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154 Forward Ammunition Depot (renamed 12 Supply Regiment RLC)

A picture of 52 Coy RAOC (V) which was taken beside the Honest John missile at 154 FAD Wulfen – 1980.

Courtesy of Mr Les Dalton

The missile pictured is, in fact, a Thunderbird SAGW, not the Honest John stated. A photograph of Honest John is shown below.

Photograph courtesy of www.24th-missile-regt.org

Muna Barracks was built during WW2 as a German ammo depot, using slave labour. The graves of some of the labourers are believed to lie within the depot, giving rise to many ghost stories etc, but I don’t think any evidence of graves was found when the depot was rebuilt. The Commandant’s house became the officers’ mess – he was reputed to be SS, but I’m not sure if that was correct.

The name ‘Muna’ is a contraction of the German ‘Munitions Anlage’ (not sure if I’ve spelled that correctly) meaning Ammunition Depot. It was captured by the British as they advanced and was used as a UK ammunition depot from that time on.

The name of the unit was 154 Forward Ammunition Depot (154 FAD), the term ‘Forward’ dating back to WW2 where anything east of the Rhine was classed as ‘Forward’.

The depot was completely rebuilt during the late 1980s, with the old storage bunkers being replaced with state of the art ammunition sheds, although one of the old bunkers was kept for posterity. 154 FAD was renamed 12 Supply Regiment RLC when the RLC was formed in 1993 and the site was handed back to Germany in the early 2000s (I think). UK now leases a couple of storage sheds to hold training ammo for BFG units so we still have a small presence there.

NA

IIRC the depot was actually captured by the Canadians and then handed over to the British.

The Corporal Missile was the UK’s first nuclear missile system and was liquid fuelled, so its fuel and oxidiser was stored at Wulfen.Thunderbird Surface to Air Guided Weapon (SAGW) was also stored there.

The Missiles were looked after by 7 and 11 Guided Missile (GM) Company RAOC who maintained and stored the missiles with REME Techs. The warheads were always kept by the Americans at Special Storage Sites, but the missiles and oxidant/fuels (IRFNA and monoethylene) were kept at Wulfen. The US agreed to give the UK over a hundred missiles and firing equipment. The Germans tended to assemble ammunition at many of its Depots from component parts and this happened here as well. During the rebuild many funny chemicals were found, including Lewisite Grenades.

Bevanda