The Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) was a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

military formation comprising four Western European

Army Corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...

, during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

as part of NATO's forward defence in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

. The Army Group headquarters was established on 1 November 1952 in

Bad Oeynhausen Bad Oeynhausen () is a spa town on the southern edge of the Wiehengebirge in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in the East-Westphalia-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The closest larger towns are Bielefeld (39 kilometres southw ...

, but was relocated in 1954 to

Rheindahlen Rheindahlen (called ''Dalen'' from the Early Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period around 1700, and ''Dahlen'' until 1878) is a town in the western and largest borough of the city of Mönchengladbach in the German state of North Rhine-Westphali ...

. The HQ complex near Mönchengladbach contained NORTHAG HQ and three other command posts; the headquarters of the

Second Allied Tactical Air Force Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF) was a NATO military formation under Allied Air Forces Central Europe tasked with providing air support to NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG). 2 ATAF commanded all flying units based within its sector and ...

(2 ATAF),

British Army of the Rhine There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. Both formations had areas of responsibility located ...

(BAOR) and

Royal Air Force Germany The former Royal Air Force Germany (RAFG) was a command of the Royal Air Force and part of British Forces Germany. It consisted of units located in Germany, initially as part of the occupation following the Second World War, and later as part o ...

(RAFG). Previously,

21st Army Group The 21st Army Group was a British headquarters formation formed during the Second World War. It controlled two field armies and other supporting units, consisting primarily of the British Second Army and the First Canadian Army. Established in ...

had been on the left flank of the Allied advance into Germany, and had advanced into the

North German Plain The North German Plain or Northern Lowland (german: Norddeutsches Tiefland) is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain. The region is bounded by the coasts of the North Sea and the Balt ...

. This may have been the reason that a four-corps sized formation - which would usually be considered an army - was given the title of '

Army group An army group is a military organization consisting of several field armies, which is self-sufficient for indefinite periods. It is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. An army group is the largest field organization handled ...

Badge

During the construction of the main Joint Headquarters (JHQ) building, a Frankish battle ax (

Francisca The francisca (or francesca) is a throwing axe used as a weapon during the Early Middle Ages by the Franks, among whom it was a characteristic national weapon at the time of the Merovingians from about 500 to 750 and is known to have been us ...

) was found. It was the badge NORTHAG chose because the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools ...

were a West-European tribe fighting against attackers from the East. In the year 451 AD the Franks defeated an army under the leadership of

Attila Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Bulgars, among others, in Central and E ...

at Châlons-sur-Marne and thus ended a conquest of Western Europe by the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

Structure

In the NATO command structure NORTHAG belonged to

Allied Forces Central Europe Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004 from previous commands as part of NATO's continuing command structure reductions in the face of a then-dim ...

(AFCENT), which in turn reported to

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. ACO's and SHAPE's commander is t ...

(SHAPE). NORTHAGs responsibility was the defense of the North German plains from south of the river

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Re ...

to the city of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

. The defense north of the Elbe was the task of Allied Land Forces Command Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland (COMLANDJUT), while south of Kassel it was the task of CENTAG. Commander in Chief of NORTHAG was the commanding General of the

(BAOR).

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

was a German

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

, with a Belgian or Dutch Major General as alternates. Northern Army Group was assigned the following formations: * I Dutch Corps (Dutch

1st First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

, 4th and 5th Mechanized Divisions and the 101st Infantry Brigade. From July 1985 the German 3rd Panzer Division was added.) * I German Corps ( 1st Panzer Division, 7th Panzer Division, 11th Panzergrenadier Division, and 27th Airborne Brigade.) *

I British Corps I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

( 1st Armoured Division,

3rd Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * H ...

and 4th Armoured, and 2nd Infantry Division) * I Belgian Corps (1st Infantry and 16th Armoured Division) These organizations fell in peacetime under their respective national command authorities. Only in the case of attack did operational control over the Corps automatically transfer to NORTHAG. Air support was provided by 2 ATAF. During peacetime NORTHAG multi-national staff commanded the following units: * 13th Belgian Telecommunications

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...

(13 Cie T Tr) * 28th Signal Regiment,

Royal Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

(NORTHAG) * German Telecommunications

Battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions ...

840 (NORTHAG) * Dutch telecommunications company * NORTHAG telecommunications company (radio NORTHAG Air Support Squadron), which consisted of soldiers from all four nations. Northag Transport Company, Consisting of an HQ Platoon and four national platoons A British, B Dutch, C Belgium, D German. In the case of war the headquarters of the 2nd ATAF and NORTHAG would be relocated to the JOC ( Joint Operations Center), a bunker complex in the St. Pietersberg in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

area. There were two other corps not located on the front lines but associated with NORTHAG. The III French Corps with the 2nd Armoured Division, and 10th Armoured, and 8th Infantry Division began to be more closely associated with the northern part of the Central Front from the late 1970s. In addition, also, from the late 1970s the U.S. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Armoured Division was forward deployed at Garlstedt. III (US) Corps was later assigned as a reserve corps. The rest of 2nd Armored Division, along with 1st Cavalry Division, 5th Infantry Division (Mech),

212th Field Artillery Brigade {{Infobox military unit , unit_name= 212th Fires Brigade , image=212FABdeSSI.svg , image_size = 200 , caption=Shoulder Sleeve Insignia , dates= , country= {{USA , allegiance=Active duty , branch= Field Artillery Branch (United States) , type= F ...

and

3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment The 3rd Cavalry Regiment, formerly 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment ("Brave Rifles") is a regiment of the United States Army currently stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. The regiment has a history in the United States Army that dates back to 19 May 1 ...

were tasked to join NORTHAG through OPERATION REFORGER within days after an outbreak of hostilities. They were to draw their equipment from POMCUS depots in the Netherlands, Belgium and

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

. These reinforcements depended upon the air bridge across the Atlantic being opened and the vehicle depots being unharmed or protected from early Soviet action against them.

Field Operations

In the NATO defense plan, NORTHAG was assigned the area between

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

and

(North-South) and the German-Dutch, Belgian to the (then) inner-German border to defend against a potential threat from the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...

. The locations of NORTHAG forces were accordingly, mostly in this area. In the north the command bordered

Allied Forces Northern Europe Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) was the northern Major Subordinate Command of NATO's Allied Command Europe (ACE), located at Kolsås outside Oslo. In the case of war with the Soviet Union, AFNORTH would assume supreme command of all Allie ...

(AFNORTH) and in the south the

Central Army Group Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg (HQ FC Heidelberg) was a formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) responsible for providing deployable joint staff elements (DJSE) in support of NATO operations worldwide. It was head ...

(CENTAG). Under General Sir

Nigel Bagnall Field Marshal Sir Nigel Thomas Bagnall, (10 February 1927 – 8 April 2002) was Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the professional head of the British Army, from 1985 to 1988. Early in his military career he saw action during the Palestine Emer ...

, NORTHAG tried to reorientate its defensive plans from a static defence to a more mobile approach. By 1986, this plan envisioned the formation of armor-heavy reserves held under army group command. Ground operations relating to the crisis in former Yugoslavia began in late 1992. In November 1992, the

United Nations Protection Force The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: ''Force de Protection des Nations Unies'') was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav ...

in Bosnia-Herzegovina was provided with an operational headquarters drawn from HQ NORTHAG, including a staff of some 100 personnel, equipment, supplies and initial financial support.

Disbandment

On 24 June 1993, the headquarters of NORTHAG and 2 ATAF officially disbanded during a military ceremony. The last commander of NORTHAG was General Sir Charles Guthrie, KCB LVO OBE.NATO profile: Sir Charles Guthrie
/ref> The last Chief of Staff was Major General Helmut Willmann, later commander of the

Eurocorps Eurocorps, located in the French city of Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), is a multinational corps headquarters. Founded by France and Germany in 1992, it is today composed of personnel from six framework nations and five associated nations. The framework ...

References

* "Army Group North brochure Editor: HQ NORTHAG 1987 * "The five headquarters in Mönchengladbach", brochure monk Koblenz-Verlag, 1987 * "The History of the Northern Army Group", Editor: HQ NORTHAG, 1993

External links