Your mention of the Borgward Isabella brought back fond memories. An Isabella was the first car I ever owned, purchased from a dealership, Wenkler I think it was called, on the Ruhe Schnellweg, soon after we all arrived in Dortmund. I remember striking a deal with the owner that for every client I introduced who purchased a car I would receive 100DM. Being able to speak the language reasonably well I was able to bring him sufficient custom to pay off my Isabella and the subsequent Ford Taurus that I purchased from him.

I also recall that one long weekend while I was dating Winni we decided to go camping along the Dutch coast. I had borrowed a two man tent from the Workshop’s Scammel for the occasion. Somewhere along the way the engine on the Taurus started knocking badly, irresponsibly we decide to continue. When we arrived at our destination the campsite had a “Site Full” notice at the gate which set us back a bit, however in those bygone days we were all a little more reckless so undeterred we found a spot along the campsite fence where we could access the grounds unobserved and so were able to erect our small tent between two larger ones and have an enjoyable and carefree stay.

On returning to Dortmund I took the car to one of the local machine shops for repair, unfortunately by then the engine was knocking very badly and required a rebuild – the bill for this was 720DM. As you can well imagine at that time this amount was like asking for a king’s ransom. Fortunately for me this coincided with a dearth of married quarters and as you may remember an offer was published on Part 1 Orders that 20DM would be paid for each rental unit that anyone could find. Needing to retrieve my car I hit on the idea of canvassing the areas real-estate agents and with very little effort I found a new building with forty apartments that the builder was prepared to lease to the army.

The RA commanding officer at the time, I believe Peter was his name, protested I had taken advantage of the situation and told our CO, I think Needham was his name, to tell me as much and that all I would receive would be only 40DM. I needed the 720DM to get my car out of hock so I did what any upstanding “squaddy” in a desperate situation would – first, point out that there was no limitation mentioned on Part 1 Orders, secondly, that the forty units were in fact needed, and thirdly use the old Squaddies' favorite “I will write to my MP and ask him to intervene”, even though I did not know if I even had an MP. Anyway the ploy worked and I received the full 800DM.

I kept the Taurus till well after I was demobbed, eventually trading it for an old Jaguar XK140 ---------- and that vehicle is a whole new story.