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1st Bn Royal Irish Rangers 1970-1974
2nd Bn Royal Irish Rangers 1974-1979
1st Bn Royal Highland Fusiliers 1979-1984
1st Bn Gordon Highlanders 1984-1988
3rd Bn Royal Regiment of Fusiliers 1988-1992 (1)

Closed 27 August 1992

After being constructed in the early Fifties, Fort MacLeod was home to many Canadian infanteers up until it was transferred to British hands in 1970. The barracks, which adjoined to Fort Prince of Wales/Peninsula Barracks, were then retitled Barrosa Barracks after the battle of Barrosa.

(1) 3 RRF were the last regiment to be accommodated here, the camp being handed back to the Stadt late in 1992. In August 1992, the 3rd Bn merged with the 1st Bn.

Barrosa Barracks was in Hemer, which is about 10 kms from Iserlohn.

The first British unit after the Canadians was the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Rangers, a mechanised battalion equipped with the petrol engine Mark 1 FV 432. 1 R IRISH named the barracks Barrosa after one of their most famous battle honours when in 1811 one of their forbears, the 87th Regiment, later The Royal Irish Fusiliers, captured a French Imperial Eagle from the 8th Regiment of Infantry, one of only 3 Eagles, I believe, actually captured in battle.

In 1974 the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Rangers handed-over to their 2nd Battalion, which by then was equipped with a mix of Mark 1 and Mark 2 FV 432s. The Battalion was under command of HQ 6 Armoured Brigade based in Soest.

Next to Barrosa Barracks in Peninsula Barracks was initially 2 Field Regiment RA, followed in about 1978 by 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

Barrosa Barracks was at the top of a valley, down which a chill wind blew in the winter. Our vehicles were kept in the open, as there were then no garages. Trying to maintain our vehicles in a bitterly cold German winter was a memory not forgotten 30 years later.

The 2nd Battalion The Royal Irish Rangers remained in Barrosa Barracks until March 1979 when we handed-over to the 1st Battalion The Royal Highland Fusiliers.

I served in Barrosa Barracks from 1975 until 1979 in the 2nd Bn The Royal Irish Rangers as Assistant Adjutant, Anti-Tank Platoon Commander (equipped with both WOMBAT anti tank guns and SWINGFIRE anti-tank missiles) and then as the Regimental Signals Officer. It was a good place and we enjoyed being there.

Tony Potter, Colonel (Retired)