UK forces in Germany

[denis567]

I read in this morning's paper that we still have 20000 troops stationed in Germany and with their families it increases to 34000.
Presumably other countries (US, France and Russia) also have troops still stationed in Germany.
I wonder what the Germans think about having foreign troops still stationed in their country, so long after the war.

[jno]

useful source of spending, I expect.

[rov1200]

Now that the cold war has ended there is no good reason for having British troops there. I believe it was to prevent Russian tanks crossing over the border. The spending power of 34000 individuals probably did that part of Germany a favour so they will sorry to see them leave. The suggestion was to rehouse them in British barracks left empty by defence cuts.

[Scylax]

During conversations with German folks in various garrison towns in Germany i got the impression that they were quite happy to have British soldiers on their doorstep, with whom they did some lucrative trade. They are certainly not regarded as aliens or interlopers.

[boxtops]

British troops and families are welcome out there, some of the towns depend on them for their spending power.

[anotheoldgit]

I don't think any of the troops would wish to leave Germany.

From what I can gather their standard of living is much better than they could expect in Britain, the education for their children is much better than they would hope to receive in Britain, plus the added bonus of being able to speak fluent German.

[New Judge]

Which is all jolly fine for them, AOG, and I don't begrudge them those perks one bit.

However, although reduced by more than 50% since then 1960s, we still have more than twice the number of troops in Germany as we have currently in Afghanistan and it is estimated that our presence there contributes about 1.5bn Euros to the German economy.

David Cameron has hinted that they will all be withdrawn by 2020, but why should it take 10 years? Come to that, why are they there at all? It is said that Germany is mostly used for training and troops there are often redeployed directly to other areas where operations are taking place. If this is the case, I think they should be withdrawn immediately and their spending power transferred to the UK economy.

[123everton]

Be careful, they'll be remilitarising the Rhineland before you know it.

[fredpuli47]

You're being a bit optimistic if you think our officers and men, or their children, speak fluent German, AOG. They are British and proud of it.Learning a foreign language is not British. When I was went over to do court martials there it was most gratifying that I only ever met one officer who could speak passable German. The rest knew enough to order a beer when out. (The Queen's Own Hussars' officers knew more. They could tell the German, staff to heave another enormous log on to the fire!).

The life out there is good for all of them. Some very much so..

And the old cavalry regiments, at least, do have a certain lifestyle, for some. The officers in one spent much of the time discussing the obtaining of polo ponies from Argentina and another;s sent a convoy to Rheims to collect the Regimental Champagne from the makers (It comes in pint bottles, dontcha know. Regimental tradition and all that )

[New Judge]

All jolly spiffing stuff, fred. And once again something that I do not begrudge them one bit. I just wonder why we are still paying for such extravagances when we cannot afford to properly resource our chaps out in the hell hole that is Afghanistan.

[modeller]

It is many years since I served in Germany and I did speak reasonable German which was uncommon amongst most ranks. However I didn't like it as a posting : Too much Bull... and little real purpose , which is a problem with all peace time armies . How do you keep thousands of troops occupied 24/7 . Some of us spent time on manoeuvres along the eastern bloc borders
which gave us some purpose because of the Russian threat , but for the majority it was Bull....a bit of training ,and a sprinkling of sport. Which is not as popular as the media tries to make out .