British armed forces in Germany

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
British Forces Germany (BFG) badge
Herford: Barracks
Officers' Casino, Liststrasse
Bielefeld: HQ entrance
Bielefeld: HQ corner
Bielefeld side barracks

British Forces in Germany (English: " British Forces Germany ", short: BFG) was between 1994 and 2019 the name of the British troops that maintain some of the foreign military bases in Germany . Previously the terms British Army of the Rhine (English: " British Army of the Rhine", short: BAOR) and RAF Germany were used. The legal basis for this is the residence contract and the supplementary agreement to the NATO troop statute .

The combat troops were completely withdrawn from Germany by 2019, but in view of the aggressive policy of Russia there will not be a complete end to the British military presence on the European continent, because in July 2018 it became known that, contrary to original plans , the Senne and Sennelager military training area would continue after the Withdrawal of the combat troops as part of a temporary future Defense Presence (FDP) with 200 soldiers.

After the last RAF unit, legal advice for British soldiers including the British Army , was disbanded on German soil at the end of June 2019, the British troops remaining in Germany have been referred to as British Army Germany since September 2019 .

history

The British military presence in West Germany during the Cold War

Great Britain went its own way as an occupying power. While the other three occupying powers were careful not to station foreign troops in their respective zones, the British counted on the support of their allies from the start. Canada and Belgium in particular, and later Norway , Denmark and the Netherlands , provided considerable troop contingents in some cases and - in the case of Belgium - took over the southern edge of the British zone under their own responsibility. The Belgian armed forces in Germany were stationed here until 2002. The English did this out of their financial and military predicament, because the island, exhausted by the war, not only had to cope with its commitment in defeated Germany, but also led the "East of Suez" several colonial wars in the crumbling Empire, especially in Malaya .

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery as Commander in Chief of the 21st Army Group and British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) preferred to set up his headquarters and the military government not in one of the destroyed cities, but in the seaside resorts and small towns in East Westphalia-Lippe. The commander-in-chief resided in a villa in Bad Oeynhausen from 1945 to 1958 , Lübbecke became the seat of the military government, parts of the staff were located in Bünde and Bad Salzuflen ; the air forces, 2 Tactical Air Force (2TAF), later British Air Forces of Occupation (BAFO), finally Royal Air Force Germany (RAFG), set up their headquarters in Bad Eilsen and Bückeburg . From 1953, the new Joint Headquarters (JHQ) Rheindahlen was built and moved into west of the Rhine near Mönchengladbach . The large British units also formed the nucleus of the NATO structures: BAOR formed the Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) together with Belgian, Dutch, Canadian and, from 1957, German units , and the 2TAF became the Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2ATAF). , both colocated with the British JHQ in Rheindahlen.

When the Cold War broke out, the military security situation in northern and southern Germany was contradicting one another. The Americans had too little stationing space in Germany and, from 1951, gained in fact half of the French zone, while the British contingent shrank and large parts of it Powers friendly to the zone were transferred or remained without military protection. During the Berlin blockade in 1948/49, there were initially no more occupying troops in Schleswig-Holstein because the British garrisons between the Elbe and the Danish border had been evacuated for the impending handover to the Norwegian Tyskland Brigade . In order to fill the vacuum, a paratrooper brigade moved into the Neumünster garrison in 1948 , but was relocated to Hanover after the relative relaxation when the blockade ended .

With the establishment of the Bundeswehr in the mid-fifties, the British Army on the Rhine was noticeably relieved. Numerous garrisons such as Neumünster, Hamburg , Buxtehude , Lüneburg , Hanover, Braunschweig , Goslar , Göttingen and Oldenburg were taken over by German task forces. The British concentrated the forces of their I (BR) Corps with staff in Bielefeld in their NATO combat strip in the Lüneburg Heath with the armored spearhead in Wolfenbüttel . Important garrisons remained Soltau , Herford , Paderborn with the Sennelager military training area , Osnabrück and Münster . Leaning to the north was the I. (GE) Corps, to the south the I (BE) Corps. The air forces left all the air bases of the German Air Force and moved into their newly built four “clutch airfields” on the Dutch border, plus RAF Gütersloh.

The logistic supply was taken over by Rhine Area Command in Düsseldorf. The supplies were made via the North Sea port of Antwerp and the logistics center in the Belgian emblem in the Krefeld - Düsseldorf area. Until 1960 there was regular exchange of personnel from Great Britain by ship and rail via Harwich and Hoek van Holland , and the air route has been used since then.

Territorial organization during the Cold War

The Joint Services Liaison Organization (JSLO) with its seat in Bonn, Villa Spiritus, Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße and a major general at the head, existed for territorial matters and relations with German authorities. JSLO Düsseldorf was responsible for North Rhine-Westphalia, JSLO Hannover for Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. Structure 1964:

Reduced presence in reunified Germany

The British military presence in the Rheindahlen, Herford, Lübbecke, Münster, Paderborn, Fallingbostel, Hameln, Verden / Aller locations initially continued after the end of the Cold War, albeit to a lesser extent. The main reason for the continued stationing was the simple fact that there are no barracks for the troops on the island. The German garrisons were the home bases of British troops in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan in the 1990s and 2000s.

The British Armed Forces in Germany , as it has been known since 1994, were divided into two main areas of command, each under the command of a major general, until the return of the troops to the United Kingdom began:

British Forces Germany locations

The BFG were divided into four garrisons until the beginning of the final phase of the almost complete repatriation of the troops to the United Kingdom, decided in 2010 :

In the course of the repatriation this structure was adapted several times to the reduced size of the troops.

Return of the troops to the mother country

In 2006 around 23,000 soldiers, 2,000 civilian employees and 30,000 family members were still living in Germany. According to earlier plans, the number of soldiers should be reduced to around 16,000 by 2014 and to 15,000 by 2019. At the same time, a restructuring of the remaining units was planned, which would have resulted in the closure of the Rhine garrison. The garrisons Hohne, Gütersloh and Paderborn were to be preserved for the time being, some of which were to be enlarged.

The Osnabrück garrison was completely abandoned in 2009. The withdrawal began on September 25, 2008 with the closure of the Quebec Barracks ("Barracks" English for barracks). On March 26, 2009, the Mercer and Imphal Barracks, the last barracks, was returned to the Federal Republic of Germany. On March 31, 2009, the last site commander, Colonel Mark Cuthert-Brown, left Osnabrück. As of April 1, 2009, the Osnabrück Garrison, once the largest British garrison outside the United Kingdom, no longer exists.

In the summer of 2010, the headquarters of the ARRC ( HQ ARRC ) was relocated from Mönchengladbach to Innsworth in Gloucestershire . In October 2010, however, the British Prime Minister David Cameron announced in the British House of Commons that the 20,000 or so British soldiers at that time would be completely withdrawn from Germany by 2020. The starting point for this was the Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) initiated by the British government.

A number of early individual decisions were published in 2011.

In March 2013, the British Defense Minister (MoD) announced that around 70 percent of the army personnel (11,000 soldiers) would be relocated to Great Britain by the end of 2015. The remaining soldiers should return home by 2019. The Rhine garrison with the Rheindahlen military complex ( Mönchengladbach ) was dissolved at the end of December 2013 and the Celle location was also given up at this point in time. Also at the end of 2013, the Münster - Gievenbeck site with the Oxford barracks was given up.

On April 1, 2014, the Gütersloh and Paderborn garrisons were merged to form the now existing Westfalen Garrison . At that time, around 3,000 British soldiers were still stationed in Bielefeld, Gütersloh, Paderborn and Mönchengladbach in North Rhine-Westphalia . The Hameln site in Lower Saxony was given up in July 2014.

In Lower Saxony, the units stationed in Bergen-Hohne and Bad Fallingbostel were gradually moved back to Great Britain so that the barracks became vacant at the end of 2015. Around 5,000 British soldiers were stationed at these locations. The Javelin barracks (formerly RAF Brüggen ) in Niederkrüchten / Elmpt in the Rhineland were abandoned at the end of 2015. The headquarters of the British 1st Panzer Division and the telecommunications regiment of the headquarters in Herford, Westphalia, were relocated to Great Britain by the end of 2015 and the three barracks were abandoned. Up until then, around 800 soldiers were stationed in Herford.

The depot in Dülmen was cleared by the British at the end of September 2016 and taken over by the US armed forces in October. The units stationed in Gütersloh in the Princess Royal Barracks were either disbanded or gradually moved back to Great Britain. The area of ​​the barracks at the disused Gütersloh Airport was returned to the federal government in November 2016. In the years before the barracks were closed, 1,300 soldiers served in this barracks.

In 2018, around 3,300 British military personnel were still stationed in East Westphalia-Lippe in six barracks in Paderborn, Gütersloh and Bielefeld, the majority in 2000 in Paderborn.

The Mansergh barracks in Gütersloh and the King's School located there were used until mid-2019. Around 500 soldiers served here. This barracks was also handed over to BIMA in October 2019. In the Paderborn area, the Barker and Dempsey barracks were returned in November 2019.

At the turn of the year 2019/2020, all British combat troops had left Germany. With this, the Rochdale barracks and the last one on February 20, 2020, the Catterick barracks in Bielefeld were given up.

Others

The British armed forces operated two large military training areas and several on-site training areas, 32 schools (e.g. King's School in Gütersloh), 50 NAAFI shopping centers and nine cinemas in Germany. For the military and their family members, the weekly Sixth Sense , based in Bielefeld , was published from 1970 to the end of 2017 .

There was also SSVC Television for the soldiers . In addition, the BFBS radio broadcast. The program BFBS Radio 1 Germany was broadcast on powerful transmitters, so that it could be received on VHF in large parts of Lower Saxony. In North Rhine-Westphalia, on August 1, 2010 and April 27, 2020, the high-performance frequencies 96.5 MHz and 103.0 MHz of the Langenberg (since then Deutschlandradio Kultur) and Bielefeld stations, which are also popular with locals, were released. BFBS still broadcasts today in East Westphalia on several locally receivable frequencies.

The headquarters of the BFBS was in Hamburg from 1945 and later in Cologne-Marienburg from 1954 during the Cold War. After reunification, he moved to Herford in 1990 and to Bergen-Hohne in 2009 , to the edge of the military training area there . After a short interlude in Gütersloh in 2015/16, the studio has been in Sennelager since then.

Honored by the Federal Republic of Germany

The troop flag of the headquarters of the British Armed Forces received the flag of the Federal Republic of Germany on the occasion of the withdrawal of the troops and the dissolution of the headquarters on May 14, 2019 . Flag ribbons are given as a special honor in many armies and are the highest distinction in Germany with which a government can honor a military association. The ceremony took place on the forecourt of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf .

Commanders

General Officer Commanding United Kingdom Support Command (Germany)

  • Major-General Scott Grant (1994–1995)
  • Major-General Christopher Drewry (1995–1997)
  • Major-General Christopher Elliott (1997-2001)
  • Major-General John Moore-Bick (2001-2003)
  • Major-General David Bill (2003-2006)
  • Major-General Mungo Melvin (2006-2009)
  • Major-General Nicholas Caplin (2009–2012)

General Officer Commanding British Forces Germany

  • Major-General John Henderson (2012-2015)

Commander British Forces Germany

  • Brigadier Ian Bell (2015-2018)
  • Brigadier Richard Clements (2018-2019)

Commander British Army Germany

Present presence

According to the former commander of the British armed forces in Germany, Bell, around 750 British soldiers will remain in Germany after the withdrawal, including in particular liaison officers, specialists on the NATO training areas, in a depot in Mönchengladbach and river pioneers in Minden . In the summer of 2018 it was confirmed that British armed forces would remain stationed in the Sennelager area and that the Senne military training area would continue to be used. This leaves three locations with a certain troop presence.

  • 200 to 250 soldiers remain stationed in Paderborn-Sennelager in the Normandy barracks , they operate the Senne military training area. The headquarters, the Germany Enabling Office , is also located here. In addition, there are changing British units who use the military training area for training and further education. You use the neighboring Athlone barracks , which also have a vehicle depot, the Land Training Fleet (Sennelager) . The practicing associations do not have to bring their own large-scale equipment from their home locations. Other users of the military training area are the Bundeswehr and NATO troops from other countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands and the USA.
  • 30 British pioneers who work together with the Bundeswehr pioneers in the Herzog von Braunschweig barracks in Minden. The pioneers in Minden are the only pioneers in NATO who have amphibious bridge vehicles .
  • The Ayrshire Barracks South in Mönchengladbach used by a repair unit will remain in place until at least 2023.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the Bundeswehr ammunition depot in Dorsten is also used and the Alpine Training Center in Oberstdorf, Bavaria, will also be preserved.

Due to the long-term stationing in Germany, numerous former military personnel remained in Germany and some are organized in the Royal British Legion . A well-known descendant of the British military in Germany is the former Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, David McAllister .

See also

Web links

Commons : British Forces Germany  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The "British Forces Germany (BFG)" in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA), accessed on July 15, 2018 .
  2. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH: Defense after Brexit: The British military is in a different league. Retrieved December 4, 2018 .
  3. ↑ 200 soldiers of the British Army stay in Paderborn. Neue Westfälische, July 13, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  4. ↑ RAF Legal Services Northern Germany closed on June 30, 2019. BFG Net, accessed on December 25, 2019
  5. ↑ Source: Federal Archives-Military Archives Freiburg, BA-MA BW 1/58 519.
  6. ^ British forces to move from Germany to UK ( Memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Conversion - withdrawal of the British armed forces from Osnabrück ( Memento from October 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Stern: Great Britain will withdraw all soldiers from Germany by 2020 ( Memento from June 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Sächsische Zeitung: British armed forces are withdrawing faster from Germany . March 5, 2013
  10. ↑ Source: Foreign armed forces on German soil, Bundeswehr Journal, January 2019
  11. ^ British surrender Mansergh barracks. In: Westfalenblatt. October 18, 2019, accessed November 14, 2019 .
  12. ↑ The Barker site is handed over by the British. November 5, 2019, accessed November 14, 2019 .
  13. ↑ But no apartments? Federal police want complete British barracks. February 20, 2020, accessed February 22, 2020 .
  14. ↑ British soldier broadcaster BFBS returns VHF frequency in East Westphalia. Radio Week, April 27, 2020
  15. ↑ Note in: Landtag internal, issue 5 of May 28, 2019, p. 20
  16. ^ British Army in Germany, Who Will Stay? In: warfare.today. March 19, 2018, accessed June 2, 2018 .
  17. ^ British Army commits to supporting NATO assets in Germany. July 17, 2018, accessed July 17, 2018 .
  18. ↑ 185 Military Personnel To Remain In Paderborn. In: forces.net. July 14, 2018, accessed July 17, 2018 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 34.4 "  N , 8 ° 40 ′ 58.5"  E