In the immediate post war era facilities for both official and private mail to and from the UK as well as internally within BAOR were the responsibility of the Royal Engineers Postal Services organisation. Within the British Zone the equivalent of the modern Post Code system was introduced with BAOR numbers being allocated to every major Garrison or RAF Station. Mail for the subordinate or outlying units was redistributed from these nodal points.
JPW
BAOR 1 – Bad Oeynhausen/HQ BAOR
BAOR 2 – Berlin/RAF Gatow
BAOR 3 – Hamburg
BAOR 4 – Düsseldorf/Duisburg/Essen/Mulheim/Wuppertal?
BAOR 5 – Hannover/Hameln?/RAF Wunstorf
BAOR 6 – Kiel/Plön/Neumünster
BAOR 7 – Not in use (1)
BAOR 8 – Lüneburg
BAOR 9 – Wuppertal?
BAOR 10 – Osnabrück
BAOR 11 – Braunschweig/Wolfenbuttel?
BAOR 12 – Münster
BAOR 13 – RAF Sylt
BAOR 14 – Dortmund/Witten Annan/Wetter
BAOR 15 – Herford/Detmold/Bad Salzulfen?
BAOR 16 – Paderborn/Bad Lippspringe/Sennelager
BAOR 17 – Not in use (1)
BAOR 18 –
BAOR 19 – Köln/Bonn/RAF Wahn/Wahnerheide/RAF Butzweilerhof
BAOR 20 – Soltau?/Munsterlager
BAOR 21 – Frankfurt/Baden Baden
BAOR 22 – Lübeck
BAOR 23 – Celle/Hohne/RAF Fassberg
BAOR 24 – Iserlohn/Menden
BAOR 25- Emden/Oldenburg/Wilhelmshaven/RAF Jever
BAOR 26 – Hildesheim/RAF Scharfoldendorf
BAOR 27 – Not in use (1)
BAOR 28 – Delmenhorst?/RAF Ahlhorn?
BAOR 29 – Minden
BAOR 30 – Fallingbostel
BAOR 31 – Schleswig?/RAF Schleswigland/Flensburg/Rendsburg
BAOR 32 – Verden/Rotenburg/Lienenau/Nienburg
BAOR 33 – Goslar/Bad Harzburg
BAOR 34 – Bracht/RAF Laarbruch/RAF Geilenkirchen/Krefeld/Willich
BAOR 35 – RAF Eindhoven
BAOR 36 –
BAOR 37 – Not in use (1)
BAOR 38 – Bad Eilsen/HQ RAF (G)/RAF Buckeburg (2)
BAOR 39 – Bielefeld/HQ 1 (BR) Corps/RAF Gütersloh/RAF Sundern
BAOR 40 – Mönchengladbach/Rheindahlen/HQ BAOR/HQ RAF (G) (3)
BAOR 41- Lippstadt
BAOR 42 – Lübbecke
BAOR 43 –
BAOR 44 Hilden?
Not yet identified/Confirmed:
Aachen, Bad Salzuflen, British Troops Belgium, Bunde, Gottingen, Hamm, Hilden, Husum, Itzehoe, Munsterlager, Soltau, Wolfenbuttel, Wuppertal
1) The sequence BAOR 7, BAOR 17, BAOR 27 and BAOR 37 were never used to avoid confusion surrounding the handwritten English and German style figures 1 and 7.
2) Bad Eilsen/ HQ RAF (G) originally BAOR 1? Allocated separate Post Code in 19?? due to volume of mail.
3) HQ BAOR/HQ RAF (G) moved from Bad Oeynhausen/Bad Eilsen to Rheindahlen in 1954 and were reallocated to BAOR 40.
In 1957 the current world wide system of BFPO numbers was first introduced to British Forces based in Germany. This necessitated some changes to the previous BAOR numbers to both avoid duplication and reflect the major reorganisations being implemented throughout the former British Zone of Germany.
JPW
BFPO 15 – Herford
BFPO 16 – Sennelager/Paderborn
BFPO 17 – Münster
BFPO 18 – Maastricht (Netherlands)
BFPO 19 – Köln/Bonn
BFPO 20 – Dortmund
BFPO 21 – Emblem (Belgium)
BFPO 22 – Lübbecke
BFPO 23 – Celle
BFPO 24 – Iserlohn
BFPO 25 – Brüggen
BFPO 27 – Hannover Isodets
BFPO 28 – Brunssum (Netherlands)
BFPO 29 – Minden
BFPO 30 – Hohne
BFPO 31 – Hameln
BFPO 32 – Verden
BFPO 33 – Hannover
BFPO 34 – Düsseldorf
BFPO 35 – Krefeld
BFPO 36 – Osnabrück
BFPO 37 – Soltau, also Brannenburg
BFPO 38 – Fallingbostel
BFPO 39 – Bielefeld
BFPO 40 – Rheindahlen
BFPO 41 – Detmold
BFPO 42 – Wildenrath
BFPO 43 – Laarbruch
BFPO 44 – Dulmen
BFPO 45 – Berlin
BFPO 46 – Bünde
BFPO 47 – Gütersloh
BFPO 48 – Nienburg
BFPO 49 – Brussels (Belgium)
BFPO 101 – Wolfenbüttel
BFPO 102 – Hildesheim
BFPO 103 – Hamm/Werl
BFPO 104 – Munsterlager
BFPO 105 – Düsseldorf Isodets
BFPO 106 – Soest
BFPO 107 – Lippstadt
BFPO 108 – Kiel
BFPO 109 – Ramstein
BFPO 110 – Willich
BFPO 112 – Menden
BFPO 113 – Mansergh Barracks, Gütersloh (1)
BFPO 114 – Körbecke
BFPO 140 – HQ BAOR
BFPO 26 – SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) in Mons
(1) The reason for this was some silly idea of security when 47 Fd Regt RA moved into Mansergh Bks. The idea was that the BFPO number and the unit shouldn’t have the same number, despite the fact that the address would have both the BFPO number and the unit title on the envelope.
Plant Pilot