BATUS vehicles on the move in Canada

[rob love]

I think we Canadians traded the Suffield wasteland for some gently used submarines. We thought we were making like bandits, but in the end it may have been the Brits who got the better of the deal.

All kidding aside though, when the time comes that a better deal is had by a military, they do not throw good money after bad. The Germans here in Shilo (GATES) had some terrific workshops, with huge overhead cranes. There was a lot of good shop equipment, PMQ furnishings, etc etc, that all went onto the chopping block. We used to line up at 7 in the morning in November waiting for the sales to open. Workbenches were $5 each....$10 if they had a vice on them. Work platforms were also $5 each, and mess hall stacking chairs were $1 each, with hundreds to be had.

As to the buildings themselves, if the Canadian Forces wanted to use any of them, then we had to pay book value for them. As a result, most were demolished while some were sold off to be moved. I picked up a few good buildings very cheap back in those days.

Of course, all the military pattern vehicles went back The only things we bought from them vehicle wise were the German Commanders staff car (an old full size LTD which I think we paid $1 for and sent off to CADC a few months later), a couple of the unimog range control trucks (also sent to CADC within 6 months...we made money on those) and their fairly new MCI scenic cruiser bus, which I think may still be kicking around the base. A number of German military bicycles were sold off through CADC as well, I think Gordon Falk got one.

End of the day, when it's time to go, it's time to go.

[BCA]

Rob,
What about all the auto union Mungas that showed up in Manitoba in the very early 1980's. Weren't they sold by German army. Perhaps you heard about how they were sold. Through Crown Assets? I have one of these ex-German Mungas and it still runs well.
.... Brian

[rob love]

Brian
I do remember when the Mungas were surplussed. CADC will act as the disposal agency for foreign government assests located in Canada. I have even seen them sell off American assets. The Germans (thru CADC) also regularly sold off the unimogs and the much larger MAN trucks, as part of their normal fleet rotations. Seems to me I heard something about a problem with duty not having been paid on the vehicles during the time of import. Not an issue if you take the vehicle home after you are done with it, but if it gets disposed of in Canada, then there was an issue. I think the same thing occurred for quite a while with the British vehicles form Suffield as well, where they were tagged "for export only".

But in the last few years that the Germans operated in Shilo, they were running their newer fleets, like the Mercedes G-wagon. None of those were released here, but rather taken back to Germany.

The thing that amazed us about the Mungas was that when they went, they were complete with batteries, mirrors, soft tops, and even the operators tooling. We seemed to treat all our DND surplus vehicles as a parts source, which surely affected the final sale prices.

[maple_leaf_eh]

The British Army calls their exercises in Suffield Medicine Man. From the accounts I've read, the units get a lot out of their exposure to big open terrain, live fire exercises and relatively few restrictions. Not like Salisbury Plain, where every second grid square has a medieval village or semi-endangered gorse bush. Not saying these things don't deserve full protection, but when the troops are learning how to fight big manoever elements, having to read the ROEs continuously get in the way.

One book I read recently was by the former CO of the Irish Rifles. He got his name in the news later in Iraq for belittling a boorish US Army Reservist and for fist fighting with an Iraqi insurgent. The CO duking it out with a bad guy! The thread of the book was how the battalions were on a constant rotation of garrison, overseas training and operations. A twenty year career in a line infantry unit might have had 2 or 3 Northern Ireland tours, adventurous training every 2 or 3 years in some place really exciting, and since 2002-3 predictable tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.

It used to be common to see trains of BATUS vehicles on the Prairies. During the height of the Mad Cow disease crisis, a shipload of vehicles was quarantined in Montreal because there was UK mud on them. Just when Canada was trying to get rid of one disease in our beef producing regions, another one almost slipped in.