There will be no changes to personnel numbers, resourcing, cap badges or locations. When limited objective attacks provoked little response on the morning of the 25th, the division commander Major General Leland Hobbs formed two mobile task forces to make deeper thrusts with an eye toward punching through the defense altogether and breaking deep into the German rear. It became the primary formation controlling the British contribution to NATO after the formation of the alliance in 1949. The bridgehead expanded rapidly, and by 2 May Lbeck and Wismar, 4050 miles (6480km) beyond the river, were in Allied hands, sealing off the Germans in the Jutland Peninsula. By sending armored spearheads around hotly contested areas, isolating them for reduction by subsequent waves of infantry, Eisenhower's forces maintained their eastward momentum. In a double envelopment, the French captured Stuttgart on 21 April, and by the next day, both the French and the VI Corps had elements on the Danube. 30-06-2021 12:05:06 ZULU, 1st (United Kingdom) Division (1 (UK) Div) with its blend of lighter infantry, logistics, engineers and medics will provide more strategic choice and a range of capabilities, conducting capacity building, stabilisation operations, disaster relief and UK resilience operations. 211 Mobile Civilian Artisan Group, Royal Engineers. Combat Support units: These units provide support to the combat units in the combat zone. The crossings would be preceded by several weeks of aerial bombing and final massive artillery preparation. Soon there is more line in the German defense. 21st Army Group gave their strength on 5 May 1945 excluding US forces as 9248 tanks and 6584 guns. Battle Royal. A heavy bombing campaign by USAAF and RAF forces, known as the "Interdiction of Northwest Germany", designed primarily to destroy the lines of communication and supply connecting the Ruhr to the rest of Germany had been underway since February. During peacetime these regiments were under command of their brigade. During the First World War the army was active on the Western Front throughout most of the war and later active in Italy. This consisted of: 10th Infantry Brigade Group11th Infantry Brigade Group12th Infantry Brigade Group. The importance of quickly obtaining a deep bridgehead was increased by the fact that the first access to a decent road network was over 6 miles (9.7km) inland at the town of Gro-Gerau. While retaining its operational focus, the intention is to rebalance the Armys formations in order to meet the challenges of constant competition and maintain its high-end warfighting capability. 6th Division focuses on Cyber, Electronic Warfare, Intelligence, Information Operations and unconventional warfare through niche capabilities such as the Specialised Infantry Battalions.". 31 General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps, 82nd Field Medical Equipment Depot, Royal Army Medical Corps, Dsseldorf, 382nd Field Medical Company, Royal Army Medical Corps. [47], Initially, the opposition in the 6th U.S. Army Group's sector was stiffer than that facing the 12th U.S. Army Group. Uniquely and rather confusingly, the Infantry, which is a collection of regiments, was organized in 1957 into Brigades, which were not fighting formations but rather provided depots for training recruits to the three or four regiments within the Brigade. The Western Allied invasion of Germany was coordinated by the Western Allies during the final months of hostilities in the European theatre of World War II. The three infantry battalions were rotated every two years, and the armoured squadron was detached from a BAOR armoured regiment based in West Germany. The initial assault waves crossed the river quickly, meeting only light opposition. "The ETO", a term generally only used to refer to American forces in the Western European Theater, fielded 42,000 pieces of artillery; American forces comprised approximately 2/3 of all Allied forces during the campaign. The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), which was responsible for the northern portions of the central front in West Germany, had been judged to be capable of holding out for as little as two days. Again, these Divisions were not fighting formations, but like the earlier Brigades, provided depots for centralised training of recruits to the units within the Division. During 1988 the disposition of brigades in Northern Ireland changed: On 1 July 1988 3rd Infantry Brigade reformed at Armagh and became responsible for the UK-Ireland border zone from Armagh to South Londonderry. [25], Perhaps the most compelling reason for increasing the emphasis on this southern drive had more to do with the actions of Americans than those of Germans. [1][2] The most authoritative source for this type of information available is Ministry of Defence (Army Department), Master Order of Battle, (ASD 6500-25 Ministry of Defence, 1991)[3][4][5] and United Kingdom Land Forces, HQ UKLF, UKLF ORBAT Review Action Plan, HQ UKLF, 1990. Simpson, in turn, ordered a combat command of the 2nd Armored Division, which had just reached Beckum, to make a 15mi (24km) advance southeast to Lippstadt, midway between Beckum and the stalled 3rd Armored Division spearhead. During the Cold War NORTHAG was NATO's forward defence in the Northern half of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Buschwhose main unit was the German 1st Parachute Army was to form the right-wing of the German defenses. Also during this year on 1 April, 11th Armoured Division was reorganised into 4th Infantry Division. [5] Its original function was to control the corps districts which were running the military government of the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany. Meanwhile, Operation Widgeon began 2 miles (3.2km) north of Wesel as the 2nd Army's 1st Commando Brigade slipped across the river and waited within 1 mile (1.6km) of the city while it was demolished by one thousand tons of bombs delivered by RAF Bomber Command. The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) and the Royal Air Force Command constituted Great Britain's armed forces in Germany and were one of the main pillars of the NATO defence doctrine on West German soil. The Defence Operations Executive, led by the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Commitments) and including the Assistant Chiefs of the Naval, General, and Air Staffs, supervised the Joint Operations Centre which in turn passed orders to the forces in Cyprus, Belize, the Falklands, and Hong Kong. A captain of the 506th wrote, "At one point the men were so weary that [on] the order to rest . Field-Marshal Montgomei*y's British 2nd Army has becorfie the phantom force of the Western Front. The same day, in response to the 3rd Army's robust showing in the Saar-Palatinate region, and to have another strong force on the Rhine's east bank guarding the 1st Army's flank, Bradley gave Patton the go-ahead for an assault crossing of the Rhine as soon as possible. US General George Marshall estimated about 263,000 German battle deaths on the Western Front for the period from 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945, or a longer period. No breakdown of these figures between the various battlefronts was provided. [38], In the center of the Allied line, Eisenhower inserted the new 15th Army, under U.S. 12th Army Group control to hold the western edge of the Ruhr Pocket along the Rhine while the 9th and 1st Armies squeezed the remaining German defenders there from the north, east, and south. [13], Last edited on 18 December 2022, at 00:36, Headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps, 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, "From occupiers and protectors to guests", "British army hands back last headquarters in Germany", "British Army of the Rhine Order of Battle July 1989", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Army_of_the_Rhine&oldid=1128028113, This page was last edited on 18 December 2022, at 00:36. [25], To the south in the Saar-Palatinate region, Patton's U.S. 3rd Army had dealt a devastating blow to the German 7th Army and, in conjunction with the U.S. 7th Army, had nearly destroyed the German 1st Army. . While Montgomery was carefully and cautiously planning for the main thrust in the north, complete with massive artillery preparation and an airborne assault, American forces in the south were displaying the kind of basic aggressiveness that Eisenhower wanted to see. 12th Royal School of Military Engineer Regiment Corps of Royal Engineers. The Field Army rebalancing is part of the Armys response to the emerging Defence thinking and will create a Field Army of integrated, interdependent and complementary formations from 1 Aug 2019. In the center of the front, defending the Ruhr, Kesselring had Field Marshal Walther Model commanding Army Group B (15th Army and 5th Panzer Army) and in the south Paul Hausser's Army Group G (7th Army, 1st Army and 19th Army). 221st (BAOR) EOD Company, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Communications Zone Ordnance Depot, Antwerp, Belgium, Forward Stores Depot, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Dulmen. Page last modified: Drawing on the experience gained during the campaign in Normandy and the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, the Western Allies demonstrated in western Germany and Austria their capability of absorbing the lessons of the past. Regimental headquarters are administrative and ceremonial in nature. The British Army is the land warfare branch of the British Armed Forces. Seeing this equipment moving up, his frontline soldiers did not need any orders from higher headquarters to tell them what it meant. british army of the rhine order of battle. There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine ( BAOR ). BAOR had command of four Areas or Districts: I Corps District; General Eisenhower's Armies were facing resistance that varied from almost non-existent to fanatical[54] as they advanced toward Berlin, which was located 200km (120mi) from their positions in early April 1945. German military historian Rdiger Overmans (, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 21:59. Both formations had areas of responsibility located around the German section of the River Rhine. The Order of Battle (OrBat) shows the formation of the forces that were in Operation Veritable in the beginning of February 1945. . For administrative purposes these units were under command of brigade HQ based in the UK during peacetime. This was the first major . It will include: 4th (Infantry) Brigade, 7th (Infantry) Brigade, 11th (Infantry) Brigade, 51st (Infantry) Brigade, 8th Engineer Brigade, 102nd Logistic Brigade, 104th Logistic Brigade, 2nd Medical Brigade, 3rd (United Kingdom) Division (3 (UK) Div) will remain as the Armys primary armoured warfighting force comprising: 1st Armoured Infantry Brigade, 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade, 20th Armoured Infantry Brigade, 1st Artillery Brigade, 101st Logistic Brigade, 25th Engineer Group, 7th Air Defence Group, 6th (United Kingdom) Division. [38], On 28 March, as these developments unfolded, Eisenhower announced his decision to adjust his plans governing the future course of the offensive. 1st Artillery Brigade (Hildesheim)HQ/Signals Battery (Hildesheim)2 x Heavy Field Artillery Regiments (Hildesheim)2 x Missile Artillery Regiments (Hildesheim)7th Air Defence Brigade (Dortmund)11th Engineer Brigade (Hameln)With September in 1976 came the creation of the Artillery Division. On 6 May, the Polish 1st Armoured Division seized the Kriegsmarine naval base in Wilhelmshaven, where General Maczek accepted the capitulation of the fortress, naval base, East Frisian Fleet and more than 10 infantry divisions. Experienced Defence Supply Chain Manager and Health & Safety Practitioner with over 10 years demonstrated history of effective operations management with a strong working knowledge of the UK Defence Management of Health and Safety (JSP 375), Army Risk Assessments, and the subsequent methodological management of risk controls required for personnel that are arguably most exposed to health and . Deutsche Kriegs-gefangene des Zweiten Weltkrieges. 1st Armoured Division Transport Regiment, Royal Corps of Transport, 1st Ordnance Battalion, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Verden, 7th Armoured Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Fallingbostel, 12th Armoured Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Osnabrck, 1st Armoured Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, Bergen-Hohne, 2nd Armoured Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps, Osnabrck, 111th Provost Company, Royal Military Police, Bergen-Hohne, HQ 7th Armoured Brigade & 207th Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Soltau, HQ 12th Armoured Brigade & 212th Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Osnabrck, HQ 22nd Armoured Brigade & 201st Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Bergen-Hohne, 10 (Assaye) Air Defence Battery (under command of Field regiment for admin), HQ 3rd Armoured Division & Signal Regiment, Royal Signals, Soest, 13th Postal & Courier Squadron, Royal Engineers, Soest. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. The idea was that each Division would have 2 Task Forces , which . Captain Murray S. Pulver, commander of Company B, 120th Infantry Regiment, was in his usual placethe thick of the fighting. 44th District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, HQ South-West District & 243 (Southern) Signal Squadron, Royal Signals, Bulford, Permanent Planning Group Joint Force Headquarters, Bulford. However, Montgomery believed that the paratroopers would quickly link up with the advancing river assault forces, placing the strongest force within the bridgehead as rapidly as possible. [8] These districts controlled the regular army brigades in the UK (inc 1st and 5th Brigades) and the predominantly TA regional brigades. Retrieved 9 October 2021. [45], Meanwhile, on the 12th U.S. Army Group's southern flank, the 3rd Army had advanced apace, moving 30mi (48km) eastward to take Erfurt and Weimar, and then, by 12 April, another 30mi (48km) through the old 1806 Jena Napoleonic battlefield area. However, concerned that the bypassed Germans would flood much of the nation and cause complete famine among a Dutch population already near starvation, Eisenhower approved an agreement with the local German commanders to allow the Allies to air-drop food into the country in return for a local ceasefire on the battlefield. 14th Independent Topographic Squadron, Royal Engineers. [58], For their part, captured German soldiers often claimed to be most impressed not by American armor or infantry but by the artillery. Only when Soviet artillery was falling around his Berlin headquarters bunker did he begin to perceive the final outcome. The best introduction to the regimental system of the British army. Similarly, the term Corps can be applied toa maneuver headquarters that controls multiple divisions (no such entity was active as of 2012) or a administrative headquarters for units in afunctional area, broadly similar to the US Army's Branches. Seventh and Third Armies) into southeastern Germany and Austria. During transition to war, the support units of BAOR would have formed the British Rear Combat Zone headquartered in Dsseldorf, which would have supplied the fighting forces and guarded the lines of communication within West Germany. British Army, Master Order of Battle 1991 Forces within the United Kingdom. 4th (NATO) Postal & Courier Regiment, Royal Engineers, Berlin Postal and Courier Troop, Royal Engineers. 1st Division provides specialist soldiers and equipment to develop other nations armies, deal with disaster and humanitarian crises worldwide and enable our warfighting division. Despite the Russian proximity to Berlin, they argued that the city was still a critical political, if not military, objective. Further West in Belgium was the British Communications Zone, which was headquartered in Emblem, outside Antwerp and tasked with receiving reinforcements and supplies from Great Britain and to co-ordinate their onward movement to 1 (BR) Corps. During the three days leading up to Montgomery's attack, targets in front of the 21st Army Group zone and in the Ruhr area to the southeast were pummeled by about 11,000 sorties, effectively sealing off the Ruhr while easing the burden on Montgomery's assault forces. [35], To the south, the discovery of a defensive gap in front of the 30th Infantry Division fostered the hope that a full-scale breakout would be possible on 25 March. The BAOR at this point still consisted of 80,000 troops.1956 Saw more major changes to the BAOR. [61] According to the Chicago Tribune, "over the decades, Germans' attitudes toward the war have evolved from a sense of defeat to something far more complex". 40th Army Engineer Support Group, Royal Engineers. The German forces there were simply in less disarray than those to the north. The professional head of the British Army is the Chief of the General Staff. This is known as the Central Europe Campaign in United States military histories. [20], The Allied forces along this line were organized into three army groups. The Allied invasion of Germany east of the Rhine started with the Western Allies crossing the river on 22 March 1945 before fanning out and overrunning all of western Germany from the Baltic in the north to the Alpine passes in the south, where they linked up with troops of the U.S. Fifth Army in Italy. To accomplish this, he had to move quickly. Up until now, if you have played a war game on the pc it's probably been a top-down hex game that's turn based, makes absolutely no use whatsoever of your machine's graphics and sound capabilities. The . Here the Germans turned a thick defense belt of antiaircraft guns against the American ground troops with devastating effects. Denying this opportunity became another argument for rethinking the role of the southern drive through Germany. 1, which began with "We come as a victorious army, not as oppressors." With his escape route to the south severed by the 12th Army Group's eastward drive and Berlin surrounded by the Soviets, Hitler committed suicide on 30 April, leaving to his successor, Grand Admiral Karl Dnitz, the task of capitulation. These figures do not include POWs that died or were released during this period. For operational tasks a battle group would be formed around a combat unit, supported by units or sub-units from other areas. [55] This later caused some friction with the Yugoslav forces, notably around Trieste. 3.15 p.m.) LONDON, Mar. Even before the encirclement had been completed, the Germans in the Ruhr had begun making attempts at a breakout to the east. Completing the Allied line to the Swiss border was the 6th Army Group commanded by Lieutenant General Jacob L. Devers, with the U.S. 7th Army (Alexander Patch) in the north and the French 1st Army (Jean de Lattre de Tassigny) on the Allied right, and southernmost, flank. During the Second World War the army was the main British contribution to the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 and advance across Europe . At the Battle of Rolia (17 August 1808), the first battle fought by the British army during the Peninsular War, [5] an Anglo-Portuguese army under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated an outnumbered Imperial French division under General of Division Henri Franois Delaborde, near the village of Rolia in Portugal. At the same time, General Devers' 6th U.S. Army Group would move south through Bavaria and the Black Forest to Austria and the Alps, ending the threat of any Nazi last-ditch stand there. Its new location was in the towns of Iserlohn and Soest, as the previous occupants (The Canadian Brigade) had moved to southern GermanyBy 1973, 1 (BR) Corps consisted of: 1st Division (Verden)7th Armoured Brigade (Soltau)11th Infantry Brigade (Minden)2nd Division (Lbbecke)4th Guards Infantry Brigade (Mnster)12th Mechanised Brigade (Osnabrck)4th Division (Herford)6th Armoured Brigade (Krbecke)20th Armoured Brigade (Detmold). Eisenhower, supported by the American Chiefs of Staff, disagreed. By early 1945, events favored the Allied forces in Europe. With all passes to the Alps now sealed, however, there would be no final redoubt in Austria or anywhere else. The main thrust beyond the river was to be made in the north by Montgomery's 21st Army Group, elements of which were to proceed east to a juncture with the U.S. 1st Army as it made a secondary advance northeast from below the Ruhr River. Despite scattered resistance from a few isolated units, the war in Europe was over. In that time, the Company has released a number of well-received projects that cut across the diecast spectrum, from big and beefy 1:32 scale tanks to pose-able 1:72 scale WWII-era fighters. Thousands of prisoners were being taken every day; from 16 to 18 April, when all opposition ended and the remnants of German Army Group B formally surrendered, German troops had been surrendering in droves throughout the region. Unfortunately, because of pressure from the Germans in the northern part of the 2nd Army bridgehead, the British were having trouble completing their bridges at Xanten and were, therefore, bringing most of their traffic across the river at Wesel. 64th Rear Combat Zone Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. There are: VG Division the newly introduced Volks (People's) Grenadier Divisions. Several other patrols from the 69th had similar encounters later that day, and on 26 April the division commander, Maj. Gen. Emil F. Reinhardt, met Maj. Gen. Vladimir Rusakov of the Soviet 58th Guards Rifle Division at Torgau in the first official link-up ceremony. The U.S. III Corps, in the center, did not commit its armor on the first day of the breakout, but still made a gain of 4mi (6.4km). This change will be integrated within broader Defence, national and alliance efforts and enable the Field Army to operate and fight more effectively above and below the threshold of conflict. Still, despite the terrain and German machine-gun and 20 millimetres (0.79in) anti-aircraft cannon fire, VIII Corps troops managed to gain control of the east bank's heights, and by dark on 26 March, with German resistance crumbling all along the Rhine, they were preparing to continue the drive the next morning. 608th Signal Troop (Cipher Equipment), Royal Signals, 68th Transport Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport, JHQ Rheindahlen. The 9th Army's commander, Lieutenant General William Hood Simpson and the Second Army's Lieutenant-General Dempsey took exception to this approach. It included the four military members of the Army Board, including the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir John Chapple in 1989, the Second Permanent Under Secretary, and the Assistant Chief of the General Staff, a major general. Eisenhower thus turned his attention to other objectives, most notably a rapid meet-up with the Soviets to cut the German Army in two and prevent any possibility of a unified defense. Such reinforcement units are indicated in the list below in italics followed by the higher command they were to reinforce in Germany in brackets. On the whole, Western Allied plans were excellent as demonstrated by how rapidly they met their objectives. [34], For the American crossing, Simpson had chosen the veteran 30th and 79th Infantry Divisions of the XVI Corps. More reorganisation was implemented in January 1978 with the creation of 3rd and th Armoured Brigades. British Order of Battle Mid 1980 In 1980 the British Army was still organised in the Task Force system. First, his headquarters received reports that Soviet forces held a bridgehead over the Oder River, 30 miles (48km) from Berlin. All units within the service are either Regular (full-time) or Territorial Army (part-time), or a combination with sub-units of each type. The events of the first few days of the final campaign would be enough to convince him that this was the proper course of action. To accomplish both objectives, Patch's 7th Army on Devers' left was to make a great arc, first driving northeastward alongside Bradley's flank, then turning south with the 3rd Army to take Nuremberg and Munich, ultimately continuing into Austria. 75 years after the infamous Battle of Arnhem, rare photos reveal terrifying death and destruction as allied troops struggle to liberate Netherlands from the Nazis. The ensuing airdrops, which began on 29 April,[52] marked the beginning of what was to become a colossal effort to put war-torn Europe back together again.[53]. The predecessor to British Forces Germany, the BAOR was active from 1919-1929, and then 1945-1994. Such an example would be a squadron of tanks attached to an armoured infantry battle group, together with a reconnaissance troop, artillery battery, and engineering support. 2nd Infantry Division was to defend the Corps Rear Area and prepare a last line of defense along the Western bank of the Weser river. The British 2nd Army advanced towards Hamburg, crossing the River Elbe on 29 April 1945 and pushing on towards Denmark and the Baltic. They include the Royal Artillery, the Royal Engineers, the RoyalSignals and the Intelligence Corps. The hoard included vast quantities of German paper currency, stacks of priceless paintings, piles of looted gold and silver jewelry and household objects, and an estimated $250,000,000 worth of gold bars and coins of various nations. In a matter of days, they would all be killed or captured. The rest of the 9th Army would remain in reserve until the bridgehead was ready for exploitation. In Berlin, the Reichsbanner resistance organization identified possible drop zones for Allied paratroopers and planned to guide them past German defenses into the city.[56]. The 9th Army's XVI Corps, which had taken up position north of the Ruhr area after crossing the Rhine, would be assisted in its southward drive by two divisions of the XIX Corps, the rest of which would continue to press eastward along with the XIII Corps. Simpson now had both the opportunity and the means to unleash the power of the 9th Army and begin in earnest the northern drive to surrounding the Ruhr. The failure of this offensive exhausted Germany's strategic reserve, leaving it ill-prepared to resist the final Allied campaigns in Europe. In Operation Eclipse, the 17th Airborne Division, 82d Airborne Division, 101st Airborne Division, and a British brigade were to seize the Tempelhof, Rangsdorf, Gatow, Staaken, and Oranienburg airfields. [32][pageneeded] The intention was to create a line from Bremen south to Neuwied. In total they were to consist of 16 Divisions in four Corps (out of the current British total in Europe of 61 and 16), together with appropriate cavalry, air resources and extended lines of communication. A battle group in the british army in the late cold war period was a task organised unit comprising of a mix of sub units commanded by either an armoured regiment or mechanised infantry battalion HQ. 158 Provost Company Corps of Royal Military Police. Late on 26 March, the 8th Armored Division began moving into the bridgehead. Antony Beevor, Inside the British Army, 1991, 429. On September 4, 1944, the unit captured the city of Antwerp. Then, on the move to West Germany would join the 1st Artillery Brigade. On that day, Eisenhower instructed Patton to halt the 3rd Army at the Mulde River, about 10mi (16km) short of its original objective, Chemnitz. [22], For several reasons, Eisenhower began to readjust these plans toward the end of March. [23], On 21 March, Army Group H headquarters became Oberbefehlshaber Nordwest ("Army Command Northwest") commanded by Ernst Busch leaving the former Army Group H commanderJohannes Blaskowitzto lead "Army Command Netherlands" (25th Army) cut off in the Netherlands. In the British Army division-level formations are administrative or deployable formations. Only a month earlier had seen the first large scale NORTHAG exercise, appropriately named, Battle Royal. 71st Movement Control Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport, 602nd Transport Unit, Royal Corps of Transport, Antwerp, Belgium. Lt Gen Jones added: "The Field Army must build on the strong foundation of the 3rd Divisions world class warfighting force. To view a summary of the British Army in 1952 please click here.During October 1954 HQ BAOR reallocated fromBad Oeynhausento Rheindalen. The Germans lacked both the manpower and the heavy equipment to make a more determined defense. These were based in various former German Army barracks in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westfalia. The British army has never excelled at swift advances, and the Guards Armoured Division mandated to dash for the Rhine was better suited to conduct last-ditch, last-man infantry defensive actions than to emulate General Erwin Rommel's panzers. 79107 (Regular Signal Squadrons, 200299). 2 Postal and Courier Regiment, Royal Engineers. 43rd District Workshop, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. But these decisions were made in good faith and had little bearing on the ultimate outcome of the campaign. 89) are: Area 1 The Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands; Area 2 Berlin. [44], The 4 April pause in the 3rd Army advance allowed the other armies under Bradley's command to reach the Leine River, about 50mi (80km) east of Paderborn. [37], Beginning the next day, 26 March, the armored divisions of all three corps turned these initial gains into a complete breakout, shattering all opposition and roaming at will throughout the enemy's rear areas. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, all Western forces were drastically reduced. While certainly incomplete (especially for the period 1120 April 1945), they reflect the ratio between casualties in both theaters in the final months of the war. 3rd Armoured Division was the corps' reserve formation. Taking up the advance again the next day, it immediately ran into stiff opposition from students of an SS panzer replacement training center located near Paderborn.