Headquarters of the Allied Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland

Headquarters of the Allied Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland - LANDJUT -
Association badge
active	1962 to April 3, 1999
Country	Germany  Denmark
Armed forces	armed forces Det Danske Forsvar
Armed forces	Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) Army Hæren
Type	NATO - Corps
Subordinate troops	6. Panzergrenadierdivision , Jutland Division , Territorial Brigade 51
Strength	40,000 to 60,000
former seat of the staff	Eider barracks , Rendsburg
commander
last commanding general	Lieutenant General Henrik H. Ekmann
last chief of staff	Brigadier General Peter Bartram Staff Officer / G-3 Division / HQ LANDJUT (1997-98)

Structure of the LANDJUT armed forces

The Headquarters Allied Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland (English NATO designation: Headquarters Allied Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland shortly HQ LANDJUT, usually only LANDJUT ) was the first and during the Cold War the only multinational corps of NATO , the existed between 1962 and 1999. Troop providers were the Danish land forces and the German army , as well as Great Britain with a liaison officer. When Poland joined the task, the Multinational Corps North-East , as the common successor association, took over.

Organization and history

After the withdrawal of the Norwegian troops , the so-called "Jutland Covering Force" was established in 1953 under the leadership of the "Danish Command in Germany". These associations were led in the allied military structures by the "Western Land Command" (WLC) in Aarhus. It was not until May 1956 that they were officially subordinated to NATO or the "Allied Land Forces Denmark" (LANDENMARK) in Copenhagen. The LANDENMARK in turn belonged to the land forces " Allied Forces Northern Europe " (AFNORTH). At the suggestion of SACEUR, a NATO naval command staff was also established in the AFNORTH area in January 1958.

In the spring of 1957, the Danish-British units were reinforced by the first Bundeswehr soldiers who belonged to the 3rd Panzer Division . Until the summer of 1958, the Bundeswehr, with  Defense Division I in Kiel, was able to assume sole responsibility for the defense in Schleswig-Holstein. In the NATO structure, these German army units were assigned to the “Land Forces Headquarters Schleswig-Holstein”, which was led by a West German admiral. The headquarters was part of LANDENMARK, so that all NATO troops in Schleswig-Holstein were subordinate to the admiral.

With the "Oslo Agreement" of November 22, 1961, all NATO formations between Hamburg and the Skagerrak were placed under the newly created "Baltic Approaches" ( BALTAP ) command. The main task of this command area was the defense of Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark, as the Baltic exits were controlled from there. The restructuring led to the establishment of four new headquarters: "Allied Land Forces in Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland" (LANDJUT) in Rendsburg, "Land Forces in Zealand" (LANDZEALAND) in Copenhagen, "Air Forces Baltic Sea Access" ( AIRBALTAP ) and the "Sea Forces Baltic Sea Access" ( NAVBALTAP ) in Karup in North Jutland. This structure was to remain in place until the end of the Cold War.

LANDJUT was set up in the summer of 1962 and financed by NATO until 1994. It was the only multinational corps with an international staff. The task of LANDJUT was to stop attacking enemy forces on their advance to the northwest in the event of a defense. The goal was to hold out until British, American and Dutch reinforcements arrived to repel the attacker. For this purpose, the commanding general of the corps LANDJUT (COMLANDJUT) had the German 6th Panzer Grenadier Division in Neumünster, the Danish Jutland Division in Fredericia and Homeland Security Brigade 51 in Eutin. With these forces, the general was supposed to secure the north-west along the inner-German border between Elbe and Lübeck as well as on the coastlines against amphibious and triphibian landings as part of the so-called “forward defense” of NATO. This conventional defense was reinforced by the rocket artillery battalion 650 in Itzehoe (from 1973 in Flensburg), which was initially equipped with SERGEANT missiles and from 1976 with Lance missiles.

The defense of the airspace as well as the sea sovereignty was coordinated by the AIRBALTAP and the NAVBALTAP. In the event of a defense, COMBALTAP would have subordinated the entire Royal Danish Air Force as well as all airborne units of the Bundeswehr stationed in Schleswig-Holstein, which at that time corresponded to around 300 combat aircraft, which would have been reinforced by US and British squadrons in an emergency . The main task of the NAVBALTAP was to secure the Baltic Sea exits in the direction of the North Sea, as an escape of the Soviet fleet from the Baltic Sea would have threatened the Atlantic sea connections of the western alliance. Therefore it was also planned to have large parts of the western Baltic Sea mined by NATO. Furthermore, the east coast of Schleswig-Holstein was protected by the naval security forces.

The 6th Panzer Grenadier Division was an exceptional part of the Bundeswehr. With a defense strength of around 30,000 men and around 5,800 wheeled and 1,200 tracked vehicles, it was the strongest and most powerful division of the West German army. However, in the event of a defense, they would have fought under a different high command (LANDJUT) than the other German divisions. In peacetime, the large formation of the 6th Panzer Grenadier Division consisted of three combat brigades ( 16 Panzer Grenadier Brigades in Wentorf and 17 in Hamburg, and 18 Panzer Brigade in Neumünster), the 6th Artillery Regiment in Kellinghusen and the corresponding division troops including the 6th Army Aviation Regiment in Itzehoe with almost 50 helicopters. In the event of a defense, in which this division would have formed the buffer stop for the defense, they would have been supported by Homeland Security Brigade 51 ³⁷ with the combat strength of a tank brigade. To date, there is no military training area in Schleswig-Holstein. The 6th Panzer Grenadier Division had to use available training areas in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria. In addition, from 1967 there were regular joint stays on the training grounds of the Danish units. 10,000 soldiers from Schleswig-Holstein helped with the flood disasters in northern Germany in February 1962 and January 1976 . The soldiers also provided help with the snow disaster at the turn of the year 1978/1979 . The manpower at the end of the 1990s was around 40,000. The corps staff was not provided by a lead nation , but consisted in equal parts of Germans and Danes as well as a British staff officer in the peace structure .

Exercises were carried out to ensure optimal cooperation between the five nations in the event of a hot war. These ranged from smaller exercises to procedures within or between different staffs to larger ones with military objectives. The number of participants varied from 50 soldiers in staff exercises to over 65,000 soldiers in so-called "BOLD GUARD" exercises that took place every four years in Schleswig-Holstein and parts of Denmark. Between 1962 and 1986, over 500 exercises were held in LANDJUT's area of ​​responsibility alone. In addition to these "free-running exercises", virtual simulation games were held. The best known of these exercises were the NATO WINTEX exercises, which were carried out every two years from 1968 to 1989. In addition to self-insurance, these practical tests also served as a deterrent to the Warsaw Pact.

After the end of the Cold War, the corps initially remained as a binational corps following an agreement between the states involved and SACEUR (NATO Commander-in-Chief for Europe). This decision followed the goal of keeping some of the corps as carriers of multinationality and is analogous to the conversion of the I Corps and II Corps into multinational corps.

LANDJUT as a bi-national staff was dissolved on April 30, 1999 and planned with the integration of the new NATO partner Poland and additional subordination of the 12th mechanized Polish division from Stettin as the third division as the new corps staff of the newly established Multinational Corps North-East .

Board at the main entrance of the former NATO headquarters LANDJUT in Rendsburg

Association badge

The association badge, worn by German corps members on the left sleeve of the service suit, shows the NATO star on a blue Gothic shield in the upper part of the coat of arms and three wave crests in the lower part. Two yellow (gold) crossed swords are depicted above these two symbols. The star symbolizes the multinational type of the corps under NATO command. The wave crests represent the three Baltic Sea access points, as a reference to the higher-level headquarters. The swords are an often used symbol for the army. This symbol was also found in the coat of arms of the Danish Army Command. Essential elements were again included in the association badge of the Multinational Corps North-East, and a griffin and a third sword were added.

See also : List of Association Badges of the Bundeswehr

Commanding generals

No.	Surname	nation	Beginning of the appointment	End of appointment
14th	Lieutenant General Henrik H. Ekmann	Denmark	1998	1999
13	Lieutenant General Manfred Gerber	Germany	1996	1998
12	Lieutenant General G. Grüner	Denmark	1993	1996
11	Lieutenant General Bernd Klug	Germany	1990	1993
10	Lieutenant General PB Krogen	Denmark	1987	1990
9	Lieutenant General Henning von Ondarza	Germany	1985	1987
8th	Lieutenant General G. Assmussen	Denmark	1982	1985
7th	Lieutenant General Dr. Günter Kießling	Germany	1979	1982
6th	Lieutenant General POW Thorsen	Denmark	1976	1979
5	Lieutenant General Heinrich Schwiethal	Germany	1973	1976
4th	Lieutenant General Horst Hildebrandt	Germany	January 1973	October 1973
3	Major General Jens Skriver-Jensen	Denmark	1968	1973
2	Lieutenant General Cord von Hobe	Germany	1965	1968
1	Major General Flemming B. Larsen	Denmark	1962	1965

See also

• Allied Forces Northern Europe
• Bold Guard

Web links

• The multinationality in the army
• The military situation in Northern Germany during the Cold War
• LANDJUT Operational Instruction No. 3, 1951 (en.)
• Warsaw Pact: Planning for Operations against Denmark. CIA Research Paper, 1989 (en.)
• Corps artillery u. a. LANDJUT (en.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Dieter H. Kollmer: The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War. In: Aaron Jessen, Elmar Moldenhauer, Karsten Biermann (eds.): Overcoming boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016, p. 72.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Dieter H. Kollmer: The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War. In: Aaron Jessen, Elmar Moldenhauer, Karsten Biermann (eds.): Overcoming boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016, p. 73.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Dieter H. Kollmer: The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War. In: Aaron Jessen, Elmar Moldenhauer, Karsten Biermann (eds.): Overcoming boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016, p. 74.
4. ↑ Cf. Dieter H. Kollmer: The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War. In: Aaron Jessen, Elmar Moldenhauer, Karsten Biermann (eds.): Overcoming boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016, p. 76 f.
5. ↑ Cf. Dieter H. Kollmer: The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War. In: Aaron Jessen, Elmar Moldenhauer, Karsten Biermann (eds.): Overcoming boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016, p. 77.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Cf. Dieter H. Kollmer: The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War. In: Aaron Jessen, Elmar Moldenhauer, Karsten Biermann (eds.): Overcoming boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016, p. 78.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Cf. Dieter H. Kollmer: The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War. In: Aaron Jessen, Elmar Moldenhauer, Karsten Biermann (eds.): Overcoming boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016, p. 82.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Kollmer, Dieter H. The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War, in: Jessen, Aaron / Moldenhauer, Elmar / Biermann, Karsten (eds.). Overcome boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016. p. 80.
9. ↑ Dieter H. Kollmer: The "aircraft carrier" Schleswig-Holstein. The role of Schleswig-Holstein in NATO's defense planning during the Cold War. In: Aaron Jessen, Elmar Moldenhauer, Karsten Biermann (eds.): Overcoming boundaries. Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark & ​​the GDR. Husum 2016, p. 81.

Coordinates: 54 ° 18 ′ 0 ″  N , 9 ° 39 ′ 38 ″  E