My favourite Sennelager Camp photographs

A 'Bumper Sticker' quote, from the Rotary Internet: 'There is absolutely no substitute for a genuine lack of preparation'.
Such could not be said of the SACF 2006 Annual Camp at Sennelager, Germany !

History of Sennelager Training Centre

Sennelager is a military training area on the northern side of the Teutoburgerwald near Paderborn. Like most Army Training Areas, Sennelager is cold and wet in the winter and hot and dusty in the summer. It was hated by the Kaiser's army and Hitler's ! The 20 000 acres of land required for the Sennelager Ranges was purchased early in 1892 and the first units arrived that summer. The men were accommodated in tents and the officers in huts. Permanent buildings were begun in 1893. Kaiser Wilhelm III led a large scale cavalry exercise here in 1895, and to mark this event the Kaiserstein was set up. He visited the Ranges again 10 years later. This time the public were invited and special trains were laid on from Paderborn to supplement the electric tram service. In World War I a number of camps on the training area became POW camps. After the war, the reduction of troops permitted Staumuhle Camp to be used as a holiday camp for children from the industrial areas, and between 1925 and 1927 some 6 500 children stayed here. The Normandy Barracks swimming pool was opened in 1928. With the build-up of troops in the early thirties the Camp Laundry was moved to its present location from the Castle at Schloss Neuhaus in 1936. The Range land at Schlangen, Hastenbeck and Hovelsenne was compulsorily purchased about this time and the barracks at Augustdorf were built. During World War II, in addition to the normal training, the camps were again used to house POWs and to restore battered units to fitness for return to the front. When the Allies arrived in 1945, most buildings, except the ammunition depot, were almost intact, but food and stores had been looted. The British took over the administration and have retained it to the present day, developing the area further to meet the requirements of modern training whilst, as far as possible, preserving the natural beauty of the countryside.

See, for a poem: www.iwvpa.net/willbondwha/some_dar.htm

Photograph of Normandy Barracks entrance, above, from Richard Collyer, Lowestoft RA - thanks !
Click photographs and maps to enlarge

Accommodation block

Haverhill & Texas Cdts with
Sgt James McMurtry, A Coy 3 R Anglian

Lancashire Restaurant

A typical 'Field Lunch'.
Long gone is the 'All-in stew' slopped into a mess-tin!

Cadets at lunch in the Lancashire Restaurant

Camp HQ

Click photographs to enlarge

Gallery of  photographs