british army of the rhine order of battle. 256 Mobile Civilian Plant Group, Royal Engineers, 1st Postal & Courier Regiment, Royal Engineers, Hannover, 7th Tank Transporter Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, Sennelager, 10 Corps Transport Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, Bielefeld, 24 Transport & Movement Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, Hanover, 25 Transport & Movement Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, Bielefeld, 14 Corps Support Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport, Bielefeld. Thus, he decided to feint at Mainz while making his real effort at Nierstein and Oppenheim, 910mi (1416km) south of the city. Ziethen's I Army Corps was granted the honour of being the first major Allies force to enter Paris. Use the search function to locate the Order of battle by title or file name. [38], In the center of the Allied line, Eisenhower inserted the new 15th Army, under U.S. 12th Army Group control to hold the western edge of the Ruhr Pocket along the Rhine while the 9th and 1st Armies squeezed the remaining German defenders there from the north, east, and south. Commander-in-Chief, UK Land Forces, General Sir Charles Huxtable, HQ United Kingdom Land Forces commanded nine military districts until the spring of 1991. 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. [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. During Operation Lumberjack, Operation Plunder and Operation Undertone, German casualties during FebruaryMarch 1945 are estimated at 400,000 men, including 280,000 men captured as prisoners of war.[18]. The U.S. V Corps on the right advanced 58mi (8.012.9km), incurring minimal casualties. Includes 25 armored divisions and 5 airborne divisions. IF YOU WOULD PREFER TO STAY ANONYMOUS OR KEEP ALL CONTENTS PRIVATE PLEASE STATE THIS CLEARLY ON SUBMISSION: All rights reserved. [57], By the beginning of 1945, Allied victory in Europe was inevitable. This force would block any German counterattack from the Ruhr. Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War, and the other after the Second World War. During the fighting west of the Rhine up to March 1945, the German Army on the Western Front had been reduced to a strength of only 26 divisions, organized into three army groups (H, B and G). Its left fought for a week to capture Bremen, which fell on 26 April. 2 Postal and Courier Regiment, Royal Engineers. British Order of Battle Mid 1980 In 1980 the British Army was still organised in the Task Force system. 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. [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. However, Patton also realized that the Germans were aware of this difficulty and would expect his attack north of Mainz. 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. The initial assault waves crossed the river quickly, meeting only light opposition. As the division's area of operation was hilly and woody 19th Infantry Brigade based in Colchester was added to it. The last date on which the Army did not contain either a Guard's Brigade or Division as an operational unit was in 1920. On the night of March 23, 1945, the Allied forces that had gathered along the Rhine launched their invasion. 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 . 63rd Station Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Special Investigations Branch (Germany), JHQ Rheindahlen. Only when Soviet artillery was falling around his Berlin headquarters bunker did he begin to perceive the final outcome. The organisations within the British Army are divided into three types: Combat units:These units spearhead the Armys military capability. One of the British divisions arrived from Italy after the start of the campaign. For the period 1 March 1945-20 April 1945 they recorded 343,321 killed and wounded in the East (62,861 killed, 280,460 wounded) versus 22,598 killed and wounded in the West (5,778 killed, 16,820 wounded), an East vs. West ratio of about 15:1 in killed and wounded. 21st Army Group gave their strength on 5 May 1945 excluding US forces as 9248 tanks and 6584 guns. Recce Intelligence Centre (Laarbruch), Intelligence Corps, I (BR) Corps HQ Defence Company, Royal Pioneer Corps, Bielefeld, 6th Air Defence Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (originally slated to form in 19903 with new HVM system), 43 Plant Squadron, Royal Engineers, Osnabrck, 65 Corps Support Squadron, Royal Engineers, Hameln, (20x M2 Amphibious Rigs). The British military presence in Berlin comprised 3,100 men in three infantry battalions, an independent armoured squadron, and a number of support units. In five days of battle, from 18 to 22 March, Patton's forces captured over 68,000 Germans. Despite scattered resistance from a few isolated units, the war in Europe was over. The 30th was to cross between Wesel and Rheinberg while the 79th assaulted south of Rheinberg. 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. The French retired in good order. Detachment, 2nd Independent Petrol Platoon, Detachment, 164 Railway Operations Company, Royal Engineers, 246th (Berlin) Provost Company, Royal Military Police, in, 247th (Berlin) Provost Company, Royal Military Police, (manned, 248th German Security Unit, support unit with German personnel, Berlin Infantry Brigade HQ & (29th) Signal Regiment, Royal Signals, 38th (Berlin) Field Squadron, Royal Engineers, 6 Troop, 46 (Talavera) Air Defence Battery, 2nd Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, (12x, 1x Armoured Reconnaissance Troop, six month roulement, 1x Field Battery, Royal Artillery, six month roulement, 1x Field Squadron, Royal Engineers, six month roulement, 78 Ordnance Company, Royal Army Ordnance Corps. At Clive Barracks in Ternhill under 143rd (West Midlands) Brigade until April 1989 as Northern Ireland reaction battalion. The re-designation of Force Troops Command (FTC) to 6th (United Kingdom) Division (6 (UK) Div) will provide the Armys asymmetric edge , orchestrating Intelligence, Counter-Intelligence, Information Operations, Electronic Warfare, Cyber and unconventional warfare. Antony Beevor, Inside the British Army, 1991, 429. Orders of battle (London : Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1960) 2 vol. HQ 1st Infantry Brigade & 215 Signal Squadron Royal Corps of Signals. "The ETO", a term generally only used to refer to American forces in the Western European Theater, fielded 42,000 pieces of artillery; American forces comprised approximately 2/3 of all Allied forces during the campaign. 1st Armoured Division was the corps' Northern forward deployed division. After General Omar Bradley warned, however, that capturing a city located in a region that the Soviets had already received at the Yalta Conference might cost 100,000 casualties,[56] by 15 April Eisenhower ordered all armies to halt when they reached the Elbe and Mulde Rivers, thus immobilizing these spearheads while the war continued for three more weeks. In a matter of days, they would all be killed or captured. 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. Some areas were stoutly defended while in others the enemy surrendered after little more than token resistance. They include the Adjutant-Generals Corps, the Army Medical Services, the Royal Logistics Corps and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. 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. To the north, the 9th Army's XIX and XIII Corps would also drive for the Elbe, toward Magdeburg, about 65mi (105km) north of Leipzig, although the army commander, General Simpson, hoped he would be allowed to go all the way to Berlin. Deutsche Kriegs-gefangene des Zweiten Weltkrieges. 32nd Base Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Regimental headquarters are administrative and ceremonial in nature. The 9th Army's sector of the Ruhr Pocket, although only about 1/3 the size of the 1st Army's sector south of the river, contained the majority of the densely urbanized industrial area within the encirclement. German Field Marshal Walter Model, whose Army Group B was charged with the defense of the Ruhr, had deployed his troops heavily along the eastwest Sieg River south of Cologne, thinking that the Americans would attack directly north from the Remagen bridgehead. [28], The terrain in the vicinity of Nierstein and Oppenheim was conducive to artillery support, with high ground on the west bank overlooking relatively flat land to the east. 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. Still, by 11 April 7 Army had penetrated the German defenses in-depth, especially in the north, and was ready to begin its wheeling movement southeast and south. The hoard included vast quantities of German paper currency, stacks of priceless paintings, piles of looted gold and silver jewelry and household objects, and an estimated $250,000,000 worth of gold bars and coins of various nations. The professional head of the British Army is the Chief of the General Staff. There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). On October 9, the 1st Battalion, 120th Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, was ordered to take part in an afternoon attack on the fortified village of Birk, three miles north of Aachen. Thousands of prisoners were being taken every day; from 16 to 18 April, when all opposition ended and the remnants of German Army Group B formally surrendered, German troops had been surrendering in droves throughout the region. A very armour orientated BAOR were as follows: 1 (BR) Corps (Bielefeld)1st Armoured Division (Verden)2nd Armoured Division (Lbbecke)3rd Armoured Division (Krbecke)4th Armoured Division (Herford)5th Field Force (Osnabrck)Artillery Division (Bielefeld). [37], A task force of the VII Corps' 3rd Armored Division, which included some of the new M26 Pershing heavy tanks, spearheaded the drive for Paderborn on 29 March. [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. The British Rhine occupation force British Second and Fourth Armies were selected to make the advance and to commence on 17 November 1918. british army of the rhine order of battle. This NATO creation saw the BAOR being placed under its command. 64th Rear Combat Zone Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical 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. Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. [26], On 19 March, Eisenhower told Bradley to prepare the 1st Army for a breakout from the Remagen bridgehead any time after 22 March. During the Second World War the army was the main British contribution to the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 and advance across Europe . divisions are listed in order of their original numbers (e.g., beginning with the former 1st Division and finishing with the former 62nd) . HQ Eastern District & 239 Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Colchester, London District, Horse Guards, covering Greater London. On 6 May, the Polish 1st Armoured Division seized the Kriegsmarine naval base in Wilhelmshaven, where General Maczek accepted the capitulation of the fortress, naval base, East Frisian Fleet and more than 10 infantry divisions. [47], Initially, the opposition in the 6th U.S. Army Group's sector was stiffer than that facing the 12th U.S. Army Group. While this was short notice, it did not catch the XII Corps completely unaware. The U.S. VII Corps, on the left, had the hardest going due to the German concentration north of the bridgehead, yet its armored columns managed to advance 12mi (19km) beyond their line of departure. 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. [33], Montgomery had originally planned to attach one corps of the U.S. 9th Army to the British Second Army, which would use only two of the corps' divisions for the initial assault.