British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) was the name given to two British Army formations of the same name. Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, the first after the First World War and the other, active after the Second World War and during the Cold War, eventually becoming part of NATO's contribution to allied forces there. Both formations had areas of responsibility located around the German section of the River Rhine.
During the Cold War, the second formation was attached to NATO'sNorthern Army Group (NORTHAG) and tasked with defending the North German Plain, in the northern part of West Germany, from the armies of the Warsaw Pact. The BAOR by then constituted the bulk of British forces in West Germany, and was a part of British Forces Germany (BFG). The BFG was made up of elements of the three services based in West Germany, and the BAOR controlled the elements of the Army stationed there.
Formal group photograph of British and French officers and commissioners outside the house of the Commander-in-Chief Allied Armies of Occupation, Marienberg18th Hussars in Cologne, 6 December 1918.Field Marshal Lord Plumer, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief the British Army of the Rhine, taking the salute from the 29th Division entering Cologne by the Hohenzollern BridgeTwo tanks passing through Cologne for inspection by the VI Corps Commander, General Aylmer Haldane, June 1919
The first British Army of the Rhine was set up 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:[1]
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.[2]The Cologne Post was a newspaper published for members of the BAOR during this period.[3]
From 1922 the BAOR was organised into two brigades:[1]
The second British Army of the Rhine was formed on 25 August 1945 from the British Liberation Army.[5] 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 Germany only, rather than being responsible for administration as well.[6]
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.[7] In 1967, the force was reduced in strength to 53,000 soldiers, compared with 80,000 ten years earlier.[8]
United Kingdom
British Army
