Souvenir programme, 'A concert to mark 50 Years of Forces Broadcasting in Germany, Sunday 25th June 1995, at the Musikhalle, Hamburg'

In December 1944, with the Second World War still raging in North-West Europe as the Allies sought to advance into the heart of Germany, four Mobile Broadcasting Units left Tilbury docks for Ostend in Belgium. Their role was to relay the Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme to the advancing British and Canadian armies.

With the end of the war in Europe five months later, the British Forces Network Germany broadcasting service was established in the Musikhalle in Hamburg. Their role remained the same; to entertain the troops, but also the thousands of spouses and children that were arriving in the British Zone to build the British community that would be occupying the shattered country. Programming had quickly been adapted to include more for the spouses and children of those serving, which proved popular. A weekly segment, 'Sprechen sie Deutsche', aimed to encourage the families to pick up more of the language to help them in their day-to-day contacts with the Germans.

In the early 1960s, it was renamed the British Forces Broadcasting Service. It continued to be a major part of British cultural life in West Germany, and was extremely popular with West Germans as well.