With regard to the IRA bomb at the REME Officers Mess (Johansen Str 1, 4950 Minden as was!) my story is second hand but is as follows. Bear in mind that this Mess was not in a Barracks and is only a few minutes walk from the town centre.

As you look at the Mess from the road (above) the gate to drive in was the right hand one and from there you could drive to the front door and out again via the left hand gate or do the same by driving round the back of the Mess. Livers-in had a lean-to for parking and other parking places round the back.

I had arrived in Minden early November 1978, green as grass having only been in the Army for just over a month! As I drove round the Mess I noticed an area marked off with what I now know to be mine tape. This area is shown on the second photo and ran from the corner of the building to the stairs up to the terrace. I enquired of the other livers in what the tape was for and was told “That’s where the bomb was”. I assumed that it was a war time bomb but it was explained to me that it was an IED planted by the IRA. Apparently the bomb had been ditched and set to go off at lunch time on a Saturday when the bar was often busy with pads coming in for a snack and a beer. Luckily the detonator only managed to set fire to the main charge and not explode it. As the bar was right above where the bomb was placed death and injury would have been inevitable if it had gone off properly.

The mess was considered to be a soft target for the IRA as there were no guards on the gate, they could drive in and out easily and be on the autobahn A2 fairly quickly. I’m afraid that I can’t tell you when the the incident was apart from pre November 1978.

Lawrence Daniell

In the 1960s and early 1970s there was a sizeable REME presence in Minden. In addition to the nearby 11 Field Workshop situated across the Porta Strasse in Westminster Barracks there was HQ REME Corps Troops (commanded by a Lt Col) and an Electronic Repair Workshop both located elsewhere in the Garrison. In the same period there were a significant number of single teachers employed by the British Forces Education Service (BFES) in the local primary schools who were entitled to Officers’ Mess accommodation. In the 1960s the building and associated annexe provided living accomodation and social facillities for these two groups and for other minor units based in Westminster Barracks and was known as the REME Officers’ Mess. However following the departure of the majority of the REME Officers and the change in allowances for BFES teachers who were permitted to rent flats locally the facility was used by other units in the Garrison and renamed accordingly.

As the REME Officers’ Mess it was one of the few Messes anywhere in Germany under total REME control (there was a similar arrangement in Hobart Baracks, Detmold for a brief period in the late 1960s with the facilities were utilised by 4 Armd and 71 Aircraft Workshops officers). It was therefore used for prestige Corps level social events and in the early 1970s was the venue for a formal Dinner Night attended by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in his capacity as Royal Colonel Commandant REME.

Peter Watson