Francisca Barracks was named after a throwing axe used as a weapon by the early Franks, among whom it was a characteristic national weapon until around the middle of the 8th century.

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28 Sig Regt RCS

Closed March 2002

I understand it 28 (BR) Signal Regiment (NORTHAG) was stationed in Tönisvorst from when it was formed in 1957 and was granted freedom of the city in Oct 1976. It was part of NSG (NORTHAG Signal Group) which also contained German, Belgian and Dutch units. The Signal Group was commanded by a German Colonel.

28 was unique for the Signals as the only thing that the MOD provided was the trained soldiers and their weapons. All the equipment was provided by NATO and the troops were under the command of NATO (not HQ BAOR).

I don’t know how much you understand signals parlance but my squadron provided the switches (or trunk nodes in Ptarmigan parlance). We provided the data switch and telephone exchange, the Germans provided the multiplexers and radio relay equipment, the Dutch laid all the cables and the Belgians provide the HF backup (when they decide to turn up).

Doing a recce was quite fun since all the recce officers had to agree the layout, make 4 copies of the plan and sign each copy! As I mentioned 28 was disbanded (1993 as I recall, but I will check the date) and reformed into 280 Signal Squadron. Subsequently the Squadron became 628 Signal Troop and move to Bruggen with the rest of 1 Signal Bde.

Andy Tuson

There was a story that the border between Krefeld and Tönisvorst went through the edge of the camp and cut through the bar in the officers’ mess. This border problem is still causing problems to this date as the barracks still remains in the same form as when the troops left in March 2002, as both Stadts can not agree on what to with it.