british army of the rhine order of battleshoprider mobility scooter second hand
Buschwhose main unit was the German 1st Parachute Army was to form the right-wing of the German defenses. Heeresarzt 10-Day Casualty Reports per Theater of War, 1945 [BA/MA RH 2/1355, 2/2623, RW 6/557, 6/559]. No breakdown of these figures between the various battlefronts was provided. There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). After taking Coburg, about 50mi (80km) south of Erfurt, on 11 April, XII Corps troops captured Bayreuth, 35mi (56km) farther southeast, on 14 April. British Formations & Units. Several other patrols from the 69th had similar encounters later that day, and on 26 April the division commander, Maj. Gen. Emil F. Reinhardt, met Maj. Gen. Vladimir Rusakov of the Soviet 58th Guards Rifle Division at Torgau in the first official link-up ceremony. However, Hobbs had not fully taken into account the nearly nonexistent road network in front of the XVI Corps bridgehead. 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. Memorialised in the Hollywood. Both formations had areas of responsibility located around the German section of the River Rhine. [36], Simpson began by moving elements of the XIX Corps' 2nd Armored Division into the XVI Corps bridgehead on 28 March with orders to cross the Lippe east of Wesel, thereby avoiding that city's traffic jams. Lt Gen Ivan Jones, Commander Field Army said 31 July 2019: "The character of warfare continues to change as the boundaries between conventional and unconventional warfare become increasingly blurred. Communications and Security Group (UK) (224 Sig Sqn). This site is maintained by a Cold War history enthusiast, for other Cold War . To accomplish this, he had to move quickly. [46], While the 12th U.S. Army Group made its eastward thrust, Devers' 6th U.S. Army Group to the south had the dual mission of protecting the 12th U.S. Army Group's right flank and eliminating any German attempt to make a last stand in the Alps of southern Germany and western Austria. [41], By 1 April, when the trap closed around the Germans in the Ruhr, their fate was sealed. 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. 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 . Fire and Fury Games - designers of wargame miniatures rules 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. The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), which was responsible for the northern portions of the central front in West Germany, had been judged to be capable of holding out for as little as two days. The deployment and distribution of the divisions of the Wehrmacht and subordinate units of allies one day before the Allied air invasion near Arnhem on 17 September 1944 and the stabilization of the Western Front after the break-out of the Allied armies from Normandy.. [3], From 1922 the BAOR was organised into two brigades:[1], The second British Army of the Rhine was formed on 25 August 1945 from the British Liberation Army. In five days of battle, from 18 to 22 March, Patton's forces captured over 68,000 Germans. [27], On 21 March, Patton ordered his XII Corps to prepare for an assault over the Rhine on the following night, one day before Montgomery's scheduled crossing. [31], Plunder called for the Second Army to cross at three locations along the 21st Army Group frontat Rees, Xanten and Rheinberg. Brigades consist of several "units," which are regiment- or battalion-sized, and which consist of a number of sub-units. Garrisons which closed at this time included Soest (home of the 6th Armoured Brigade),[10] Soltau (home of the 7th Armoured Brigade)[11] and Minden (home of the 11th Armoured Brigade). The British military presence in Berlin comprised 3,100 men in three infantry battalions, an independent armoured squadron, and a number of support units. Thus all three armies of the 12th U.S. Army Group were in a fairly even northsouth line, enabling them to advance abreast of each other to the Elbe. 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. British 2nd. In the end, the campaign proceeded as Eisenhower had planned it. The proclamation demanded compliance with all orders by the commanding officer, instituted a strict curfew and limited travel and confiscated all communications equipment and weapons. [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). 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. I am interested in general European theatre, which will cover the Europe itself, Mediterranean and Middle East. Nowhere, it seemed, were the Germans able to resist in strength. Patton also appreciated the opportunity he now had to beat Montgomery across the river and win for the 3rd Army the coveted distinction of making the first assault crossing of the Rhine in modern history. The 12th and 6th Army Groups were to mount a subsidiary offensive to keep the Germans off balance and diminish their ability to stop the northern thrust. 9th Ordnance Battalion Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 174 Provost Company, Royal Military Police, Tidworth. As the rest of the XIX Corps flowed into the wake of this spectacular drive, the 1st Army was completing its equally remarkable thrust around the southern and eastern edges of the Ruhr. For operational tasks a battle group would be formed around a combat unit, supported by units or sub-units from other areas. There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). By the end of 28 March, Hodges' 1st Army had crossed the Lahn, having driven at least 50mi (80km) beyond the original line of departure, capturing thousands of German soldiers in the process. 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. [16][notes 1][17] Combined with the capture of Berchtesgaden, any hope of Nazi leadership continuing to wage war from a so-called "national redoubt" or escape through the Alps was crushed, shortly followed by unconditional German surrender on 8 May 1945. 3.15 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. Denying this opportunity became another argument for rethinking the role of the southern drive through Germany. As the division's area of operation was hilly and woody 19th Infantry Brigade based in Colchester was added to it. The speed of change is moving at a remarkable rate and it will only get faster and more complex. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. An hour later, at 03:00, the 79th Infantry Division began its crossing upriver, achieving much the same results. Unfortunately, because of pressure from the Germans in the northern part of the 2nd Army bridgehead, the British were having trouble completing their bridges at Xanten and were, therefore, bringing most of their traffic across the river at Wesel. The General Officer commanding Headquarters Northern Ireland reported directly, operationally, to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Again, these Divisions were not fighting formations, but like the earlier Brigades, provided depots for centralised training of recruits to the units within the Division. 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. Faced with trying to make rapid advances through dense forest on rutted dirt roads and muddy trails, which could be strongly defended by a few determined soldiers and well-placed roadblocks, the task forces advanced only about 2 miles (3.2km) on the 25th. [28], The location of the river-crossing assault was critical. [37], As March turned to April the offensive east of the Rhine was progressing in close accordance with Allied plans. 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. [62], Media related to Western Allied invasion of Germany at Wikimedia Commons. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [28], On 22 March, with a bright moon lighting the late-night sky, elements of U.S. XII Corps' 5th Infantry Division began the 3rd Army's Rhine crossing. 3rd Armoured Division was to the rear of the two forward deployed division as reserve. 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. 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. The 12th Army Group commander said that American troops could cross the Rhine anywhere, without aerial bombardment or airborne troops, a direct jab at Montgomery whose troops were at that very moment preparing to launch their own Rhine assault following an intense and elaborate aerial and artillery preparation and with the assistance of two airborne divisions, the American 17th and the British 6th. 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. Simpson subsequently turned his troops' attention to mopping up pockets of local resistance. Contents 1 History 1.1 1919-1929 On mobilisation the regiments would join their divisional artillery. All had been unceremoniously repulsed by the vastly superior Allied forces. My representation of this capability for my 1980s British Battle Group will include. 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. 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. 58th Station Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. By attaching an infantry regiment of the 104th Infantry Division to the armored division and following the drive closely with the rest of the 104th Division, the VII Corps was well prepared to hold any territory gained. To view a summary of the British Army in 1952 please click here.During October 1954 HQ BAOR reallocated fromBad Oeynhausento Rheindalen. By early 1945, events favored the Allied forces in Europe. General Eisenhower's Armies were facing resistance that varied from almost non-existent to fanatical[54] as they advanced toward Berlin, which was located 200km (120mi) from their positions in early April 1945. This consisted of: 10th Infantry Brigade Group11th Infantry Brigade Group12th Infantry Brigade Group. [32][pageneeded] The intention was to create a line from Bremen south to Neuwied. [49], Following the capture of Nuremberg, the 7th Army discovered little resistance as the XXI Corps' 12th Armored Division dashed 50mi (80km) to the Danube, crossing it on 22 April, followed several days later by the rest of the corps and the XV Corps as well. 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. 20 Postal and Courier Squadron, Royal Engineers. Originally, Eisenhower had planned to draw all his forces up to the west bank of the Rhine, using the river as a natural barrier to help cover the inactive sections of his line. 101st Provost Company, Royal Military Police, 102nd Provost Company, Royal Military Police, JHQ Rheindahlen, 2nd Intelligence Company, Intelligence Corps, JHQ Rheindahlen. Should the U.S. political leadership direct him to take Berlin, or if a situation arose in which it became militarily advisable to seize the German capital, Eisenhower would do so. Most of these units were progressively dissolved, so that by February 1920 there were only regular battalions: In August 1920 Winston Churchill, as Secretary of State for War, told Parliament that the BAOR was made up of approximately 13,360 troops, consisting of staff, cavalry, Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, infantry, machine gun corps, tanks and the usual ancillary services. For administrative purposes these units were under command of brigade HQ based in the UK during peacetime. 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. 3rd Armoured Division was the corps' reserve formation. [81] On 2 November 1988 107th (Ulster) Brigade (V) was raised and took command of all Territorial Army units in Northern Ireland, thus freeing 8th Infantry Brigade and 39th Infantry Brigade to focus on counterinsurgency operations. It was originally composed of five corps, composed of two divisions each, plus a cavalry division:[1], IV Corps: Commanded by Sir Alexander Godley, VI Corps: Commanded by Sir Aylmer Haldane, IX Corps: Commanded by Sir Walter Braithwaite and later by Ivor Maxse, Cavalry Division (formed from 1st Cavalry Division). In the. 44th District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, HQ South-West District & 243 (Southern) Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Bulford, Permanent Planning Group Joint Force Headquarters, Bulford. Following this primary assault, which XII Corps would undertake, VIII Corps would execute supporting crossings at Boppard and St. Goar, 2530 miles (4048km) northwest of Mainz. West German military historian Burkhart Mller-Hillebrand estimated 265,000 dead from all causes and 1,012,000 missing and prisoners of war on all German battlefronts from 1 Jan 1945 30 April 1945. First, his headquarters received reports that Soviet forces held a bridgehead over the Oder River, 30 miles (48km) from Berlin. During the Second World War the army was the main British contribution to the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 and advance across Europe . 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. In the event of war with the Warsaw Pact the Commander-in-Chief of BAOR would have assumed command of NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG), which was tasked with defending Northern Germany up to the river Elbe. 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. Even when the hopelessness of the German situation became obvious to his most loyal subordinates, Hitler refused to admit defeat. 43rd District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. 6 (UK) Div will include: 1st Signal Brigade, 11th Signal Brigade, 1st Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Brigade, 77th Brigade and the Specialist Infantry Group, Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. 3rd Field Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, 10th Airborne Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Borden, (supported 5th Airborne Brigade), 16th Armoured Field Ambulance, Aldershot (to. 71st Movement Control Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport, 602nd Transport Unit, Royal Corps of Transport, Antwerp, Belgium. After a day or two, specialized Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) units took over. South of the Ruhr River, the 1st Army's northward attack was to be executed by the XVIII Airborne Corps, which had been transferred to Hodges after Operation Varsity, and the III Corps, with the 1st Army's V and VII Corps continuing the offensive east. . 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. 3rd Base Ammo Depot, Royal Army Ordnance Corps. 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. 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. New book, 264 pages. [22], In addition, there was the matter of the Ruhr. . 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 30th was to cross between Wesel and Rheinberg while the 79th assaulted south of Rheinberg. By the end of April, the Third Reich was in tatters. Of the land still under Nazi control, almost none was actually in Germany. 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). After passing north of the Lippe on 29 March, the 2nd Armored Division broke out late that night from the forward position that the XVIII Airborne Corps had established around Haltern, 12mi (19km) northeast of Dorsten. A captain of the 506th wrote, "At one point the men were so weary that [on] the order to rest . Five armies took part in the battle: the armies of Prince Rupert of the Rhine and the Marquis of Newcastle for the Royalists, and the Army of the Covenant, the Earl of Manchester's Eastern Association and Lord Fedinando Fairfax's Northern Association for the Allies. The right-wing of the British Second Army reached the Elbe southeast of Hamburg on 19 April. 18th Base Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. The idea was that each Division would have 2 Task Forces , which . The rest of the 9th Army would remain in reserve until the bridgehead was ready for exploitation. The initial assault waves crossed the river quickly, meeting only light opposition. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. The Army must remain adaptable and evolve as a fighting force. [44], The Elbe River was the official eastward objective, but many American commanders still eyed Berlin. Sup Regt RSA listed with SW Dist by Isby & Kamps 1985. This decree of 5 August was followed by a decree dated 19 October (Fontainebleau Decree) ordering the destruction of all British merchandise found in territories occupied by Napoleon, included within which were the states of the Confederation. Instead, the 1st Army struck eastward, heading for Giessen and the Lahn River, 65mi (105km) beyond Remagen, before turning north toward Paderborn and a linkup with the 9th Army. [10] 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. Everyone is asking its whereabouts and what its future role will be, says the British United Press correspondent with the British forces. 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. This page is a list of British Armies in WWII. Combat Support units: These units provide support to the combat units in the combat zone. 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. 10th Field Squadron (Airfields), 38th Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers. The battle was a victory for the Allies, and resulted in the capture of over 250,000 German soldiers. Finally, the Germans surrendered, and by midnight units moved out laterally to consolidate the crossing sites and to attack the first villages beyond the river. Furthermore, the main objective was no longer Berlin, but Leipzig where a juncture with the Soviet Army would split the remaining German forces in two. 3rd Armoured Division Transport Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, 3rd Ordnance Battalion, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Soest, 5th Armoured Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Soest, 6th Armoured Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Mnster, 11th Armoured Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Soest, 3rd Armoured Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, Sennelager, 5th Armoured Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, Mnster, 113th Provost Company, Royal Military Police, Werl, HQ 4th Armoured Brigade & 204 Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Mnster, HQ 6th Armoured Brigade & 206th Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Soest, HQ 33rd Armoured Brigade & 202nd Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Paderborn, 46th (Talavera) Air Defence Battery, (36x, HQ 4th Armoured Division & Signal Regiment, Royal Signals, Herford, 14th Postal & Courier Squadron, Royal Engineers, Herford. On the 30th and 31st, the 2nd Armored made an uninterrupted 40mi (64km) drive east to Beckum, cutting two of the Ruhr's three remaining rail lines and severing the autobahn to Berlin. The Armistice that went into effect on 11 November . [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. Patton knew that the most obvious place to jump the river was at Mainz or just downstream, north of the city. 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. Britains Armed Forces Today:3 British Army of The Rhine, T Gander 1984; Britains Modern Army, edition 1 1995, T Gander; 1997. Once this was accomplished the remaining German forces could be defeated in detail. Journal of the US Army War College. [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. Regimental headquarters are administrative and ceremonial in nature. 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. 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. 5th Security Company, Intelligence Corps, 6th Intelligence Company (Photo Intell), Intelligence Corps, JHQ Rheindahlen. Experienced Defence Supply Chain Manager and Health & Safety Practitioner with over 10 years demonstrated history of effective operations management with a strong working knowledge of the UK Defence Management of Health and Safety (JSP 375), Army Risk Assessments, and the subsequent methodological management of risk controls required for personnel that are arguably most exposed to health and . On the night of March 23, 1945, the Allied forces that had gathered along the Rhine launched their invasion. However, as the 3rd Army began pulling up to the Mulde on 13 April, the XII CorpsPatton's southernmost forcecontinued moving southeast alongside the 6th U.S. Army Group to clear southern Germany and move into Austria. Also looking forward to going home, tens of thousands of freed forced laborers and Allied prisoners of war further strained the American logistical system. Retrieved 9 October 2021. Although Montgomery's drive was still planned as the main effort, Eisenhower believed that the momentum of the American forces to the south should not be squandered by having them merely hold the line at the Rhine or make only limited diversionary attacks beyond it. 4th Petrol Depot, Royal Army Ordnance Corps. Then, on the move to West Germany would join the 1st Artillery Brigade. Rolling northward 45mi (72km) without casualties, the mobile force stopped for the night 15mi (24km) from its objective. In the British Army, divisions and brigades are referred to as "formations." [23][24], After capturing the Ruhr, Eisenhower planned to have the 21st Army Group continue its drive east across the plains of northern Germany to Berlin. The displaced residents nonetheless had to find housing on their own.
Actinic Purpura Pictures,
Is Khaled Siddiq Still Married,
Dead Body Found In Lancaster Pa,
Houses For Rent With Evictions Las Vegas,
Articles B
british army of the rhine order of battle
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!