http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/no...aw-germany-mod

How will we keep 'em in check if we can't keep a good close eye on 'em?

Unnecessary, times have changed.

well, that's what you would say, wouldn't you?

I'm surprised they are still there.

Get better at soccer first ;-)

Always best to pull out if you're not properly protected in the east. Best line of defense is to locate the weakest point of your prey and strike deep in the night, but pulling out can also be advantageous if you'd rather avoid lots of minor Germans ankle biting around your platoons.

Like a lot of others I'm sure, I didn't realise that the UK had much of a presence there any more, thought BAOR had left a long time previously.

Rather touching quotes from the locals though.

Earlier this year, Rainer Prokop, the mayor of Bergen, a town near the Bergen-Hohne training area, told The Local website: "This is the most severe upheaval for us since the second world war. The British live among us, they are a part of everything here."

Did we win the hearts and minds?

The British forces should recruit you as their strategic expert.

Epic A. fail.

They are also a large economic factor.
They spend a lot of money in the local economy.
I they leave, that money will be missing.

It's the same with the German armed forces.

"They are also a large economic factor.
They spend a lot of money in the local economy.
I they leave, that money will be missing.

It's the same with the German armed forces."

Yeah, fairplay though, they were a part of something.

If you look at THIS list of BAOR locations

Scharfoldendorf

you realize that these 40'000 to 50'000 people
were spread over a vast area with millions of local
inhabitants, and so, the actual economic impact overall has its limits. Of course, it in many locations IS of paramount importance and the "disappearance" of that force will inevitably lead to businesses in many smaller places having to close down. But the BAOR simply is no longer necessary and so the decision of the UK government is correct

God, no. Not in another century. But your cash is welcome.

You win the hearts of local majors thanks to the money an army installation floods into local businesses. And the mentioned place is really out in the sticks - so as soon as the troops leave it will turn into some run down wasteland.

I am from the far west of Germany - the area that was known as the iron triangle during the cold war: Lots of large USAF and Bundeswehr airfields as well as the largest French army outside France. I've seen what small towns look like if suddenly a five digit number of inhabitants leave and it isn't pretty. So I can fully understand if any major hopes they stay there forever.


What Rainer meant is that the German army was dramatically reduced over the past twenty years - as there were fairly large on both sides of the iron curtain. Every time the army has to reduce further and wants to close a place it is a local uproar and turns into some mid-sized political battles - more often than not does it then depend what party is currently in charge in the federal government and if this happens to be the same one on state and city level...