british army of the rhine order of battle
Patton knew that the most obvious place to jump the river was at Mainz or just downstream, north of the city. The U.S. III Corps, in the center, did not commit its armor on the first day of the breakout, but still made a gain of 4mi (6.4km). BAOR orbat for the early 80s | Army Rumour Service 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. 34th Base Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, HQ North-West District & Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, at, Trade Training School (Ground crew & maintenance training), 75th Ordnance Company, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Detachment 2 Postal and Courier Regiment, Royal Engineers, 14th Regiment, Royal Artillery, Larkhill (Support regiment, 12th Royal School of Military Engineering Regiment, Royal Engineers, Chattenden, 42nd Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, Hermitage (Geographic Survey), HQ Northern Ireland District & 233 (Northern Ireland) Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Lisburn, 22 Postal and Courier Squadron, Royal Engineers, Royal Army Ordnance Corps Ordnance Depot, Northern Ireland, Band of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters (Small Infantry Band), Band of the Royal Hampshire Regiment (Small Infantry Band), Band of the Gloucestershire Regiment (Small Infantry Band), 176 Provost Company, Royal Military Police, at, Band of the Black Watch (Small Infantry Band), 175 Provost Company, Royal Military Police, at Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn. At Clive Barracks in Ternhill under 143rd (West Midlands) Brigade until April 1989 as Northern Ireland reaction battalion. 4th Guards Infantry Brigade (Iserlohn)6th Infantry Brigade (Mnster)7th Armoured Brigade (Soltau)11th Infantry Brigade (Minden)12th Infantry Brigade (Osnabrck)20th Armoured Brigade (Detmold)Berlin Brigade (Berlin)In 1968 6th Infantry Brigade was relocated back to Great Britain, only to return in the Autumn of 1970. US General George Marshall estimated about 263,000 German battle deaths on the Western Front for the period from 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945, or a longer period. All had been unceremoniously repulsed by the vastly superior Allied forces. british army of the rhine order of battle Soon there is more line in the German defense. The British Army of the Rhine - Military History - Oxford - obo One of the British divisions arrived from Italy after the start of the campaign. British Army | Military Wiki | Fandom But, the site and the Forum are not solely for the ex-services community. Such reinforcement units are indicated in the list below in italics followed by the higher command they were to reinforce in Germany in brackets. The XV Corps also captured Berchtesgaden, the town that would have been Hitler's command post in the National Redoubt. 41st District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Forward Divisional Headquarters, at Tunis Barracks, Lippstadt, 656 Signal Troop, at Tunis Barracks, Lippstadt, 85 Intelligence Section, Intelligence Corps, at Imphal Barracks, York (detached from 8 Intelligence & Sec Coy), 60 Transport Squadron [to 157 Regiment RCT (V)], 210 Signal Squadron, Royal Corps of Signals, at Catterick Garrison, 586 Signal Troop (Airmobile), Royal Corps of Signals, Band of the Green Howards (Small Infantry Band), Band of the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire (Small Infantry Band), 16th Air Defence Regiment, Royal Artillery, at, 19th Cash Office (United Kingdom), Royal Army Pay Corps, Band of the Royal Hussars (Small Royal Armoured Corps Band), Regimental Band of the King's Own Royal Border Regiment (Small Regimental Band), Band of the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment (Small Regimental Band), 3rd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment, at Roman Barracks, Colchester Garrison (Mechanised Infantry (Wheeled), with 8 x Fox armoured cars, and 43 x Saxon armoured personnel carriers), Band of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment (Small Regimental Band), Airfield Works Group (Group wasn't deployable). 89) are: Area 1 The Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands; Area 2 Berlin. On 12 April, additional 9th Army elements attained the Elbe and by the next day were on the opposite bank hopefully awaiting permission to drive on to Berlin. 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. PDF 21 Army Group History & Personnel - British Military History [46], Every unit along the ElbeMulde line was anxious to be the first to meet the Red Army. Combat Support units: These units provide support to the combat units in the combat zone. [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 Rhineland Campaign, 1945 The Hard Winter On New Year's Day 1945, eight German divisions attacked south out of the Saar attempting to trap Eisenhower's thinned-out flank in Alsace. They include the Adjutant-Generals Corps, the Army Medical Services, the Royal Logistics Corps and the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. [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. The 6th United States Army Group was an Allied army group that fought in the European Theater of Operations during World War II.Made up of field armies from both the United States Army and the French Army, it fought in France, Germany, Austria, and, briefly, Italy.Also referred to as the Southern Group of Armies, it was established in July 1944 and commanded throughout its duration by General . There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). . [22], For several reasons, Eisenhower began to readjust these plans toward the end of March. [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. By early 1945, events favored the Allied forces in Europe. Any ground the Western Allies gained in the future Soviet zone would merely be relinquished to the Soviets after the war. On 29 March, the 1st Army turned toward Paderborn, about 80mi (130km) north of Giessen, its right flank covered by the 3rd Army, which had broken out of its own bridgeheads and was headed northeast toward Kassel. (see. Further West in Belgium was the British Communications Zone, which was headquartered in Emblem, outside Antwerp and tasked with receiving reinforcements and supplies from Great Britain and to co-ordinate their onward movement to 1 (BR) Corps. On September 4, 1944, the unit captured the city of Antwerp. As soon as Patton had received the orders on the 19th to make a crossing, he had begun sending assault boats, bridging equipment and other supplies forward from depots in Lorraine where they had been stockpiled since autumn in the expectation of just such an opportunity. 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. Order 1977, SI 1977 No. 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 . [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. [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. Both formations had areas of responsibility located around the German section of the River Rhine. These were based in various former German Army barracks in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westfalia. There are: VG Division the newly introduced Volks (People's) Grenadier Divisions. British Army of the Rhine - YouTube 0:00 / 58:47 British Army of the Rhine Ichioku 334 subscribers Subscribe 6.6K views 1 year ago BBC Documentary from 2012 (small edit to avoid. british army of the rhine order of battle - Greenlight Insights HQ North-East District & 240 (North) Signal Squadron. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [25], To the south in the Saar-Palatinate region, Patton's U.S. 3rd Army had dealt a devastating blow to the German 7th Army and, in conjunction with the U.S. 7th Army, had nearly destroyed the German 1st Army. 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. United Kingdom - Official Armored Brigade Wiki The British army has never excelled at swift advances, and the Guards Armoured Division mandated to dash for the Rhine was better suited to conduct last-ditch, last-man infantry defensive actions than to emulate General Erwin Rommel's panzers. On 7 March, Hodges's U.S. 1st Army captured the last intact bridge over the Rhine at Remagen and steadily expanded the bridgehead. British Army of the Rhine - Wikipedia British Army: Royal Navy: Royal Air Force: Armies: see also the websites: First Army [1st Army] Second Army [2nd Army] Eighth Army [8th Army] Fourteenth Army [14th Army] Corps: . 71st Movement Control Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport, 602nd Transport Unit, Royal Corps of Transport, Antwerp, Belgium. After overcoming stiff initial resistance, XV Corps also advanced beyond the Rhine, opposed primarily by small German strongpoints sited in roadside villages. Many of the units stationed in the United Kingdom were to move immediately to Germany to reinforce British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in case of war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. [36], Adding to the Germans' woes, the 6th Army Group made an assault across the Rhine on 26 March. Second Army (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia By the end of March, the Supreme Commander thus leaned toward a decision to place more responsibility on his southern forces. Contents 1 History [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. This Photo Album British Air Forces of Occupation, Royal Air Force (c/o British Army On Rhine 1) ***** ***** No. 13. By sending armored spearheads around hotly contested areas, isolating them for reduction by subsequent waves of infantry, Eisenhower's forces maintained their eastward momentum. Its left fought for a week to capture Bremen, which fell on 26 April. If they held out for a year or more, dissension between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies might give them political leverage for some kind of favorable peace settlement. On the same day, however, Montgomery announced that the eastbound roads out of Wesel would be turned over to the 9th Army on 30 March with the Rhine bridges leading into that city changing hands a day later. [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). `Drastic Measures to Defend the Reich at the Oder and the Rhine': A More reorganisation was implemented in January 1978 with the creation of 3rd and th Armoured Brigades. If successful, this pincer movement would envelop the industrial Ruhr area, neutralizing the largest concentration of German industrial capacity left. The artillery fire had been so effective and so perfectly timed that the assault battalions merely motored their storm boats across the river and claimed the east bank against almost no resistance. However, concerned that the bypassed Germans would flood much of the nation and cause complete famine among a Dutch population already near starvation, Eisenhower approved an agreement with the local German commanders to allow the Allies to air-drop food into the country in return for a local ceasefire on the battlefield. [50], While the Allied armies in the south marched to the Alps, the 21st Army Group drove north and northeast. These bold actions eliminated the last German positions west of the Rhine. 4th Petrol Depot, Royal Army Ordnance Corps. The Battle Of The Rhine: The Last Major Battle Of WWII . [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). [34], Plunder began on the evening of 23 March with the assault elements of the British 2nd Army massed against three main crossing sites: Rees in the north, Xanten in the center, and Wesel in the south. Lt Gen Ivan Jones, Commander Field Army (CFA), described plans for rebalancing his command which will see changes to the structure of the Field Armys primary formations. [7] In 1967, the force was reduced in strength to 53,000 soldiers, compared with 80,000 ten years earlier. 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. [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.