36 Regiment Royal Artillery​
REME/RAOC
36 Heavy AD Regiment Workshops
The Workshops were the largest 1st Line type in operation. Commanded by a Major but each of
the two systems Platoons had a Major in charge. They also had their own ASM, so the Workshop had
three in total. The three Platoons were K, L and M. M Platoon were the black hand gang supporting three
Batteries (10, 111 and later 43), and supporting 260 (SAM) Signal Squadron. The accommodation in
Napier Barracks was located in the compound at the far end of the Camp in the old Luftwaffe buildings
and the Wksp HQ was in the Air Traffic Control Tower. The majority of the men worked out on the runway
where the Radars were always operational.
Please click on Photo to visit the REME Museum
Muna Barracks
154 Forward Ammunition Depot
7 Guided Missile Coy RAOC
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Muna Barracks was built during WW2 as a German ammo depot, using slave labour. The graves of some of the labourers are believed to lie within the depot, giving rise to many ghost stories etc, but I don't think any evidence of graves was found when the depot was rebuilt. The Commandant's house became the officers' mess - he was reputed to be SS, but I'm not sure if that was correct. The name 'Muna' is a contraction of the German 'Munitions Anlage' (not sure if I've spelled that correctly) meaning Ammunition Depot. It was captured by the British as they advanced and was used as a UK ammunition depot from that time on. The name of the unit was 154 Forward Ammunition Depot (154 FAD), the term 'Forward' dating back to WW2 where anything east of the Rhine was classed as 'Forward'. The depot was completely rebuilt during the late 1980s, with the old storage bunkers being replaced with state of the art ammunition sheds, although one of the old bunkers was kept for posterity. 154 FAD was renamed 12 Supply Regiment RLC when the RLC was formed in 1993 and the site was handed back to Germany in the early 00s (I think). UK now leases a couple of storage sheds there, to hold training ammo for BFG units, so we still have a small presence there.
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IIRC the depot was actually captured by the Canadians and then handed over to the British. The Corporal Missile was the UK's first nuclear missile system and was liquid fuelled, so stored at Wulfen was its fuel and oxidiser. Thunderbird Surface to Air Guided Weapon (SAGW)was also stored there. The Missiles were looked after by 7 and 11 Guided Missile (GM) Company RAOC who maintained and stored the missiles with REME Techs. The warheads were always kept by the Americans at the Special Storage Sites, but the missiles and oxidant/fuels ( IRFNA and monoethylene) were kept at Wulfen. The US agreed to give the UK over a hundred missiles and firing eqpt. The Germans tended to assemble ammunition at many of its Depots from component parts and this happened here as well. During the rebuild many funny chemicals were found,
including Lewisite Grenades.
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My thanks to BAOR Locations for this information.
My thanks to Michael Harrow for the photo.
It shows members of 7 GM Company hard at work in the field.
