BAOR Locations

Did you serve here...
Welcome     Home     History of BAOR     Barracks     Locations     Canadian Inf Bde     Regiments/Brigades     What's New     Forum     Links      
Argonne Barracks
 
Built in the 1930's. Argonne Barracks had originally been a Panzer barracks and, in fact, vestiges of the Reich's Eagle remain on the front gate (with the swastika chiseled off, of course). There was also a relief of the head and shoulders of a German Soldier above one of the doorways of the building immediately left of the entrance shown in the first photograph below. It could be seen where the swastika had been removed from the soldier's helmet.
 
Home to:
 
DWO (PSA) Iserlohn
BMH Re-build (Oct 1985-1989) (1)
St James RC Chapel
SSAFA Social Worker
Medical/Dental Centre (Iserlohn Families) GMP
 
(1)  See below for more on BMH Iserlohn.
 
The REME LAD for HQ 1 Corps District Signal Regiment was in the Brickworks that were to the north-west of the Barracks.
 
BMH Iserlohn
 
No 6 British General Hospital 1946-?? (1)
No 6 British Military Hospital ??-1951 (2)
BMH Iserlohn 1951-1994 (3)
 
Closed March 1994
 

(1) The exact time of the change of name from General to Military Hospital is not known.

(2) A link mentions the title BMH Iserlohn being used in the details of a posting of QARANC's in 1951.

(3) Between 1951 and 1971, the facilities were shared by the British and Canadian Forces. Between 1978 and 1993, BMH Iserlohn was also known as NATO 31 Field Hospital.


When the Canadian Brigade was in the area (1950s to 1970), they utilised the hospital, many Canadian Army children being born at BMH Iserlohn as the Canadians did not have a "CMH"....and, of course, military personnel also were often patients as well.

The whole site is now a technical college.
 
Courtesy of Terry Flanagan
Courtesy of Terry Flanagan
 The following photographs are kind courtesy of Canadian Ruhr Memories. 
 
 
My mother, Winifred Ruth Doonan, or Doonie to her friends, arrived at BMH Isrelohn towards the end of the war. She was a member of the VADs and had served at various military hospitals in the UK before being sent to Belgium where she volunteered to be with the first contingent of nurses to go into the camps that were being liberated by the Allies. I'm not too sure how it came about, but I know she ended up at BMH Iserlohn, nursing some of the inmates who had been in the camps. Somewhere along the line she met and married my father, John George Fretwell, who was a member of the RAMC and had been one of the first into Belsen. They actually married in the hospital chapel in BMH Iserlohn.
Jo Reade
 
 Courtesy of Herr Manfred Schmitt
 Courtesy of Herr Manfred Schmitt
 Courtesy of Herr Manfred Schmitt
 
 Courtesy of Herr Manfred Schmitt
 Courtesy of Herr Manfred Schmitt
 
 Courtesy of Herr Manfred Schmitt
 
 Courtesy of Herr Manfred Schmitt