JHQ (Joint Headquarters) Rheindahlen was a military base in

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Netherlands, Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, th ...

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 ...

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 ...

active from 1954 to 2013. It functioned as the main headquarters for

British forces in Germany British Forces Germany (''BFG'') was the generic name for the three services of the British Armed Forces, made up of service personnel, UK Civil Servants, and dependents (family members), based in Germany. It was established following the World ...

and for the

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 ...

Northern Army Group. Latterly it was also known as the Rheindahlen Military Complex, part of Rheindahlen Garrison. It was named after the local village of Rheindahlen, part of the city borough of

History

In 1952, work began on the British Forces Maintenance Area West of the Rhine. Part of the project included the construction of a joint

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

and

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

headquarters for the

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) in Rheindahlen. Colonel Henry Grattan was Chief Engineer of the construction project. HQ BAOR moved from Bad Oeynhausen to Rheindahlen in October 1954, centralising headquarters functions previously located across several towns in Northern Germany. It was originally the HQ of the Northern Army Group (NORTHAG), Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2ATAF),

(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). Some 12,000 military personnel moved to the "town within a town" in a few weeks. By the early 1970s the facilities in the complex included a

NAAFI The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI ) is a company created by the United Kingdom, British government on 9 December 1920 to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their fam ...

superstore and a smaller

store (Buschof NAAFI), German shops, a petrol station (normally BP), a travel agent (Milatravel), two German banks (Commerzbank and Sparkasse), two post offices, dress shop (a Malcolm Club shop),

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

Bookshop, libraries and cafes. There were separate full British Army ( RAMC) and RAF Medical & Dental Centres, five British primary schools (St Georges, St Andrews, St Patricks, St Davids & St Christophers) and a Belgian school. There was one secondary school (initially Queens upper & lower until the senior school moved to Hostert Waldniel, later returning to JHQ and recombining as Windsor School. JHQ was first bombed by the

Provisional IRA The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

in 1973. The car bomb was planted in the Globe cinema car park and timed to go off as the film ended. In the event the film ended early and the car park was largely empty when the bomb exploded. No one was injured, but a couple of cars were damaged. A Dutch man and a woman from

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

were arrested but their leader, reported to be James McCann, escaped. Thirty-one people were injured on 23 March 1987 after a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

exploded near the visitors officers' mess at the top of Queens Avenue. The Provisional IRA later stated it had carried out the bombing. During the 1990s and 2000s, JHQ housed the Headquarters United Kingdom Support Command (Germany), later Headquarters British Forces Germany, which was the administrative HQ of the British Army in Europe. It was also home to the

Allied Rapid Reaction Corps The Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) is a rapid reaction force maintained by NATO. It is capable of deploying a High Readiness Force (Land) Headquarters at short notice for operations and crisis response. History The ARRC was created on 1 ...

(ARRC), which relocated to Imjin Barracks in

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in 2010. There was an Army Garrison HQ on Collingwood Road to administer the Army element and an RAF HQ ( RAF Rheindahlen) on Queens Avenue to administer the RAF element. HQ British Forces Germany moved to

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

in July 2013. The Rheindahlen military complex was handed back to German federal authorities on 13 December 2013. In July 2015 some Arab investors submitted proposals to convert the site to a leisure park. In September 2015 the main gas, electricity and water services were reconnected from the main Hardt-Rheindahlen road along Queens Avenue to the West boiler house to facilitate temporary use of the site as a refugee reception centre. In November 2015 the site was still a ghost town with civilian security guards and in April 2016 it was revealed that the refugees would be accommodated in the billets area around the parade ground off Beresford Road.

Headquarters and units

A number of separate HQs and units were based at the JHQ complex during its time as a British and NATO base, these included:

Headquarters

* HQ Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) * HQ 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF) * HQ

(BAOR) * HQ RAF Germany (RAFG) * HQ United Kingdom Support Command (Germany) (UKSC(G)) * HQ British Forces Germany (BFG) * HQ ACE Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) * HQ Multinational Division (Central) (MND(C))

Individual units and organisations

* British Services Security Organisation (Germany) * Intelligence & Security Group (Germany) * 16 Signal Regiment * Support Battalion, HQ ARRC * 32 Postal & Courier Squadron

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

* 101 Provost Company Royal Military Police * 68 Squadron

Royal Corps of Transport The Royal Corps of Transport (RCT) was a British Army Corps established to manage all matters in relation to the transport of men and material for the Army and the wider defence forces. It was formed in 1965 and disbanded in 1993; its units and tr ...

* 29 Company

Women's Royal Army Corps The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992 except medical, dental and veterinary officers and chap ...

* Various NATO national support elements

References

{{Reflist Mönchengladbach British forces in Germany Military facilities of the United Kingdom in Germany Provisional Irish Republican Army actions Military headquarters 1952 establishments in West Germany 2013 disestablishments in Germany Military installations established in 1952

History

Headquarters and units

Headquarters

Individual units and organisations

See also

References