The Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) was a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

military formation Military organization ( AE) or military organisation ( BE) is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. Formal military organization tends to use hierarc ...

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 formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

, during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

as part of NATO's forward defence in western

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. 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 Ostwestfalen-Lippe, East-Westphalia-Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The closest larger towns are Bielefeld (39 ki ...

, but was relocated in 1954 to Rheindahlen. The HQ complex near Mönchengladbach contained NORTHAG HQ and three other command posts: the headquarters of the Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF),

British Army of the Rhine British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) was the name given to British Army occupation forces in the Rhineland, West Germany, after the First and Second World Wars, and during the Cold War, becoming part of NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) tasked ...

(BAOR) and

Royal Air Force Germany Royal Air Force Germany, commonly known as RAF Germany, and abbreviated RAFG, was a List of Royal Air Force commands, command of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and part of British Forces Germany (BFG). It consisted of units located in Germany, init ...

(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 ...

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 () 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 Baltic Sea to the north, Germany's ...

. 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 army, 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 organizatio ...

Badge

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

battle axe A battle axe (also battle-axe, battle ax, or battle-ax) is an axe specifically designed for combat. Battle axes were designed differently to utility axes, with blades more akin to cleavers than to wood axes. Many were suitable for use in one ha ...

( Francisca) was found. It was the badge that NORTHAG chose because the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

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

Attila Attila ( or ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in early 453. He was also the leader of an empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Gepids, among others, in Central Europe, C ...

at Châlons-sur-Marne and thus ended the potential 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 centuries AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was par ...

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, as part of a reorganisation that reduced the number of NATO Military Command Structure headquarters. ...

(AFCENT), which in turn reported to

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe The 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. SHAPE is situated in the villag ...

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

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) 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 Republic), then Ge ...

to the city of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

. 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 supportin ...

was a German Major General, with a Belgian or Dutch Major General as alternates. Northern Army Group was assigned the following formations: * I Dutch Corps ** 1st Mechanized Division (Dutch), ** 3rd Panzer Division (German) From July 1985, ** 4th Mechanized Division (Dutch), ** 5th Mechanized Division (Dutch), ** 101st Infantry Brigade (Dutch), * I German Corps ** 1st Panzer Division (German), ** 7th Panzer Division (German), ** 11th Panzergrenadier Division (German), ** 27th Airborne Brigade (German), * I British Corps - 1980s listing ** 1st Armoured Division, ** 2nd Infantry Division ** 3rd Armoured Division ** 4th Armoured Division, * I Belgian Corps ** 1st Infantry Division ** 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 personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

(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) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...

(NORTHAG) * German Telecommunications

Battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...

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 former Cannerberg marl mine in the

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

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, 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 and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment were tasked to join NORTHAG through OPERATION REFORGER within days after an outbreak of hostilities. They were to draw their equipment from

POMCUS POMCUS (Prepositioning Of Materiel Configured in Unit Sets) was a system that kept large amounts of pre-positioned U.S. military equipment in West Germany during the Cold War. The program was started in 1961. In the event of war with the Soviet Un ...

depots in the Netherlands, Belgium and

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. 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 (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

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), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

. The locations of NORTHAG forces were accordingly, mostly in this area. In the north the command bordered Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) and in the south the Central Army Group (CENTAG). Under General Sir Nigel Bagnall, 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 War ...

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 fram ...

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