Wildflecken Training Area
 

During WW2 Wildflecken was, of course, a Wehrmacht training area. I found a site on the web that had the following saying that German soldiers used to have for Wildflecken.

"Lieber den Arsch voller Zecken als ein Tag in Wildflecken!"

"Better an ass full of ticks than a day in Wildflecken"

Got to love troops, no matter where they are from...

It is now, or was until recently (never know these days), the Rhoen-Kaserne of the Bundeswehr.

Wildflecken Training Area
 

We use to say"There is no 'FLECKEN like WILDFLECKEN. The barracks and mess hall's were great.

BMT

Wildflecken brings back many memories both bad and good as does Baumholder, Grafenwoehr, and Hoehenfels.

In der guten alten zeit...
 

We used to call it "The Wild Chicken" when 6/6 inf was 1/54 inf mail foot heroes. That's back when we would march from Bamberg to Grafenwoehr!

Wildflecken
 

Ok all you guys who served in Deutschland, what does Wildflecken (Veeldflecken) translate to in English?

If I am correct, spotted deer. Wild = deer, Flecken = spotted

Am I correct?

Where there any good Gasthauses or Bierstubes in the area?

I dont know. Deer was always Reh or Hirsch. Or, at least thats what the sign said above the doorway to the Golderner Hirsch Gasthaus.

Wild
 

The term "Wild" could be considered the equivalent of the English word "game" as it pertains to hunting. There are many different kinds of "Wild", obviously. The distinctions are made by adding whatever word signifies the type of game you're talking about. "Rotwild" would be a type of red deer, for example.

As far as the name "Wildflecken" goes, you are right in that "Flecken" translates to spots. Spotted would be "gefleckt", or "befleckt", however.

The name doesn't translate very smoothly, nor does it make much sense in German. It's simply two words put together. If you were to translate it literally it would mean something along the lines of "Game spots"

Like many words in any language, "Wild" can mean many things. Many German place names are old and words have changed over the years (there used to be a book sold in the bookstores over there that went through how place names meant something and how the word building blocks evolved over the years).

Wild also means just plain old "wild", like it does in English. It can also mean "rough"-possibly giving the name "Rough spots or areas".

Flecke(n) can mean spot(s), bruise(s), patch(es), stain(s) or small piece(s) of land.

Isar is actually a Celtic name and Donau (Danuvius) is taken from Latin. So using modern translations doesn't always quite get the source.

Okay, from the Wildflecken website.

http://www.wildflecken.de/

The name came from some settlements in the woods. "1588- Der Streit um die wilden Ansiedlungen wird beendet. Ein Ort in der Reihe er "Wilden Ansiedlungen" behielt seinen Namen Wildflecken. Wildflecken hatte zu diesem Zeitpunkt 294 Einwohner.

My team would ride our mountain bikes up to the monastery on top of the hill. Then after dinner and a few dark beers, we would ride back down to the kasern. There were times that got to be very tricky......

That was some good brew...................................

I still have a one liter mug from there...

Our Company in Berlin had a Keg that we would refill with Kreuzbergbier each trip we made back to the West......

Of course that was after a liberal sampling period on the last night of the exercise :D

Has the beer gotten moldly yet? ;)

I remember Wildflecken that was IMHO the minor league version of Graf. And Garmisch -- it did have a little ski hill and it was half the distance from Aschafenburg. Just right if you didn't have time to spend the night in Garmisch.
Anyone remember Hohenfels?
Now that free manuever area was "fun fun fun 'til her Daddy took the car keys away!" Especially if you were a young Mech PL in a Tank Company Team. The joy of being a seeing-eye grunt for a bunch of tread-heads (in M-60A-1s)! We'd dismount and clear the route at night then link up with our Tracks when the Company rolled in just after dawn. Chow showed up in the Merimites (Green Eggs and Sausage). Then tearing around, up and down the bowling alleys.
I remember looking for and being chased by OPFOR tanks, charging into a narrow valley desperate for a hasty ambush site. Finding a hide and spinning the Dragon turret around, dismounting all the LAWs and waiting. . . waiting . . .waiting. Watching the tank roll by . . . waiting for the flank shot. Seeing the shock on the TC's face as he spotted us, the turret spinning. . . "FIRE FIRE FIRE."
The ensuing argument.
"Your DEAD"
"Am not"
"Are TOO"
"I'm a TANK, Grunt"
"Mon down 'Captain Crunch' and we'll see about that!"
Then comes a lone M151 . . . Out climbed a short guy with a purple smoke.
Pin gets pulled, and smoke gets tossed
under the tank!


Dueler Six (ADC-M, 3 ID) made the call . . .