36th District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, HQ London District & 238 Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Chelsea. Although the defense of these sites was somewhat more determined than that XII Corps had faced, the difficulties of the Boppard and St. Goar crossings were compounded more by terrain than by German resistance. Both formations had areas of responsibility located around the German section of the River Rhine. 34 Evacuation Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps, 31st District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Catterick. In the north, from the North Sea to a point about 10 miles (16km) north of Cologne, was the 21st Army Group commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Total given for serviceable Luftwaffe strength by 9 April 1945 is 3,331 aircraft. Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. With spectacular thrusts being made beyond the Rhine nearly every day and the enemy's capacity to resist fading at an ever-accelerating rate, the campaign to finish Germany was transitioning into a general pursuit. The idea was that each Division would have 2 Task Forces , which . During the First World War the army was active on the Western Front throughout most of the war and later active in Italy. On September 4, 1944, the unit captured the city of Antwerp. By then, the paratroopers had taken all their first day's objectives in addition to 3,500 prisoners. [26], On 19 March, Eisenhower told Bradley to prepare the 1st Army for a breakout from the Remagen bridgehead any time after 22 March. [33], In the southernmost sector of the 21st Army Group's attack, the 9th Army's assault divisions were to cross the Rhine along an 11 miles (18km) section of the front, south of Wesel and the Lippe River. 21 Field Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps, 32 Field Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps, Hannover, 83 Field Medical Equipment Depot, Royal Army Medical Corps, Hannover. Headquartered at JHQ Rheindahlen in West Germany and commanded by a General it consisted in peacetime of British I Corps and support troops. Further north the airborne landings during Operation Plunder in support of the 21st Army Group's crossing of the Rhine were probably not worth the risk.[who?] To increase Simpson's ability to bring his army's strength to bear for exploitation, Montgomery also agreed to turn the bridges at Wesel, just north of the inter-army boundary, over to the 9th Army once the bridgehead had been secured. The XV Corps' 45th Infantry Division fought for six days before taking the city of Aschaffenburg, 35mi (56km) east of the Rhine, on 3 April. The Southern half of the Federal Republic of Germany was to be defended by the four Army Corps of NATO's Central Army Group (CENTAG). HQ 1st Infantry Brigade & 215 Signal Squadron Royal Corps of Signals. At 11:30 on 25 April, a small patrol from the 69th Infantry Division met a lone Soviet horseman in the village of Leckwitz. 14th Independent Topographic Squadron, Royal Engineers. Having gambled his future ability to defend Germany on the Ardennes offensive and lost, Hitler had no real strength left to stop the powerful Allied armies. Commander-in-Chief, UK Land Forces, General Sir Charles Huxtable, HQ United Kingdom Land Forces commanded nine military districts until the spring of 1991. The ceased to by an occupation force and became responsible for the northern front from Hamburg to Kassel in the event of a Soviet invasion. Everyone is asking its whereabouts and what its future role will be, says the British United Press correspondent with the British forces. Simpson now had both the opportunity and the means to unleash the power of the 9th Army and begin in earnest the northern drive to surrounding the Ruhr. [45], Meanwhile, on the 12th U.S. Army Group's southern flank, the 3rd Army had advanced apace, moving 30mi (48km) eastward to take Erfurt and Weimar, and then, by 12 April, another 30mi (48km) through the old 1806 Jena Napoleonic battlefield area. In case of a war the Corps first line of defense would have been a screening force of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards, 16th/5th Queen's Royal Lancers and 664 Squadron AAC, which would have become an ad-hoc brigade formation under command of BAOR's Brigadier Royal Armoured Corps. 79107 (Regular Signal Squadrons, 200299). [29], By midafternoon on 23 March, all three regiments of the 5th Infantry Division were in the bridgehead, and an attached regiment from the 90th Infantry Division was crossing. By early 1945, events favored the Allied forces in Europe. On the morning of 10 April, the 12th U.S. Army Group's drive to the Elbe began in earnest. Greenhill Books. Army Group B commander Model committed suicide on 21 April. During 1988 the disposition of brigades in Northern Ireland changed: On 1 July 1988 3rd Infantry Brigade reformed at Armagh and became responsible for the UK-Ireland border zone from Armagh to South Londonderry. The British Army of the Rhine was born in 1945 out of the British Liberation Army at the close of the war as the military government of the British zone of occupied Germany. Patton knew that the most obvious place to jump the river was at Mainz or just downstream, north of the city. The bridgehead expanded rapidly, and by 2 May Lbeck and Wismar, 4050 miles (6480km) beyond the river, were in Allied hands, sealing off the Germans in the Jutland Peninsula. 414th Tank Transporter Unit Royal Corps of Transport. There are: VG Division the newly introduced Volks (People's) Grenadier Divisions. CBF Cyprus was a rotational post between the Army and RAF, at two-star level; CBF Belize was an Army brigadier; CBF Falklands was a rotational post between all three services at two-star level; and CBF Hong Kong was an Army major general. Simpson, in turn, ordered a combat command of the 2nd Armored Division, which had just reached Beckum, to make a 15mi (24km) advance southeast to Lippstadt, midway between Beckum and the stalled 3rd Armored Division spearhead. [2] The Cologne Post was a newspaper published for members of the BAOR during this period. [48], Advancing along this new axis the Seventh Army's left rapidly overran Bamberg, over 100mi (160km) east of the Rhine, on its way to Nuremberg, about 30mi (48km) to the south. [22], Also focusing Eisenhower's attention on the southern drive was concern over the "National redoubt." British 2nd. When the task force failed to advance on 31 March, Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins, commander of the VII Corps, asked Simpson if his 9th Army, driving eastward north of the Ruhr, could provide assistance. The importance of quickly obtaining a deep bridgehead was increased by the fact that the first access to a decent road network was over 6 miles (9.7km) inland at the town of Gro-Gerau. Holding the middle of the Allied line from the 9th Army's right flank to a point about 15 miles (24km) south of Mainz was the 12th Army Group under the command of Lieutenant General Omar Bradley. These figures do not include POWs that died or were released during this period. The only potent unit left for commitment against the Allied Rhine crossings in the north, the 116th began moving south from the Dutch-German border on 25 March against what the Germans considered their most dangerous threat, the U.S. 9th Army. Last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:39, "Outline of the British Army at the end of the Cold War", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, 2nd Infantry Divisional Transport Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, The Green Howards (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment), Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, 71st (Scottish) Engineer Regiment Corps of Royal Engineers (V), 73rd Volunteer Engineer Regiment Corps of Royal Engineers (V), 39th Airfield Damages Repair Engineer Regiment Corps of Royal Engineers, 33rd Explosive Ordnance Disposal Engineer Regiment Corps of Royal Engineers, 7th Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, 13th/18th (Queen Mary's Own) Royal Hussars, 266 (Gloucestershire Volunteer Artillery) Observation Post Battery, 157th (Wales & Midlands) Transport Regiment, 74th (Antrim Artillery) Engineer Regiment Corps of Royal Engineers (V), 75th Volunteer Engineer Regiment Royal Corps of Engineers (V), 33 (Lancashire and Cheshire) Signal Regiment, 3rd (Volunteer) Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, 103rd (Lancashire Artillery Volunteers) Air Defence Regiment, Royal Artillery, 156th (Merseyside and Greater Manchester) Transport Regiment, 102nd (Ulster) Air Defence Regiment, Royal Artillery, Blowpipe surface-to-air missile launchers, The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment), 4th (Volunteer) Battalion (North Irish Militia), Royal Irish Rangers, 5th (Volunteer) Battalion, Royal Irish Rangers, 16th (British Army of the Rhine) Signal Regiment, 21st Air Support Signal Regiment Royal Corps of Signals, 28 Amphibious Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, 1st Field Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, Structure of the British Armed Forces in 1989, United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, 7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles, "British Army: NATO Order of Battle 1989", "19911216 MORBAT Redacted PP 01 85 BAOR U", "19911216 MORBAT Redacted PP 86 105 Non UK Units U", "19911216 MORBAT REDACTED PP 106 229 UK Based Units U", "Senior Army Appointments:Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Land Forces", "British Army of the Rhine Order of Battle, July 1989", "British Army of the Rhine & Royal Air Force Germany 1989: Organisation and stationing of the British Armed Forces in Germany in 1989", "British Army units from 1945 on 2 Regiment", "British Army units from 1945 on Regiments 1 to 10", "British Army units from 1945 on 210 Squadron", "British Army units from 1945 on Green Howards", "Military Bands Monday 14 May 1990 Hansard UK Parliament", "British Army units from 1945 on Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire", "British Army units from 1945 on Light Infantry", "British Army units from 1945 on 27th Regiment RA", "British Army units from 1945 on 16th Regiment RA", "British Army units from 1945 on 209 Squadron", "British Army units from 1945 on Royal Hussars", "British Army units from 1945 on 45th Regiment RA", "British Army units from 1945 on Squadrons 1 to 10", "British Army units from 1945 on Ordnance Companies 20 to 70", "British Army units from 1945 on Field, Infantry & Armoured Workshops 6 to 10", "British Army units from 1945 on Field Ambulances 11 to 20", "British Army units from 1945 on Provost Companies 101 to 169", "British Army units from 1945 on 216 Squadron", "British Army units from 1945 on Life Guards", "British Army units from 1945 on 1st Bn Parachute Regiment", "British Army units from 1945 on 2nd Bn Parachute Regiment", "British Army units from 1945 on 7th Regiment RHA", "British Army units from 1945 on District Workshops", "British Army units from 1945 on 203 Squadron", "British Army units from 1945 on Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment", "FOI(A) relating to the Ulster Defence Regiment battalion locations and company locations in 1989", "British Army units from 1945 on 218 Squadron", "British Army units from 1945 on Hampshire Regiment", "British Army units from 1945 on Gloucestershire Regiment", "British Army units from 1945 on Provost Companies 170 to 260", "British Army units from 1945 on 213 Squadron", "British Army units from 1945 on Black Watch", "British Army units from 1945 on 33 Squadron", "The British Military Garrison in Ireland British Army", "British Army of the Rhine Order of Battle July 1989", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Outline_of_the_British_Army_at_the_end_of_the_Cold_War&oldid=1139014224, HQ Scotland District & 242 (Scottish) Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Edinburgh. Both formations had areas of responsibility located around the German section of the River Rhine. 27th District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. With his escape route to the south severed by the 12th Army Group's eastward drive and Berlin surrounded by the Soviets, Hitler committed suicide on 30 April, leaving to his successor, Grand Admiral Karl Dnitz, the task of capitulation. 7th Intelligence Company, Intelligence Corps. When limited objective attacks provoked little response on the morning of the 25th, the division commander Major General Leland Hobbs formed two mobile task forces to make deeper thrusts with an eye toward punching through the defense altogether and breaking deep into the German rear. Both formations had areas of responsibility located around the German section of the River Rhine. But these decisions were made in good faith and had little bearing on the ultimate outcome of the campaign. Nowhere, it seemed, were the Germans able to resist in strength. After attempting to strike a deal whereby he would surrender only to the Western Allies, a proposal that was summarily rejected on 7 May, Dnitz granted his representative, Alfred Jodl, permission to effect a complete surrender on all fronts. S. L. A. Marshall. JanuaryMay 1945:265,000 to 400,000(For all fronts)[i]200,000 captured(JanuaryMarch)4,400,000 surrendered(AprilJune)[j]. [12], Following the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the permanent deployment of British Army units in Germany began to be phased out, with the last military base handed back to the German Bundeswehr in February 2020. British Army of the Rhine There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine ( BAOR ). The Western Allies rapidly eroded any remaining ability to resist. [49], Meanwhile, on the 7th Army's right, the VI Corps had moved southeast alongside the French 1st Army. At nine o'clock in the evening on Sunday, September 17, 1944, Harzer received the order to defeat all the British on the north side of the Lower Rhine with his division. Page 10. The BAOR was formerly armed with tactical nuclear weapons. Order 1977, SI 1977 No. Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. In reality, by the time of the Allied Rhine crossings the Wehrmacht had suffered such severe defeats on both the Eastern and Western Fronts that it could barely manage to mount effective delaying actions, much less muster enough troops to establish a well-organized alpine resistance force. 1st Armoured Division was the corps' Northern forward deployed division. Field-Marshal Bernard Montgomery's 21st Army Group was supplied with the task of advancing into Germany in the Niederrhein (Lower-Rhine) area, which eventually resulted in both the operations 'Veritable' and . In the south, the 1st Army's III Corps launched its strike on the 5th and the XVIII Airborne Corps joined in on the 6th, both pushing generally northward. [22], In addition, there was the matter of the Ruhr. [80] The brigade had been disbanded in September 1981 with its units and area initially having been taken over by 8th Infantry Brigade. As the invasion of Germany commenced, Eisenhower had a total of 90 full-strength divisions under his command, with the number of armored divisions now reaching 25. divisions are listed in order of their original numbers (e.g., beginning with the former 1st Division and finishing with the former 62nd) . Taking up the advance again the next day, it immediately ran into stiff opposition from students of an SS panzer replacement training center located near Paderborn. Was Colonel in Quartermaster branch and talks of the logistic problems - stockpiling ammunition for the crossing of the Rhine, supplies stuck in sand before Alamein. 4th Petrol Depot, Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Uniquely and rather confusingly, the Infantry, which is a collection of regiments, was organized in 1957 into Brigades, which were not fighting formations but rather provided depots for training recruits to the three or four regiments within the Brigade. 35th Base Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. [40], The first step in realizing Eisenhower's plan was the eradication of the Ruhr Pocket. 211 Mobile Civilian Artisan Group, Royal Engineers. Recce Intelligence Centre (Gtersloh), Intelligence Corps. HQ Wales District & Signal Troop, Royal Signals. On 7 March, Hodges's U.S. 1st Army captured the last intact bridge over the Rhine at Remagen and steadily expanded the bridgehead. 11th Ordnance (EOD) Battalion, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 160th Provost Company, Royal Military Police, Aldershot, 240th Provost (Training) Company, Royal Military Police, Aldershot. In five days of battle, from 18 to 22 March, Patton's forces captured over 68,000 Germans. is infantry division. 61st Station Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. To accomplish this, he had to move quickly. 1st Division provides specialist soldiers and equipment to develop other nations armies, deal with disaster and humanitarian crises worldwide and enable our warfighting division. [42], Meanwhile, the remaining Allied forces north, south, and east of the Ruhr had been adjusting their lines in preparation for the final advance through Germany. This change will be integrated within broader Defence, national and alliance efforts and enable the Field Army to operate and fight more effectively above and below the threshold of conflict. [16] Also on 4 May, after a shift in inter-army boundaries that placed Salzburg in the 7th Army sector, that city surrendered to elements of the XV Corps. The 21st Army Group had 30 full-strength divisions, 11 each in the British Second and U.S. 9th Armies and eight in the Canadian First Army, providing Montgomery with more than 1,250,000 men. Both believed that the plan squandered the great strength in men and equipment that the 9th Army had assembled and ignored the many logistical problems of placing the 9th Army's crossing sites within the Second Army's zone. As the division's area of operation was hilly and woody 19th Infantry Brigade based in Colchester was added to it. The Red Army also pushed deep into Hungary (the Budapest Offensive) and eastern Czechoslovakia and temporarily halted at what is now the modern GermanyPoland border on the OderNeisse line. Thus, as his forces had approached the east bank of the river, Montgomery proceeded with one of the most intensive buildups of material and manpower of the war. 13. Bradley had three American armies, the U.S. 1st Army (Courtney Hodges) on the left (north), the U.S. 3rd Army (George S. Patton) on the right (south), and the U.S. 15th Army (Leonard T. Gerow). [44], In the center of the 12th U.S. Army Group, Hodges' 1st Army faced somewhat stiffer opposition, though it hardly slowed the pace. Hours later, the attack multiplied as the ground troops were aided by an impressive airborne operation that brought planes, paratroopers, and more soldiers. The Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) was a NATO military formation comprising five Army Corps from five NATO member nations. Seeing this equipment moving up, his frontline soldiers did not need any orders from higher headquarters to tell them what it meant. Both formations had areas of responsibility located around the German section of the River Rhine . British Army, Master Order of Battle 1991 Forces within the United Kingdom. 8th Signal Regiment Royal Corps of Signals. 23 Postal and Courier Squadron, Royal Engineers, 30th Transport Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, Episkopi, 1x Artillery Battery, Royal Artillery, six month roulement (6x, 1x Air Defence Troop, Royal Artillery, six month roulement, (12x, Falkland Islands Postal and Courier Troop, Royal Engineers, 67th Port Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport, 77th Ordnance Company, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Fortress Postal and Courier Troop, Royal Engineers, 247 Gurkha Signal Squadron Royal Corps of Signals, The Queen's Gukha Engineer Regiment Corps of Royal Engineers, 24 Postal and Courier Squadron, Royal Engineers, The Gurkha Transport Regiment Royal Corps of Transport, 415 Maritime Troop, Royal Corps of Transport. 62 Cyprus Support Squadron, Royal Engineers. . Rdiger Overmans, Soldaten hinter Stacheldraht. Such reinforcement units are indicated in the list below in italics followed by the higher command they were to reinforce in Germany in brackets. 63rd Station Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Special Investigations Branch (Germany), JHQ Rheindahlen. This increased the importance of the southern offensives across the Rhine. Its new location was in the towns of Iserlohn and Soest, as the previous occupants (The Canadian Brigade) had moved to southern GermanyBy 1973, 1 (BR) Corps consisted of: 1st Division (Verden)7th Armoured Brigade (Soltau)11th Infantry Brigade (Minden)2nd Division (Lbbecke)4th Guards Infantry Brigade (Mnster)12th Mechanised Brigade (Osnabrck)4th Division (Herford)6th Armoured Brigade (Krbecke)20th Armoured Brigade (Detmold). Soldiers posted copies of General Eisenhower's Proclamation No. Contents 1 History 1.1 1919-1929 In addition, since Berlin and the rest of Germany had already been divided into occupation zones by representatives of the Allied governments at the Yalta Conference, Eisenhower saw no political advantage in a race for Berlin. For administrative purposes these units were under command of brigade HQ based in the UK during peacetime. On 25 August 1945, it was redesignated as the British Army of the Rhine (B.A.O.R. 1956 Saw more major changes to the BAOR. Nevertheless, the 7th Army broke out of its Rhine bridgehead, just south of Frankfurt, on 28 March, employing elements of three corpsthe XV Corps to the north, the XXI Corps in the center, and the VI Corps to the south. 88 mm Pak 43 with spread mount covered in a securing position behind the river Rhine, Germany spring 1945. Equipped with about 60 tanks, the students put up a fanatical resistance, stalling the American armor all day. Once this was accomplished the remaining German forces could be defeated in detail. With the surrender of the German Army on 9 May 1945, the 21st Army Group became an army of occupation. Trackpad Publishing, 2022. Within 21st Army Group the Canadian First Army (under Harry Crerar) held the left flank of the Allied line, with the British Second Army (Miles C. Dempsey) in the center and the U.S. 9th Army (William Hood Simpson) to the south. For administrative purposes these units were under command of brigade HQ based in the UK during peacetime. The choice was obvious because the Main River, flowing northward 30 miles (48km) east of and parallel to the Rhine, turns west and empties into the Rhine at Mainz and an advance south of the city would involve crossing two rivers rather than one. In a departure from standard airborne doctrine, which called for a jump deep behind enemy lines several hours prior to an amphibious assault, Varsity's drop zones were close behind the German front, within Allied artillery range. 1 FV432, towing a bar mine layer and mounting a Ranger Scatterable mine discharger . Montgomery's forces were to secure Bradley's northern flank while Devers' 6th U.S. Army Group covered Bradley's southern shoulder. Antony Beevor, Inside the British Army, 1991, 429. [44], The 4 April pause in the 3rd Army advance allowed the other armies under Bradley's command to reach the Leine River, about 50mi (80km) east of Paderborn. The inventory of the Army Air Corps in 1989 consisted of the following aircraft: Outline of the British Army at the end of the Cold War, Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. Through a combination of flanking movements and night attacks, First Army troops were able to destroy or bypass the guns, moving finally into Leipzig, which formally surrendered on the morning of 20 April. After the end of the Second World War the British Army was drastically reduced in manpower to such an extent that the former British Rhine Army consisted of only two British divisions, the 7th Armoured Division and the 2nd Infantry Division. The professional head of the British Army is the Chief of the General Staff. German military historian Rdiger Overmans (, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 21:59. It became the primary formation controlling the British contribution to NATO after the formation of the alliance in 1949. To view a summary of the British Army in 1952 please click here.During October 1954 HQ BAOR reallocated fromBad Oeynhausento Rheindalen. His detailed plans, code-named Operation Plunder, were comparable to the Normandy invasion in terms of numbers of men and extent of equipment, supplies, and ammunition to be used. Welcome to BAOR Locations. Also on 28 March, elements of the U.S. 17th Airborne Division operating north of the Lippe River in conjunction with British armored forcesdashed to a point some 30mi (48km) east of Wesel, opening a corridor for the XIX Corps and handily outflanking Dorsten and the enemy to the south. 30th District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, HQ South-East District & 251 Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Aldershot, 640 Signal Troop (Electronic Warfare), Royal Corps of Signals, at, B Squadron (assigned to 3rd Commando Brigade, Royal Marines), C Squadron (assigned to protect key government personnel and the, Falklands Band of the Parachute Regiment (Large Infantry Band), 50 Field Squadron (Construction) [to 39 Engineer Regiment, RE]. British Army - Order of Battle Lt Gen Ivan Jones, Commander Field Army (CFA), described plans for rebalancing his command which will see changes to the structure of the Field Army's primary. To the south, elements of the VI Corps met unexpectedly fierce resistance at Heilbronn, 40mi (64km) into the German rear. This site is maintained by a Cold War history enthusiast, for other Cold War . 529 Air Support Specialist Team Corps of Royal Engineers. The wisdom of putting lightly-armed paratroopers so close to the main battlefield was debated, and the plan for amphibious forces to cross the Rhine prior to the parachute drop raised questions as to the utility of making an airborne assault at all.

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