1919–1929 .|alt= in Cologne, 6 December 1918.|alt= , General Officer Commanding-in-Chief the British Army of the Rhine, taking the salute from the 29th Division entering Cologne by the
Hohenzollern Bridge.|alt= , June 1919.|alt= The first British Army of the Rhine was created in March 1919 to implement the
occupation of the Rhineland. It was originally composed of five corps, composed of two divisions each, plus a cavalry division:
II Corps: commanded by
Sir Claud Jacob :*Light Division (formed from
2nd Division): commanded by Major-General
George Jeffreys :*Southern Division (formed from
29th Division): commanded by Major-General
William Heneker IV Corps: commanded by Sir
Alexander Godley :*Lowland Division (formed from
9th (Scottish) Division) :*Highland Division (formed from
62nd (2nd West Riding) Division)
VI Corps: commanded by Sir
Aylmer Haldane :*Northern Division (formed from
3rd Division) :*London Division (formed from
41st Division)
IX Corps: commanded by Sir
Walter Braithwaite and later by
Ivor Maxse :*Western Division (formed from
1st Division) :*Midland Division (formed from
6th Division)
X Corps: commanded by Sir
Thomas Morland :*Lancashire Division (formed from
32nd Division) :*Eastern Division (formed from
34th Division) Cavalry Division (formed from
1st Cavalry Division) Most of these units were progressively dissolved, so that by February 1920, there were only regular battalions: :*1st Battalion
Royal Irish Regiment :*4th Battalion
Worcestershire Regiment :*2nd Battalion
Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) :*1st Battalion
Middlesex Regiment :*3rd Battalion Middlesex Regiment :*1st Battalion
Durham Light Infantry In August 1920,
Winston Churchill, as Secretary of State for War, told
Parliament that the BAOR was made up of approximately 13,360 troops, consisting of staff, cavalry,
Royal Artillery,
Royal Engineers, infantry,
machine gun corps, tanks, and the usual ancillary services. The troops were located principally in the vicinity of
Cologne at an approximate cost per month of £300,000.
The Cologne Post was a newspaper published for members of the BAOR during this period. From 1922 the BAOR was organised into two brigades: •
Field Marshal Lord Plumer 1918 to 1919 • General Sir
William Robertson 1919 to 1920 • General Sir
Thomas Morland 1920 to 1922 • General Sir
Alexander Godley 1922 to 1924 • General Sir
John Du Cane 1924 to 1927 • General Sir
William Thwaites 1927 to 1929
Cold War (1945–1991) Viscount Montgomery recording a radio broadcast, to mark the change over of the
British Liberation Army to the British Army of the Rhine.|alt= The second British Army of the Rhine was formed on 25 August 1945 from the
British Liberation Army. Its original function was to control the corps districts which were running the military government of the British zone of
Allied-occupied Germany. After the assumption of government by civilians, it became the command formation for the troops in
West Germany only, rather than being responsible for administration as well. As the potential threat of
Soviet invasion across the
North German Plain into
West Germany increased, BAOR became more responsible for the defence of West Germany than its occupation. It became the primary formation controlling the British contribution to
NATO, after the formation of the alliance in 1949. Its primary combat formation was
British I Corps. From 1952, the Commander-in-Chief of the BAOR was also the commander of NATO's
Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) in the event of a general war with the Soviet Union and its
Warsaw Pact allies. The BAOR's
50 Missile Regiment Royal Artillery was formerly armed with
tactical nuclear weapons, including the
MGM-52 Lance surface-to-surface tactical nuclear missile.
39 Missile Regiment and 24 Missile Regiment were also equipped with
MGM-52 Lance and
MGR-1 Honest John nuclear missiles. In October 1954 HQ BAOR relocated from
Bad Oeynhausen to
Rheindahlen. There were significant reductions in the force in 1955-58. British financial difficulties grew in the autumn of 1957, with gold and dollar reserves falling significantly further. As a result of continuing financial pressures, "Britain secured NATO's and [the] WEU's agreement to a second reduction in BAOR from 63,500 to 55,000 men (about 7 brigade groups) for FY1958/9." In 1967, the force was reduced in strength to 53,000 soldiers, compared with 80,000, ten years earlier. There were a series of exercises in BAOR in 1975 under the code name "Wide Horizon" to test the new small-division organisation as thoroughly as possible in command post and field training exercises. It culminated in a field exercise involving elements of two divisions. Following the exercises BAOR was reorganised from three to four divisions in January 1978. By 1984 the BAOR was the largest overseas deployment of British troops. While troops numbers in
Hong Kong and the
Falkland Islands numbered 9,000 and 2,500 respectively, the BAOR had 50,000 soldiers stationed in Germany, with a further 150,000 Germans working for the BAOR. The direct public expenditure cost of this force was about £2.6 billion in 1984. In 1979 the
Provisional Irish Republican Army and the
Irish National Liberation Army began a series of
terror attacks against British personnel in Germany and Northern Europe. For example, in March 1987 thirty-one people were injured by a
car bomb at Rheindahlen.
Post 1994 With the end of the
Cold War, the 1993
Options for Change defence cuts resulted in BAOR being reduced in size, and in 1994 it became
British Forces Germany (BFG). This force, roughly 25,000 strong, was divided between
Headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps,
1st Armoured Division, other combat support and combat service support forces, and administrative elements headed by
United Kingdom Support Command (Germany). Garrisons which closed at this time included
Soest (home of the
6th Armoured Brigade),
Soltau (home of the
7th Armoured Brigade), and
Minden (home of the
11th Armoured Brigade). Following the
2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the permanent deployment of British Army units in Germany was reduced. The last military base was handed to the German
Bundeswehr in February 2020.
Commanders-in-chief The commanders were: • Field Marshal
Viscount Montgomery 1945 to 1946 • Lieutenant General Sir
Richard McCreery 1946 to 1948 • Lieutenant General Sir
Brian Horrocks 1948 • Lieutenant General Sir
Charles Keightley 1948 to 1951 • General Sir
John Harding 1951 to 1952 • General Sir
Richard Gale 1952 to 1957 • General Sir
Dudley Ward 1957 to 1960 • General Sir
James Cassels 1960 to 1963 • General Sir
William Stirling 1963 to 1966 • General Sir
John Hackett 1966 to 1968 • General Sir
Desmond Fitzpatrick 1968 to 1970 • General Sir
Peter Hunt 1970 to 1973 • General Sir
Harry Tuzo 1973 to 1976 • General Sir
Frank King 1976 to 1978 • General Sir
William Scotter 1978 to 1980 • General Sir
Michael Gow 1980 to 1983 • General Sir
Nigel Bagnall 1983 to 1985 • General Sir
Martin Farndale 1985 to 1987 • General Sir
Brian Kenny 1987 to 1989 • General Sir
Peter Inge 1989 to 1992 • General Sir
Charles Guthrie 1992 to May 1994 (command disbanded)
Garrisons •
Bergen-Hohne Garrison •
Osnabrück Garrison •
Westfalen Garrison ==See also==