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. 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. 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. [35], Although the armored division bolstered his offensive capacity within the bridgehead, Simpson was more interested in sending the XIX Corps across the Wesel bridges, as Montgomery had agreed, and using the better roads north of the Lippe to outflank the enemy in front of the 30th Division. Ziethen's corps arrived late at Waterloo and linked up with Wellington's flank. 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. [5] Its original function was to control the corps districts which were running the military government of the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany. 154th Forward Ammo Depot, Royal Army Ordnance Corps. 1944: Across The Rhine Download | GameFabrique As the division's area of operation was hilly and woody 19th Infantry Brigade based in Colchester was added to it. HQ Western District & 241 (West) Signal Squadron, Royal Signals. [30], Two more 3rd Army crossingsboth by VIII Corpsquickly followed. 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. On the night of March 23, 1945, the Allied forces that had gathered along the Rhine launched their invasion. 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. Inf.Div. [36], The 1st Army's drive from the Remagen bridgehead began with a breakout before dawn on 25 March. 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. The Order of Battle (OrBat) shows the formation of the forces that were in Operation Veritable in the beginning of February 1945. . 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. The three infantry battalions were rotated every two years, and the armoured squadron was detached from a BAOR armoured regiment based in West Germany. British Army of the Rhine (none conflict) | Cold War Warriors 1985 - 1995 Home [baor-locations.org] The initial advance into Romania, the First JassyKishinev Offensive in April and May 1944 was a failure; the Second JassyKishinev Offensive in August succeeded. 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. 414th Tank Transporter Unit Royal Corps of Transport. 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. 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. As of 1 April 1989, the following amounts of troops were deployed around the world: 71,000 in Great Britain, 56,000 (of which the Berlin brigade makes up 3,000), 10,200 in Northern Ireland (including 3,200 on roulement), 5,000 in Hong Kong, 4,000 in the Lines of Communications counties (Netherlandsand Belgium), 3,200 in Cyprus (including 850 on Still, Allied intelligence could not entirely discount the possibility that remnants of the German forces would attempt a suicidal last stand in the Alps. Back in the 1950s, a posting in Germany was being actively encouraged as a vast British Army presence continued to expand. Patton knew that the most obvious place to jump the river was at Mainz or just downstream, north of the city. [57], By the beginning of 1945, Allied victory in Europe was inevitable. Use the search function to locate the Order of battle by title or file name. British Army of the Rhine : The BAOR, 1945-1993 - Google Books 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 BAOR at this point still consisted of 80,000 troops. By sending armored spearheads around hotly contested areas, isolating them for reduction by subsequent waves of infantry, Eisenhower's forces maintained their eastward momentum. The German forces there were simply in less disarray than those to the north. [46], Every unit along the ElbeMulde line was anxious to be the first to meet the Red Army. 31 General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps, 82nd Field Medical Equipment Depot, Royal Army Medical Corps, Dsseldorf, 382nd Field Medical Company, Royal Army Medical Corps. This secondary drive would also give Eisenhower a degree of flexibility in case the northern attack ran into difficulties. Another seven American divisions arrived during February,[19] along with the British 5th Infantry Division and I Canadian Corps, both of which had arrived from the fighting on the Italian front. 98 Squadron - Fassberg Middle East Air Force (Ismailia and Abu Sueir) . Its left fought for a week to capture Bremen, which fell on 26 April. [35], To the south, the discovery of a defensive gap in front of the 30th Infantry Division fostered the hope that a full-scale breakout would be possible on 25 March. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. [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. 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. 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. PDF 21 Army Group History & Personnel - British Military History 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. A German holdout force of 70,000 in the Harz Mountains40mi (64km) north of Erfurtwas neutralized in this way, as were the towns of Erfurt, Jena, and Leipzig. [27], These were exactly the orders Patton had hoped for; he felt that if a sufficiently strong force could be thrown across the river and significant gains made, then Eisenhower might transfer responsibility for the main drive through Germany from Montgomery's 21st Army Group to Bradley's 12th. In a few days the war in Europe would be over. 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. In July 1944, soon after the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944), the British 11th Armoured Division broke out of the Normandy beachhead and advanced into France, before turning northward to Belgium. The Western Allies still had to fight, often bitterly, for victory. Also during this year on 1 April, 11th Armoured Division was reorganised into 4th Infantry Division. In the British Army, divisions and brigades are referred to as "formations." [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. British Commandos on the outskirts of Wesel 3-inch mortar of the 8th Royal Scots under enemy fire during the Rhine crossing, 24 March 1945 Aftermath [ edit] Impact on German forces and command [ edit] The Allied operation was opposed by the German 1st Parachute Army, commanded by General Alfred Schlemm, a part of Army Group H. This consisted of: 10th Infantry Brigade Group11th Infantry Brigade Group12th Infantry Brigade Group. Rarely seen photos of Battle of Arnhem reveal terrifying death and During peacetime these regiments were under command of their brigade. The main thrust beyond the river was to be made in the north by Montgomery's 21st Army Group, elements of which were to proceed east to a juncture with the U.S. 1st Army as it made a secondary advance northeast from below the Ruhr River. 1st Armoured Division Transport Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, 1st Ordnance Battalion, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Verden, 7th Armoured Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Fallingbostel, 12th Armoured Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Osnabrck, 1st Armoured Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, Bergen-Hohne, 2nd Armoured Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, Osnabrck, 111th Provost Company, Royal Military Police, Bergen-Hohne, HQ 7th Armoured Brigade & 207th Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Soltau, HQ 12th Armoured Brigade & 212th Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Osnabrck, HQ 22nd Armoured Brigade & 201st Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Bergen-Hohne, 10 (Assaye) Air Defence Battery (under command of Field regiment for admin), HQ 3rd Armoured Division & Signal Regiment, Royal Signals, Soest, 13th Postal & Courier Squadron, Royal Engineers, Soest. 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. At the Battle of Rolia (17 August 1808), the first battle fought by the British army during the Peninsular War, [5] an Anglo-Portuguese army under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated an outnumbered Imperial French division under General of Division Henri Franois Delaborde, near the village of Rolia in Portugal. 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.. Greenhill Books. Combat Service Support units: These units provide essential support services both in combat and in peacetime. Elements of the 1st Army's V Corps made first contact. [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). 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. The ensuing airdrops, which began on 29 April,[52] marked the beginning of what was to become a colossal effort to put war-torn Europe back together again.[53]. . Early in the afternoon of 1 April elements of the 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions met at Lippstadt, linking the 9th and 1st Armies and sealing the prized Ruhr industrial complex, along with Model's Army Group B, within American lines. Although the Ruhr area still contained a significant number of Axis troops and enough industry to retain its importance as a major objective, Allied intelligence reported that much of the region's armament industry was moving southeast, deeper into Germany. 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.