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Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. [9] This force, roughly 25,000 strong, was divided between Headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps, 1st Armoured Division, other combat support and combat service support forces, and administrative elements headed by United Kingdom Support Command (Germany). Thus, he decided to feint at Mainz while making his real effort at Nierstein and Oppenheim, 910mi (1416km) south of the city. British Army operations after 1945 - The National Archives At the same time, General Devers' 6th U.S. Army Group would move south through Bavaria and the Black Forest to Austria and the Alps, ending the threat of any Nazi last-ditch stand there. Such an example would be a squadron of tanks attached to an armoured infantry battle group, together with a reconnaissance troop, artillery battery, and engineering support. British Formations & Units. Prussian Order of Battle : Ordre de Bataille - ATSPACE Field-Marshal Montgomei*y's British 2nd Army has becorfie the phantom force of the Western Front. The first wave of boats was halfway across when the Germans began pouring machine-gun fire into their midst. 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. 4th Armoured Division was the corps' Southern forward deployed division. 3rd Armoured Division was to the rear of the two forward deployed division as reserve. Advancing from northern Italy, the British Eighth Army[l] pushed to the borders of Yugoslavia to defeat the remaining Wehrmacht elements there. The British 2nd Army advanced towards Hamburg, crossing the River Elbe on 29 April 1945 and pushing on towards Denmark and the Baltic. Sub-units are generally about 100 personnel strong. All units within the service are either Regular (full-time) or Territorial Army (part-time), or a combination with sub-units of each type. The Defence Operations Executive, led by the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments) and including the Assistant Chiefs of the Naval, General, and Air Staffs, supervised the Joint Operations Centre which in turn passed orders to the forces in Cyprus, Belize, the Falklands, and Hong Kong. 64th Rear Combat Zone Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Combat Support units: These units provide support to the combat units in the combat zone. 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. On 25 August 1945, it was redesignated as the British Army of the Rhine (B.A.O.R. The Forces of Valor Update: Lucky Number Seven The Battle of the Rhine was the last major battle of the United States Army in World War II. As its forces reached Nuremberg on 16 April, the Seventh Army ran into the same type of anti-aircraft gun defense that the 1st Army was facing at Leipzig. [57], By the beginning of 1945, Allied victory in Europe was inevitable. Also during this year on 1 April, 11th Armoured Division was reorganised into 4th Infantry Division. 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. The three complementary British Army Divisions harness the wide range of British Army capabilities, providing choice to the Government in defence of the UKs interests. [8] These districts controlled the regular army brigades in the UK (inc 1st and 5th Brigades) and the predominantly TA regional brigades. 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. Once this was done, the 21st Army Group would take Lbeck and Wismar on the Baltic Sea, cutting off the Germans remaining in the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, while the 6th U.S. Army Group and the 3rd Army drove south into Austria. From 1952 the commander-in-chief of the BAOR was also the commander of NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) in the event of a general war with the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. At Clive Barracks in Ternhill under 143rd (West Midlands) Brigade until April 1989 as Northern Ireland reaction battalion. Page last modified: With Montgomery allowing use of the Wesel bridges to the 9th Army for only five out of every 24 hours, and with the road network north of the Lippe under 2nd Army control, General Simpson was unable to commit or maneuver sufficient forces to make a rapid flanking drive. The 9th Army's XVI Corps, which had taken up position north of the Ruhr area after crossing the Rhine, would be assisted in its southward drive by two divisions of the XIX Corps, the rest of which would continue to press eastward along with the XIII Corps. 75 years after the infamous Battle of Arnhem, rare photos reveal terrifying death and destruction as allied troops struggle to liberate Netherlands from the Nazis. The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) was formed at the conclusion of World War II from various units of the British 21st Army Group. Some areas were stoutly defended while in others the enemy surrendered after little more than token resistance. With all passes to the Alps now sealed, however, there would be no final redoubt in Austria or anywhere else. German Orders of battle March 1945 > WW2 Weapons The Western Allies still had to fight, often bitterly, for victory. British Army of the Rhine (1st British Army) Berlin Field Force Royal Hussars (1 Sqn, the remainder at the Land Warfare Centre) 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards . [38], On 28 March, as these developments unfolded, Eisenhower announced his decision to adjust his plans governing the future course of the offensive. On 7 March, Hodges's U.S. 1st Army captured the last intact bridge over the Rhine at Remagen and steadily expanded the bridgehead. Only when Soviet artillery was falling around his Berlin headquarters bunker did he begin to perceive the final outcome. The Order of Battle (OrBat) shows the formation of the forces that were in Operation Veritable in the beginning of February 1945. . Similarly, the term Corps can be applied toa maneuver headquarters that controls multiple divisions (no such entity was active as of 2012) or a administrative headquarters for units in afunctional area, broadly similar to the US Army's Branches. 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. After what had been initially a one man attempt to discover more about the British Army of the Rhine, to which he had never served under, there is now a full team in place determined towards preventing this precious history drifting into obscurity. For administrative purposes these units were under command of brigade HQ based in the UK during peacetime. At Worms, about 25 miles (40km) south of Mainz, the 7th Army's XV Corps established a bridgehead, which it consolidated with the southern shoulder of the 3rd Army's bridgehead early the next day. "When I joined my regiment in 1980, the British Army of the Rhine alone had 900 tanks," Crawford wrote in U.K. Defense Journal. At the very beginning of 1945, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force on the Western Front, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, had 73 divisions under his command in North-western Europe of which 49 were infantry divisions, 20 armored divisions and four airborne divisions. [23], On 21 March, Army Group H headquarters became Oberbefehlshaber Nordwest ("Army Command Northwest") commanded by Ernst Busch leaving the former Army Group H commanderJohannes Blaskowitzto lead "Army Command Netherlands" (25th Army) cut off in the Netherlands. Its primary combat formation was British I Corps. It became the primary formation controlling the British contribution to NATO after the formation of the alliance in 1949. The purpose of this site is to give people, still serving or not, the opportunity to look back at the places in Germany where they may have served over the years and also a view of the regiments and units which shaped them. 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. But the other discovery made by the 3rd Army on 4 April horrified and angered those who saw it. By the last week of April, it was well known that the Soviets were close, and dozens of American patrols were probing beyond the east bank of the Mulde, hoping to meet them. Western Allied invasion of Germany - Wikipedia 30-06-2021 12:05:06 ZULU, 1st (United Kingdom) Division (1 (UK) Div) with its blend of lighter infantry, logistics, engineers and medics will provide more strategic choice and a range of capabilities, conducting capacity building, stabilisation operations, disaster relief and UK resilience operations. The largest difference was in the period from 1-10.4.1945, for which the Heeresarzt recorded 63,386 killed and wounded in the East (12,510 killed, 50,876 wounded) vs. only 431 in the West (100 killed, 331 wounded), an East vs. West ratio of about 147:1 in killed and wounded. ["On Heavy Artillery: American Experience in Four Wars"]. [32][pageneeded] The intention was to create a line from Bremen south to Neuwied. `Drastic Measures to Defend the Reich at the Oder and the Rhine': A british army of the rhine order of battle. 262 Signal Squadron Royal Corps of Signals. A battle group in the british army in the late cold war period was a task organised unit comprising of a mix of sub units commanded by either an armoured regiment or mechanised infantry battalion HQ. 1st Artillery Brigade (Hildesheim)HQ/Signals Battery (Hildesheim)2 x Heavy Field Artillery Regiments (Hildesheim)2 x Missile Artillery Regiments (Hildesheim)7th Air Defence Brigade (Dortmund)11th Engineer Brigade (Hameln)With September in 1976 came the creation of the Artillery Division. 50 Construction Field Squadron Corps of Royal Engineers, 62 Chief Engineer Command (Works) [Water utilities, water development, and well drilling], 63 Chief Engineer Command (Works) [Electrical power generation and distribution, originally utilities and force protection], 64 Chief Engineer Command (Works) [Fuels, fuel production, and distribution], 156th Provost Company, Royal Military Police, Colchester, 7th Ordnance Battalion, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Colchester. Think You Know About The BAOR? Think Again - Forces Network [46], Every unit along the ElbeMulde line was anxious to be the first to meet the Red Army. British Army of the Rhine | Military Wiki | Fandom PDF 21 Army Group History & Personnel - British Military History Ullstein Taschenbuchvlg., 2002. p.273 During the period January to March 1945 the POW's held Western Allies increased by 200,000; During the period April to June 1945 the number increased to 5,440,000. There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Page 10. With the 79th Infantry Division meeting fierce resistance to the south, Simpson's only recourse was to commit some of his forces waiting on the west bank of the Rhine. However, the same flat east bank meant that the bridgehead would have to be rapidly and powerfully reinforced and expanded beyond the river since there was no high ground for a bridgehead defense. The same court sits in both areas and in the following tables the overall figures shown include Berlin trials. This consisted of: 10th Infantry Brigade Group11th Infantry Brigade Group12th Infantry Brigade Group. 88 mm Pak 43 with spread mount covered in a securing position behind the river Rhine, Germany spring 1945. Greenhill Books. Back in the 1950s, a posting in Germany was being actively encouraged as a vast British Army presence continued to expand. 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. All the armies assigned to cross the Rhine had elements east of the river, including the Canadian 1st Army in the north, which sent a division through the British bridgehead at Rees, and the French 1st Army in the south, which on 31 March established its own bridgehead by assault crossings at Germersheim and Speyer, about 50mi (80km) south of Mainz. Despite scattered resistance from a few isolated units, the war in Europe was over. On 4 April, the day it shifted to Bradley's control, the 9th Army began its attack south toward the Ruhr River. [37], Beginning the next day, 26 March, the armored divisions of all three corps turned these initial gains into a complete breakout, shattering all opposition and roaming at will throughout the enemy's rear areas. In Operation Eclipse, the 17th Airborne Division, 82d Airborne Division, 101st Airborne Division, and a British brigade were to seize the Tempelhof, Rangsdorf, Gatow, Staaken, and Oranienburg airfields. In the British Army division-level formations are administrative or deployable formations. As the division's area of operation was hilly and woody 19th Infantry Brigade based in Colchester was added to it. 62 BA/MA, RM 7/102, Hitler's order (signed by Keitel) of 21 March 1945 to the Wehrmacht leadership, 99f; RH 2/334, note from the Commander-in-Chief of the reserve army of 26 March 1945, concerning the transfer of the reserve training units behind the western and eastern fronts, Aktion Leuthen, 27. On the morning of 10 April, the 12th U.S. Army Group's drive to the Elbe began in earnest. The BAOR was no exception. divisions are listed in order of their original numbers (e.g., beginning with the former 1st Division and finishing with the former 62nd) . 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. British Order of Battle Mid 1980 In 1980 the British Army was still organised in the Task Force system. 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. The BAOR at this point still consisted of 80,000 troops.1956 Saw more major changes to the BAOR. Headquartered at JHQ Rheindahlen in West Germany and commanded by a General it consisted in peacetime of British I Corps and support troops. Ziethen's I Army Corps was granted the honour of being the first major Allies force to enter Paris. In preparation for the Allied invasion of Germany east of the Rhine, a series of offensive operations were designed to seize and capture its east and west banks: Operation Veritable and Operation Grenade in February 1945, and Operation Lumberjack and Operation Undertone in March 1945; these are considered separate from the main invasion operation. [1][2] The most authoritative source for this type of information available is Ministry of Defence (Army Department), Master Order of Battle, (ASD 6500-25 Ministry of Defence, 1991)[3][4][5] and United Kingdom Land Forces, HQ UKLF, UKLF ORBAT Review Action Plan, HQ UKLF, 1990. [13], Last edited on 18 December 2022, at 00:36, Headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps, 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, "From occupiers and protectors to guests", "British army hands back last headquarters in Germany", "British Army of the Rhine Order of Battle July 1989", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Army_of_the_Rhine&oldid=1128028113, This page was last edited on 18 December 2022, at 00:36. Once the Ruhr was surrounded, he wanted the 9th Army transferred from the British 21st Army Group to the U.S. 12th Army Group. Brigades consist of several "units," which are regiment- or battalion-sized, and which consist of a number of sub-units. The Western Allies rapidly eroded any remaining ability to resist. On roulement deployment from February 1989 to February 1991. Britains Armed Forces Today:3 British Army of The Rhine, T Gander 1984; Britains Modern Army, edition 1 1995, T Gander; [22], In addition, there was the matter of the Ruhr. 62 Cyprus Support Squadron, Royal Engineers. Sup Regt RSA listed with SW Dist by Isby & Kamps 1985. Second Army (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia The British Rhine occupation force British Second and Fourth Armies were selected to make the advance and to commence on 17 November 1918. Nicholas Goodison interviewed by Cathy Courtney (section 1) Phantom Force Of Western Front (Rec. 1, which began with "We come as a victorious army, not as oppressors." (see. But two days later, on 15 April, they had to abandon these hopes. [8], With the end of the Cold War, the 1993 Options for Change defence cuts resulted in BAOR being reduced in size, and in 1994 it became British Forces Germany (BFG). There are: VG Division the newly introduced Volks (People's) Grenadier Divisions. An hour later, at 03:00, the 79th Infantry Division began its crossing upriver, achieving much the same results. [25], Perhaps the most compelling reason for increasing the emphasis on this southern drive had more to do with the actions of Americans than those of Germans. RAF Order of Battle 1949 Only on 20 April, after breaching the ring of anti-aircraft guns and fighting house-to-house for the city, did its forces take Nuremberg. 40th Army Engineer Support Group, Royal Engineers. Little or no reinforcement was forthcoming as the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) continued to concentrate most forces against the Soviets; it was estimated that the Germans had 214 divisions on the Eastern Front in April. The best introduction to the regimental system of the British army. [22], Facing the Allies was Oberbefehlshaber West ("Army Command West") commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring, who had taken over from Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt on 10 March. Under the new concept, Bradley's 12th U.S. Army Group would make the main effort, with Hodges' 1st Army in the center heading east for about 130mi (210km) toward the city of Leipzig and the Elbe River. The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) was the United Kingdom's main contribution to NATO. [26], On 19 March, Eisenhower told Bradley to prepare the 1st Army for a breakout from the Remagen bridgehead any time after 22 March. The enemy armored unit began making its presence felt almost immediately, and by the end of 26 March, the combination of the panzer division and the rough terrain had conspired to sharply limit the 30th Division's forward progress. HQ 1st Infantry Brigade & 215 Signal Squadron Royal Corps of Signals. As its forces approached Leipzig, about 60mi (97km) south of Magdeburg and 15mi (24km) short of the Mulde River, the 1st Army ran into one of the few remaining centers of organized resistance. [36], Adding to the Germans' woes, the 6th Army Group made an assault across the Rhine on 26 March.