The training area Bergen-Hohne is the biggest one in Germany and one of the biggest ones in continental europe if not the biggest one. 28.400 ha big and if one wants to drive a circle around it one has to drive for 80km.
Lots of live fire ranges are located there with main 22 ranges some of them are divided in to sub ranges for all kinds of live fire exercises including tube and rocket artillery ranges where the artillery is actually firing from fire positions in the nearer area into the training area.
While connecting some of the ranges one can run some big live fire exercises. which I for example had some exercises there which included 2 Armored/MechInf coys + artillery, AT helicopters and combat engineers running down a live fire course of 5+km.
The terrain is dictated by the northern german plain in which it is located.
It is in use since the 19th century but the heavy use started with the Wehrmacht.
These days especially the Brits and the Dutch often train there but other nations are also a common thing to see.
Just some km next to it is another training area. Munster a garrison town with 5 barracks including the german armor school which is surrounded by the training areas Munster north and south. These trainign areas are also relatively big with additional live fire and training areas.
It is also home of our regional training center for armored and mechanized infantry units using the AGDUS system (Comparable to the MILES system).
There are also several additional camps located in the area into which units can move while on an exercise.
Often an armored unit is first going to Bergen for some live fire exercises up to company level, then makes a street march to a camp in Munster where it performs some AGDUS exercises against other units. After that the unit again marches to Bergen for some final big combined arms live fire exercises of the kind I described before.
This area is probably the best trainign area for armor units which can be found in Germany with lot's of space for free running AGDUS engagements, live fire erxercises and experst from other units and the armored school around.
Only for batallion and brigade level exercises with AGDUS support our national training center is better suited but while offering excellent GPS supported AGDUS fights it doesn't offer the same big live fire areas.
The fighting distances are smaller than one might think when talking about the north german plain.
While on the ranges one can get a shot at 4km the fighting distances during the AGDUS emgagements are rather limited.
The north german plain might be described as nearly ideal for armored combat in europe but I have been in exercises where no kill was further than 1km away and camouflaged tanks in the defense regularly got kill shots at under 400m-300m.
The nightlife in Munster and Bergen is awfull though...
Mmmh, memories come back.
Due to the location of my former unit (Schleswig-Holstein on the northern tip of Germany) this area was our main training ground for bigger exercises and I had alot of fun.