A series of six programmes looking beyond the barrack gates at family life in the army. 5: In British Forces Germany, civilians like
Elsie, a health visitor with SSAFA - the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's
Families Association - try to provide family care. Where there's no extended family she's a surrogate auntie and mum.
Army divorce figures are 18 per cent higher than those for England and Wales.
Young wives posted abroad with their husbands spend months as single parents in foreign countries while their husbands are sent away on duty. When marriages fail it's often families' officers who pick up the pieces.
Tony, a new SSAFA social worker, found his situation mirrored that of the wives.
He was so unhappy he asked his wife to give up her job and join him within a few months. 'I certainly leamt,' he says, 'that being an army wife isn't a bowl of cherries.' Filmed in West Germany, this programme looks at an army medical centre and a families' office.
Film editor Mike Lane
Producer Mane Thomas
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