Home to:

3 Army Field Survey Depot RE (3 Depot)
? Accommodation Stores Depot RAOC
1 (BR) Corp Stores Company RAOC

Closed 29 October 1992

This barracks stands out amongst the others in appearance by taking on the form of a mill. The reasoning behind is because it was where the Luftwaffe uniforms were distributed from. I am unsure on what scale this barracks operated, however it is suggested that it was the national supplier.

3 Army Field Survey Depot RE (3 Depot) were here in 1951. The unit was at that time located at Brixton Barracks. The main unit at that time was ? Accommodation Stores Depot RAOC.

3 Depot occupied one wing of the barracks for map distribution, which also served as accommodation for the junior ranks. The eating arrangements for the OR’s was communal. The Sgts’ Mess was located in a rather grand house of Lessinstraße. Between 1954 and 1963 3 Depot relocated to Nicholson Barracks.

MG

Brixton Barracks, 1953. The flag of the Royal Engineers can be seen in the centre.

Courtesy of Mr Nick Carter

I am currently doing research on the former Luftwaffenbekleidungsamt (later Brixton/Richmond Barracks) at Am Stadtholz in Bielefeld in order to arrange a special exhibition concerning the history of the building.

In order to achieve this aim we need all information we can get about the building. Your page is extremely helpful as it mentions a lot of details and photographs. Any further information of your readers concerning the building and its structure, even rumours concerning its role during the war would be extremely helpful and deeply appreciated.

In the meantime we found a model of the building obviously crafted by a member of the RAOC stationed there. The model was handed over to the students of the University of Applied Sciences now located in one part of the building. It used to be on display there but will be cleaned and become a core piece of our exhibition. If any of your readers can remember who built the model or any details about its history we would greatly appreciate this and mention the creator in the exhibition. If you can help please click here.

Yours, Dagmar Buchwald, PhD

Your information on Richmond Barracks is correct as far as I know, The pictures do look familiar. Bear in mind I was only there a short time in 1949 before they bundled me off to Berlin to take over the drawing office and map store. We shared the place with an RAOC stores unit and I was told that the barracks was originally a Luftwaffe factory. Our motor section i/c was an ex-Luftwaffe Colonel complete with jackboots and sky blue britches! In those days guard duties and other civilian type tasks were largely fulfilled by Yugoslavs who were equipped with a navy blue uniform!

John Tracey

Richmond Barracks, Bielefeld, was the home of 1 BR Corps Stores Company then 62 Ordnance Company, 6 Ordnance Battalion RAOC, also home to HQ 6 Ord Bn RAOC and Central Distribution Point 3 (CDP3) which issued stores to various units in BAOR. I was stationed at the camp from Apr 1986 until Dec 1991 and worked in the MT Section.

The main job of 62 Ord Coy was to supply Engine & Major Assemblies (EMA’s), Tyres and Batteries, Helicopter load cargo nets, Internal Security stores for Northern Ireland training and Weapons for various training to units across BAOR. There were quite a lot of stories as to what the camp was used during the war. Many of the cellars were flooded so you were unable to gain access to them and there where various metal hatches in the floors of the lower cellars again these were also flooded. There was a story of a tunnel running from the cellars to a local lake and a couple of divers decided to checkout the tunnels but one was rumoured to have drowned, and one came back saying he had seen things that he did not want to see again. I don’t know how true it was.

Mr David Rabbage

I was posted there straight from commissioning and YOs course to Corps Stores Company RAOC in 1977. The barracks housed us (held everything from engines and major assemblies through entire hospitals (beds, pyjamas etc) to spare 175mm gun barrels) and we shared it with The HQ of the RAOC Corps Troops organisation (which also commanded Corp Troops Ordnance Company in Guetersloh and Corp Vehicle Company in Recklinghausen), Defence Medical Equipment Depot (DMED) and ancillaries like the barracky bills organisation.

As I understand it the Luftwaffe link was as a uniform production facility with a large amount of slave labour. There were a fair few underground levels, some of which were flooded and inaccessible. The WOs’ and Sgts’ mess was here too but the single officers were housed in the Garrison Officers Mess in Cruewell Strasse (the Cruewell Haus – now nice looking flats). Corps Troops became 6 Bn RAOC, CTOC/61 Coy, CSC/62 Coy and CVC/63 Coy – I think!

R Mc

I was posted to the medical equipment depot (DMED) at Richmond Barracks from 1974 – 1976. It was indeed originally called Brixton Barracks but the name was changed in 1975 after a visit from some general who thought our moral would improve if we didn’t have to live in a place named after a prison. Never heard of the place being a prison though.

The barracks was an amazing place. We had the upper floors and the RAOC the rest. Our billets were rooms made out of chipboard built into one of the storehouses. To go to work I went out of the door, turned left and walked ten yards into my workplace. It was possible to get anywhere on the site without leaving the building. The whole place was a rabbit warren of storehouses passageways and fire escapes. I think I must have explored every inch of the place.

The famous cellars did exist. The lower ones were flooded: to hold the building up, I was told, as the place had been damaged by bombs in the war.

I never got any bad vibes in the cellars, but one storehouse in particular was very creepy and not a place that you wanted to stay in for long.

I have seen the pictures posted on this site and they don’t half bring back some memories of staggering back from Maxis on Heeper Strasse, under the railway bridge and back in through gross tür zwei. It’s good to see that the place is being used and recent pictures seem to show that the Germans are looking after it better than we ever did.

Fat Medic

Brixton also had 1(BR) Corp Stores Company RAOC. They held 1st line equipment, MBT power packs, final drive assemblies, war track, road wheels/track. Also included were vehicle field pieces including 40 mm Bofors A/A; 120mm Wombat and Mobat; 5″ arty pieces and some Long Toms – I think they were 155mm. They also had M119/M110 dismounted barrels: two were mounted on one Antar tank transporter of which we had four with their own motor cycle escort riders; and industrial gas; NBC war reserve suits; IS packs for NI and all the gear for the Canada Cup, and when it was sent to a NATO tank shoot in 1973 we lost – a WO2 omitted to include a box marked “computer sight/image/calibration set”.

Jack Frost

After BAOR folded, the barracks main buildings became the German National Asylum seekers centre! (basically a new form of concentration camp!). The Sgts’ Mess was handed over to Bielefeld Stadt who turned it into temporary accommodation for single blokes waiting on a council flat (I know this as I lived there for 2 years!). The history from WW2 is correct: it was the distribution centre for all Wehrmacht Uniforms (not just Luftwaffe) and the factory opposite was a clothing factory. Last time I saw the factory it housed Anker (making cash tills and such like) and Seidensticker (a clothing manufacturer).

LH

This picture shows the main courtyard which was where the guardroom was located (the grass courtyard was not there in 1991)

WOs’ & Sgts’ Mess Building

MT vehicle park and the REME LAD Building