Did anyone ever apprehend a Soxmis vehicle? I never saw one, never mind upsetting the Ruskies in one. Any stories out there?

When I was based in Herford in the early 80's they used to use the main Naafi, funny as hell seeing loads of Russians reading Soldier mag and Sixth Sense (squaddie newspaper at the time), they got more int from them than anywhere I reckon!

There used to be a really good part of the Army Museum put over for this interesting era.
Well worth a look in if you are ever in the old smoke.

I read a book once about Britmis. Seems they were pretty good at spying and had photo's of the T72 interior just after it was first produced. Mind you they wouldn't say they were crap would they?

I heard the Russians were based in Herford (?) and used the NAAFI there. Must have thought it was paradise compared to their own. Saw a Russian barracks in what was East Germany when I visited in 94. Place called Grimme and it was bloody grim. All abandoned by then and covered in Russian graffiti. Squaddies the same the world over really.

Saw a Soxmis team outside our hide on Keystone (IIRC). They were taking turns to have their phot taken with backdrop of the "neighbours" - a German tank bn!

Still got a few of the old BFG Form 66's lurking about in a drawer.

Great story i read at the Museum about a guy using his growler box apple to use as an impromtu impression kit to measure the gauge and rifling of a piece of Sov Kit (APC) of some description.
Bloody good drills eh!

Originally Posted by Active_Edge_841

Still got a few of the old BFG Form 66's lurking about in a drawer.

Still got my soxmis card . Found it the other day while having a sort out. I used to see Soxmis cars around Herford quite regulary. We had a Soxmis 4x4 try to reach our hide location once while on Reforger but the bu66er managed to hot tail it before we got to them. That was about as close as I ever got to them. I,ve never heard of anybody detaining one tho.

LT.

Originally Posted by oldbloke

I heard the Russians were based in Herford (?) and used the NAAFI there. Must have thought it was paradise compared to their own.

The Soxmis compound was in Bünde, near Herford, so they would certainly have used the NAAFI there.

I remember seeing them at the NAAFI in Rheindahlen a couple of times, stocking up on decadent Western electrical goods, when thier boss had been called in for an chat and/or interview without coffee with the C-in-C BAOR. That would have been paradise compared to their own.

If you pulled up beside them on the Autobahn they deployed little curtains to stop you seeing in. As I recall the RMP would put army blankets over their windscreens to stop them seeing out-while parked of course! If there were no RMP we deployed "Screen-Chieftain-Oil leak"; that stopped the buggers.
Someone I knew got the thankyou card for posting in a sighting. SSM saw it in his pigeon hole and asked, "Weren't you on leave in the UK on that date? No MMA claim then?"