NAM.2019-03-5-1-1

Oral history interview with Maj Gen (Rt’d) Mungo Melvin, Royal Engineers, 1975 to 2009. Interviewed on 26 February 2019. Covers his 19 years service in Germany. Commissioned 1975, retired 2011. Summarises tours in Germany – 1) Troop commander 26 Engineer Regiment March 1976-Sept 1977; 2) Adjutant 21 Engineer Regiment Oct 1982-Sept 1984; 3) Headquarters Royal Engineers 1st British Corps Sept 1984-April 1986; short period of language training at the Higher Education Centre Germany until Sept 1986; two years at the German Forces Command and Staff College as a student in Hamburg Sept 1986-Sept 1988; Sept 1988-Dec 1988 attached to Headquarters 3rd Armoured Division; Dec 1988-May 1991 Headquarters 1st Armoured Division, including a deployment to the Gulf; May 1991-January 1993 Squadron Commander 23 Engineer Regiment Osnabruck; Jan 1995-Jan 1997 took command of 28 Engineer Regiment, which also included a tour of former Yugoslavia; April 2000-May 2002 Chief Engineer, Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps; General Officer Commanding UK Support Command Germany aka British Forces Germany Aug 2006-Aug 2009. Opinion of serving in Germany – when commissioned in 1975 knew there was a high chance of going to Germany as almost half the recruits from Chatham did; volunteered to go to Germany, saw it as most professionally fulfilling part of the Army at that time, spoke some German; married a German woman; ended up knowing Germany v well politically, geographically, militarily. First posting – Iserlohn near Dortmund with 26 Engineer Regiment, a German parachute unit, and nearby were other German and British units; v much a British/German garrison town; got to know other British and Germans v quickly. First impressions of Germany – v busy life, working five and a half days a week, paraded six days a week including Saturday, big corp d’esprit, hard professionally, v good sport-wise, v all-inclusive time. Army has changed hugely since. Negatives – in the 1970s there was a lot of heavy drinking at weekends, made efforts to keep people busy with summer training camps away from barracks; conscious of threats, alarm measures such as Active Edge, callouts; people kept on the edge readiness-wise; enjoyed it; volunteered to go back to Germany. British Army’s role in Germany – v clear that were part of a deterrence force through proven defence capabilities against a potential Soviet attack; also there as part of an alliance, close co-operation with German Army engineers characterised military service from the beginning. 1977 – Queen’s Silver Jubilee Parade – unit provided support and did all the building works for it; toured German engineer units collecting material lent to them. Officers speaking German – official programme for all officers to learn colloquial German, never ruthlessly followed through, anyone wanting to opt out of German course needed good reason, turnover of personnel and reluctance of British to speak other languages made it difficult, wives encouraged to have German too. Had O-level German, volunteered to do colloquial German course at local education centre and passed in couple of days. Did linguist and interpreter exams at higher education centre in preparation for going to German Forces Staff College. Social links between British Army and German communities – varied, some towns had Anglo-German Clubs others didn’t; founded Anglo-German Club at Hamel when serving with 28 Engineer Regiment; was no consistent British-German co-operation; towns with single units tended to have better co-operation; where there were more units contacts were at a higher level, typically brigade level. Threat level from Russians in Germany – never thought it was inevitable, if conventional and nuclear deterrents held there wouldn’t be an attack; slow but steady easing of tensions in the 80s, didn’t think the threat was acute; 1983 Able Archer – lots of warnings but weren’t exposed to imminent threat, for standards to remain high threat must be considered real, although didn’t think the risk was imminent, peaks of tension, people motivated by very intense training regime; huge exercises in 1980 and 1984 served training and deterrent functions; internally people saw that if government/the military was going to such expense they were taking threat seriously; scale and the realism promoted professional edge, professional reputation and motivation; a division went out on a full exercise every three years. Lionheart 1984 – was at Control and Umpiring HQ, built on huge airfield at Tofrek Barracks, home of 1 Royal Tank Regiment and 1 Regiment Army Air Corps; 21 Engineers provided a lot of staff; had overview of the exercise – went to twice-daily briefings, went out and saw bits of the exercise; slightly larger than the 1980 exercise, gave everyone a sense of scale and purpose, gave people an understanding of logistics and replicated what war would be like; multi-national co-operation; on last big exercises in 1988 and 1989 – took an active part in the last big Cold War exercises; motivated them and the Reservists who came out and gave great sense of purpose. Germany main centre of British Army efforts – “tip of the British Army spear was in Germany”; Northern Ireland was very necessary diversion; bit of a two-army view with some people known as Germany soldiers (he was one, spent a ten-year block 1982-92 in Germany) and there were people not Germany soldiers like Mike Jackson who were rather disparaging; healthy competition between German Army and non-German Army who did more overseas exercises; lots of innovation, very dynamic, demanding commanders like Ginge Bagnall; tactics kept evolving, structures kept evolving; Germany was in a whole series of big organisational changes; Wider Horizon; initial scepticism about doing new things with not much more resources, some odd things that didn’t work – Spear Point in 1980; did a Goodwood phase (like Operation Goodwood in July 1944 in Normandy) and re-running it in Germany in 1980 bit far-fetched. By 1988 the end of the Cold War British and German forces had good solution to what to do if the Russians attacked but people realised they weren’t going to; it always would have been a case of fighting a defensive battle; only exercise Live Oak was about relieving Berlin; most people thought it was a bit far-fetched, generally the plan was to buy time before it went to nuclear weapons. Living in Germany – whether you had a good time depended on culture and class; most soldiers living in Germany enjoyed Germany because they got paid LOA and welfare, health and education were good; there were a few jobs for the wives, people with families were very content; whole environment was better than in the UK for soldiers; in Menden and Celle where the units had been for about 50 years half the corporals’ mess/sergeants’ mess had German wives; only discontented people were a few of the unmarried officers with girlfriends in London, unhappiness in Germany started to increase in the 90s due to social change – wives were unwilling to give up careers so increasing numbers of soldiers began to serve unaccompanied, LOA went down and Germany became less attractive. Social highlights – Silver Jubilee Parade was huge, everyone was issued with new uniforms, Queen came over; visits of Royals at other times; units given freedom of cities; Germans very good hosts to foreign units; people’s home was their regiment because they could not go home at weekends unlike in Britain; during the Cold War there were tight restrictions on leave, in the 2000s more people went home to the UK at weekends to see wives and girlfriends; Rhine Army Summer Show – only visited once or twice, mostly managed to avoid it as regarded as a pain for units doing it. SOXMIS vehicles – saw them two or three times and reported them; based at Bunde near Minden and travelled that way quite often; carried a card with the SOXMIS number and some change to report it. Contact with Warsaw Pact/Soviet forces – saw them more in late 80s, had observers visiting exercises, too junior to get involved with them socially just regarded it as part of the world we were in and hoped we were doing the same to them; gradual easing of tensions and confidence building measures; Berlin Wall coming down was less of a surprise if you had followed events in Germany in the two or three months beforehand; sister-in-law lived in Berlin so well-informed, was watching television at home when heard the Wall had come down, we were getting ready for another big exercise no party atmosphere or shock just realisation that had come to end of specific era and future was uncertain; when back from Gulf in 1991-2 were still dealing with Russian forces stationed in East Germany; led first British Army training exercise in East Germany at Greifswald with Russian garrison nearby, told specifically only to wear civilian clothes, sensitive to Russian sensibilities that we might be moving NATO forces further East; 1990-91 – Gulf War huge distraction; Options for Change and draw-down of forces in Germany, period of very big change for the British Army in Germany very challenging for the chain of command and for families, Options for Change was complete misnomer – was total change; pressures of operations in former Yugoslavia gave more turbulence; never any return to the life of the Cold War units in Germany just became the base from which you were deployed to the Balkans or Northern Ireland. Deployment to Gulf and Bosnia – number three to General Officer Commanding Rupert Smith and Chief of Staff John Reith, wrote plan for First Gulf War under their supervision; training and Bagnall Reforms made the British Army more tactically agile and able to change from defensive operations in Germany to offensive operations, the British Army of 1980 would have struggled far more to do the Gulf War of 1991, criticise memoirs of people who say the British Army in Germany was in stasis in the 70s and 80s; challenge of First Gulf War was huge on the British Army – clear that lots of people and units stressed by it; Army found first rotations in peacekeeping in Yugoslavia very challenging. 1980-90s relationship with Germany – 1980s life in Germany very stable, 1990s with the Gulf and Balkan Wars not; new phase in the Army’s relationship with Germany – had been there as a “shield on the Rhine” but now a launch pad; by 90s was seen as a ‘firm base’ with good training, accommodation, education, welfare and units could launch from there anywhere in the world; Germany still had many advantages over service in UK – better quality of life; anti-NATO demonstrations and peace protests in Germany during mid-80s; after Cold War German military was downsizing and most German communities were keen to see British stay for contributions to economy and as friends, one exception was Soltau, because German urbanisation had crept round the training area and it had become more and more difficult. General Officer Commanding of UK Security Control Group 2006-2009 – providing the ‘firm base’ and best possible training areas, welfare, housing, education, relations with German community, effectively became the landlord – spoke the language and had lots of contacts; draw-down from Germany was a mistake although there were sound economic arguments, critical because there was too little understanding about what was happening in Eastern Europe. Benefits of British Army in Germany – meant Army preserved professional edge, important for fighting power of well-equipped, well-trained, well-resourced Army; bringing Army out of Germany means losing opportunities to work with German, American and now Polish allies, premium from having the Army based in Germany was a better army; Army gave Germany a sense of solidarity with NATO that they had friends in both Cold War and post-Cold War eras. Objects – British Forces Germany publications like ‘So You’re Posted in Germany’, garrison magazines, literature for families; film material of unit life, families, sport. Favourite posting in Germany – command of 28 Regiment in Hameln, would live there; also like Berlin and Bonn.

British Army of the Rhine (1945-2008)