Named after General Sir Redvers Henry Buller VC GCB GCMG.

Original Name – Kasernengelände Loddenheide

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104 Company RASC circa 1956 (1)
102 Company RASC circa 1956
66 Company RASC circa 1956
317 Tank Transporter Unit 1958-1961 (2)
6th Infantry Workshop REME 1961-? (3)
6th Field Workshop REME
2nd Battalion The Grenadier Guards 1968-1969 (4)
2nd Battalion The Coldstream Guards 1969-1972
1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards 1972-1974
1st Battalion The Irish Guards Dec 1974-Nov 1977 (5)
1st Battalion The Hampshire Regiment Nov 1977-Mar1981
1st Battalion The Light Infantry Mar 1981-Nov1984
1st Battalion The Queen’s Own Highlanders 1988-1994

Closed 20 January 1994.

(1) Equipped with mainly with Bedford QL. In early 1956 K Pl of 104 Coy RASC changed to the Leyland Hippo and converted again to Magirus-Deutz in early 1957.
(2) Arriving from Cromwell Barracks, Hamm and departing for the same barracks.
(3) Arriving from Cromwell Barracks, Hamm.
(4) Arriving from Harding Barracks, Wuppertal in March 1968 and departing for Wellington Bks, London in 1969.
(5) Returning to Victoria Barracks.

I served in York Bks, Münster from 2003 to 2006. Loddenheide (known as the Loddenheide Complex which was Buller, Swinton and Waterloo Barracks) by then was a retail park with a mixture of office units and small industrial units. It also had a large park with man-made lake.

I believe the lake was created when during the clean-up of the site after the British Army moved out in 1996 a large area of ground was found to be contaminated with acid and or POL products. The contamination was quite deep and the Germans kept digging until it was gone. The resulting hole was allowed to fill (the water table around Münster is very high) and a wildlife lake was created. Naturally the Brits got the bill for causing this contamination. No discount was offered for any contamination caused during Loddenhiede’s use as a fighter base by the Luftwaffe for 10 years.

The only reminder of the British Army on Loddenheide is the Garrison Church and the railhead. The Church is now used by one of the local religious/community groups. The railhead is also in use though for how much longer is debatable.

Osnabrück Garrison (and Münster with it) are due to close sometime 2008/9. Or at least they were when I left.

Rumours I encountered about Loddenheide were that it had been used as a Messerschmitt factory during the war. In the the Stadt Museum I found a RAF Photo Recce picture taken in June 1945. Loddenhiede is clearly visible. Apart from a few buildings around the perimeter track, it was quite clearly an airfield. Albeit one covered with an awful lot of bomb craters!

Anon

I was a soldier serving in 1LI which was stationed in Buller Barracks, Münster, BFPO from 1981 to 1984. The battalion moved from Lucknow Barracks, Tidworth to Buller Barracks in 1981. When we left Buller Barracks in 1984 we moved to an Old Wooden Barracks at Weeton Camp, Blackpool.

During my time at Buller Barracks (Loddenheide) I had heard some rumours on the grapevine that it had been used as a German Airfield during WW2. However I believe it was a Civilian Airfield and much confused with Münster/Handorf or the like which was a full blown Luftwaffe Airbase.

In Buller Barracks there was a very small area of wasteland which was used for demonstrating the new Warminster Trench systems. While digging one such trench we DID find an area of Tarmac/Concrete some 18″ below the surface, so great was the obstacle that we had to move the trench and start again. We moved about 20 feet and again hit the same thing. This implies that there was some major structure present before the camp was built, but no Messerschmitt factory.

As with all of the Loddenheide complex, I believe was built as a 25 year camp, this was to say that the British Military/Government only envisaged being in Germany for another 25 years after the war ended.

I must say, that the Battalion spent more time on exercise while stationed in BAOR Germany than it did during any other period of time. Very large scale exercises such as Exercise Lionheart, 1984, were held every few years and these frequently required reinforcements to be mobilised/drawn from the UK; they in turn would also participate in the exercise over several weeks.

I may have some pictures of the actual barracks somewhere but please don’t be disappointed if I don’t. Taking pictures of any camps or barracks I may have stayed in would have been the very last thing on my mind at the time, but I will have a look.

Ronnie