld where the major part of the Unit is stationed in a number of barracks throughout the town. Here the Supply Depot, with the new custom-built bakery as its showpiece, caters for the ' inner man * in terms of feeding twelve thousand human being and forty horses, daily. With a storage capacity of over one thousand eight hundred tons the Depot handles a turnover of twenty five tons of meat, fifty two tons of bread and one hundred and fifty tons of other rations per week. Three hundred and twenty food lines valued at half a million pounds and reserve rations for the Corps makes up the stock. In the prepared storage areas in the grounds of the Depot, reserves of diesel, petrol and aviation fuel are kept ready for immediate issue. Some twenty military specialists and sixty civilians operating equipments worth over one hundred thousand pounds are employed in the Depot where the total issues are about forty tons per day. The sixty soldiers and ten civilians of the Stores Com- pany, working in the converted clothing factory, have some- what larger problems. Nine hundred tops of stores valued at one and a half million pounds and ranging from tank engines, gun barrels and tyres through to cameras, film and industrial gas make up a total of over a thousand ledger items. The Company is sub-divided into a Gun-Barrel Platoon, a Bulk Stores Platoon and two Equipment Sections. Some amuse- ment was recently caused when a case of incorrect vouchering caused the OC to spend a couple of hours trying to identify a Tube Assembly valued at eleven thousand pounds! It turned out to be a 120mm tank gun barrel. Two Barrack Stores are responsible for the issue and main- tenance of the household requirements for the barracks and quarters. Staffed by five officers, two United Kingdom Based civilians the organisation is backed by sixty nine Barrack In- ventory Accountants and two hundred storemen and labourers, The Bielefeld Unit deals with one thousand eight hundred quarters and barracks for the ten major and twenty two minor units based locally and in GtUersloh, Bunde and Liibbecke, while Sennelager looks after another five thousand five hundred quarters, barracks for twenty major and twenty eight minor units and ten schools. The work also involves the running of S8SE 19T7 RAOC OFFICERS CLUB DINNER THE 1977 Officers Club Dinner will be held in the Headquarter RAOC Officers Mess Deepcut on Friday 9th December. The dress is dinner jacket. Medals should not be worn. Drinks before and after dinner will be on a cash basis only but bars will be open from 7 pm. Officers should assemble at 7.30 pm for dinner at 8 pm. The price of tickets is £6.50. Applications should be made to the RAOC Secretariat in writing and must be accompanied by a cheque made payable to the ' RAOC Officers Club.* As seating is limited to 270, and to ensure a fair distribution, applications for the advanced booking of tables cannot be accepted by telephone. Where whole or part bookings of tables are made, the application will be accepted as a firm booking only when accompanied by the total sum involved and the rank and name of all the Officers concerned. Tables seat up to ten persons. Limited overnight accommodation is available in the Headquarter Mess and requests will be passed to RAOC Training Centre. Transport for members of the Officers Club travel- ling to Deepcut will meet the trains arriving at Brook- wood Station at 18,07, 18.45 and 19.18 hours. Transport for those returning by train to Waterloo will leave the Officers Mess promptly at 22.30 for the 22.54 train, and at 23.10 for the 23,34 train. RAOC AIRBORNE OFFICERS DINNER THE Annual Dinner will be held on Friday 25th November at the Headquarters RAOC Officers Mess. Tickets will be £5.50 each and will include pre-dinner drinks and wines at table. Overnight accommodation will be available. The Corps band will play during the evening. The dinner is open to officers past and present who have served or are serving with Airborne Forces, Applications to Colonel J. T. Palmer, Head* quarters COD Bicester who will in addition to this notice, be writing to those officers who have attended previous reunions. |
| Book number | R0246 |