Updated 22 August 2024

Flugplatz (Airfield) Kaserne renamed Ayrshire Barracks

Home to:
7th Medium Regiment RA (1)
25/26 Battery – 27/28 Battery
32nd Medium Regiment RA (1)
94 Battery
27 Independent Field Squadron RE (2)

(1) arrived from Bochum 15 Jul 46 – redesignated 32nd Medium Regiment RA 1 Apr 47 – moved to UK 13 Mar 48 – 25/26 Battery redesignated 94 Battery 1 Apr 47 – 27/28 Battery moved to Krefeld 15 Aug 46
(2) forms 1 Nov 48 – moved to Holzminden south of Hamlen 21 Nov 48

More to follow
Source: 21st Army Group later British Army of the Rhine to Mar 49

Part II

17 Veh Coy RASC 1947-1949
17 Veh Bn RAOC 1949-1959
17 Rear Veh Depot RAOC 1959-1969
17 Base Veh Depot RAOC 1969-?
23 Regt RCT – 1970’s (1)

Closed 28 June 1996

(1) Joined by 500 Mobile Movements Troop around 1978, from Fife Barracks

I was looking at Ayrshire barracks. All these buildings are listed buildings. So they did not remove them. You have pictures of various buildings which were used by various units. 23 Regt RCT were here as a training Regt. Where the new stadium is at present was the BAOR disposals unit. This was where all the vehicles which were cast/scrap were sent to be sold off to civilian companies. This was a huge site. This also included all the old equipment which was obsolete. You also had a container exchange point which was a mid-way point from Antwerp docks to various units in BAOR. The RAOC had a vehicle unit here called ODA (Ordinance depot Antwerp) which held all the new vehicles for units in BAOR. There was also a mobile civilian transport group called 608 MCTG.

The photos on this site were used for transit accommodation, a cookhouse, NAAFI, a TA unit called 213 (BAOR) SQN RCT, 23 REGT RCT also the GLSU ( Garrison Civil Labour Office).

Mr A Harmon

Should you be able to add info to any of the pictures shown below, please number each image and email me with the details.

The picture above and the three below show the barracks in 1984 and have a grainy “Soxmis” feel to them.

Courtesy of Mr Simon Moore

I was stationed there in 1968 when it was the home of 17 Rear Vehicle Depot RAOC. This comprised three very large vehicle parks housing “A” vehicles(soft skinned vehicles, 3 ton trucks and Land Rovers), “B” vehicles (Armoured) and “C” Vehicles (earth movers and cranes for example). There was also a complex housing Polish and other East European workers who were employed by the BAOR as guards and labourers – MSO and GSO – there was a large Social Club there also.

Richard Bond

The new home of Borussia MG

Above photos courtesy of Mr Simon Moore

Above photos courtesy of Konversionsflächen in NRW

I served in Ayrshire Bks from 1991 – 1993. I was a Vehicle Specialist RAOC then RLC. It was ODA detachment when I started my tour. By the end it had become Theatre Drawdown Unit BAOR. We had all of the vehicles and equipment coming through when everything was being drawn back to the UK. We were a small unit of around thirty vehicle specialists but we moved a large amount of kit back to the UK. 79 Railway was still over the road at that time. We were accommodated in Fife Bks along with the Command Pay Office for most of the time however they too were moved back to the UK. 6 Special Protection Platoon RMP were in Fife Bks at that time.

Colin Empson