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9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2006 - Page 0064

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Regiment 9th/12th Lancers
Year 2006
Transcription 62 REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S)
Refurbishment 8: Upgrade of Schloss Bredebeck
he Bredebeck estate is the youngest of the Lohheide estates.
In 1946 the brothers Gebherd and Kurt Von Bothmer, sold
the estate, then called Bredtbeck, to Heinrick Otto and Lambert
Von Dageforde. The Schloss was built in 1902 by Helberg; the
then owner. The building has been used as an Officers’ Mess since
1945. Its first inhabitants were the 5th Royal Tank Regiment.
Refurbishment construction work begun on 7 Nov 05 and was
completed in Nov 06. The initial work carried out on the
Officers’ Mess was the upgrading of fire precautions. Fire doors
were installed throughout the building, each door with 6mm
safety glass, giving a 20minute compartment protection capabil-
ity. The alarm system was also replaced with high sensitive
smoke detection equipment. The second phase of the build was
to bring the kitchen into the 21st century. The kitchen is now a
modern state of the art facility, and is more akin to what you
would find in a top class hotel. The basement directly below the
kitchen, which was dead space, has been transformed into a
sanitised storage area, with enhanced access and climate control,
for ease of use and optimum storage. After a long period of dis-
ruption the Officers’ Mess now looks better then ever. The con-
The refurbished Kitchen.
tractors have managed to carry out the essential work, without
detracting from the history and character of the building, ensur-
ing that Schloss Bredebeck is a suitable and viable Officers’
Mess for future generations.
CMK
Royal Yeomanry Annual Camp
In amongst the million and one other things that have happened
since our return from the Gulf, 12 members of the Regiment
found time to take 6 of our CVR (T) Spartans down to Sennelager
to aid and abet our ‘Civilian’ colleagues in the Royal Yeomanry. Lt
Lloyd Owen led the charge out the gates from Hohne, assisted bril-
liantly by the logistical genius of ZLt Tapping and Sgt Howard, as
well as a composite Troop from across the Regiment; very quickly
we found ourselves in the NATO Officers’ and Sgts’ Messes respec-
tively.
Now, individually, the Territorials that we had in Iraq were
extremely capable and motivated people — stemming mainly from
the fact that most of them were more qualified, in civilian terms,
than the majority of the Officers. Collectively, the Royal Yeomanry
were every bit as willing and enthusiastic as their counterparts dur-
ing TELIC 7 and as a result we had a great time.
The first couple of days, we were doing our level best to try and
make their ranges and section attacks a little more realistic and fun.
Problems arose when we were asked to provide GPMG fire support
from our Spartan: although all the wagons had had pre-firing
checks completed on them before we left from Hohne, it was the
their qualified blokes for firing crews, and our wagons that worked
we were able to produce a little bit of covering fire from the cupo-
la, about which CO Royal Yeomanry got frightfully excited!
We then moved into more of an FTX phase. Their three
Squadrons disappeared off into Squadron AOs in the northern end
of the Sennelager area, and were allocated a couple of Spartan each.
Of course, being foot troops they had no immediate means of trans-
portation, which meant that we suddenly became their only means
of moving around their respective AO, heli—bedford became heli-
spartan. Resultantly, 9/12L spent the next three days on the move.
No matter — a few scrapes, bumps, IEDs and fire fights later, 9/12L
tactfully and tactically removed themselves from the battle and
tracked back to camp for our rail move back to Hohne.
May I take this opportunity to thank the Royal Yeomanry for the
help, G4 assistance and general good humour and banter; it made
all of us feel very welcome. It also provided a couple of ‘nig’ troop-
ers and 1 x officer a very useful week of living out of a CVR (T) as
well as reminding the rest of us what fun ‘blatting around the
ooohlou’ can be!
personnel manning them that hadn’t. So, with a mix and match of ELO
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