JHQ(Joint Headquarters)Rheindahlenwas a military base inMönchengladbach,North Rhine-Westphalia,Germanyactive from 1954 to 2013. It functioned as the main headquarters forBritish forces in Germanyand for theNATONorthern Army Group.Latterly it was also known as the Rheindahlen Military Complex, part ofRheindahlen Garrison.It was named after the local village ofRheindahlen,part of the city borough of Mönchengladbach.
| JHQ Rheindahlen | |
|---|---|
| Mönchengladbach | |
 JHQ Rheindahlen | |
  JHQ Rheindahlen Location within Germany | |
| Coordinates | 51°10′35″N6°19′18″E/ 51.17639°N 6.32167°E |
| Type | Headquarters and barracks |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Ministry of Defence |
| Operator |  British Army |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1952 |
| Built for | War Office |
| In use | 1952-2013 |
| Garrison information | |
| Occupants | British Forces Germanyand NATO national contingents |
History
editIn 1952, work began on the British Forces Maintenance Area West of the Rhine. Part of the project included the construction of a jointBritish ArmyandRoyal Air Forceheadquarters for theBritish Army of the Rhine(BAOR) in Rheindahlen. Colonel Henry Grattan was Chief Engineer of the construction project.[1]
HQ BAOR moved fromBad OeynhausentoRheindahlenin October 1954, centralising headquarters functions previously located across several towns in Northern Germany. It was originally the HQ of theNorthern Army Group(NORTHAG),Second Allied Tactical Air Force(2ATAF),British Army of the Rhine(BAOR) andRoyal Air Force Germany(RAFG). Some 12,000 military personnel moved to the "town within a town" in a few weeks.[2]
By the early 1970s the facilities in the complex included aNAAFIsuperstore and a smallerNAAFIstore (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),YWCABookshop, 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 aBelgianschool. There was one secondary school (initially Queens upper & lower until the senior school moved toHostert Waldniel,later returning to JHQ and recombining asWindsor School.[3]
JHQ was first bombed by theProvisional IRAin 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 fromBelfastwere arrested but their leader, reported to beJames McCann,escaped.[4]
Thirty-one people were injured on 23 March 1987 after a 300 lb (140 kg)car bombexploded near the visitors officers' messat the top of Queens Avenue.[5]The Provisional IRA later stated it had carried out the bombing.[5]
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 theAllied Rapid Reaction Corps(ARRC), which relocated toImjin BarracksinGloucestershirein 2010.[6][7]
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 toBielefeldin July 2013. The Rheindahlen military complex was handed back to German federal authorities on 13 December 2013.[8]
In July 2015 some Arab investors submitted proposals to convert the site to a leisure park.[9]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.[10]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.[11]
Headquarters and units
editA number of separate HQs and units were based at the JHQ complex during its time as a British and NATO base, these included:
Headquarters
edit- HQNorthern Army Group(NORTHAG)
- HQ2nd Allied Tactical Air Force(2 ATAF)
- HQBritish Army of the Rhine(BAOR)
- HQRAF Germany(RAFG)
- HQUnited Kingdom Support Command (Germany)(UKSC(G))
- HQBritish Forces Germany(BFG)
- HQACE Rapid Reaction Corps(ARRC)
- HQMultinational Division (Central)(MND(C))
Individual units and organisations
edit- British Services Security Organisation (Germany)[12]
- Intelligence & Security Group (Germany)[13][14]
- 16 Signal Regiment
- Support Battalion, HQ ARRC
- 32 Postal & Courier SquadronRoyal Engineers
- 101 Provost CompanyRoyal Military Police[15]
- 68 SquadronRoyal Corps of Transport[16]
- 29 CompanyWomen's Royal Army Corps[17]
- Various NATO national support elements
See also
editReferences
edit- ^"Grattan, Col Henry (1903-1997)".Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.King's College London.Retrieved14 November2013.
- ^"Sixty years ago was the laying of the cornerstone for JHQ".Queens School Rheindahlen. Archived fromthe originalon 10 August 2014.Retrieved9 August2014.
- ^"End of era for JHQ Rheindahlen schools]".BFBS.17 July 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 6 October 2013.
- ^Chronology[permanent dead link]at digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu. Retrieved 23 Feb 2014.
- ^ab"30 hurt as car bomb hits Army base".BBC News.23 March 1987.Retrieved1 January2010.
- ^"Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps".They work for you.Retrieved9 August2014.
- ^"Joint Headquarters Rheindahlen begins to say goodbye - GOV.UK".www.gov.uk.Retrieved8 June2017.
- ^"JHQ eine Fotoausstellung".Stadt Mönchengladbach(in German). Archived fromthe originalon 4 May 2012.Retrieved4 February2014.
- ^Ralf Jüngermann (4 July 2015)."Mönchengladbach: JHQ: Freizeitpark für 1,5 Milliarden Euro?".RP ONLINE.Retrieved16 April2016.
- ^Inge Schnettler (21 September 2015)."Mönchengladbach: JHQ: Erschließungsarbeiten für die zentrale Flüchtlingsaufnahme".RP ONLINE.Retrieved17 April2016.
- ^RP online (27 March 2015)."Fotos: Das JHQ wird zur Flüchtlingsunterkunft".RP online.Retrieved16 April2016.
- ^Graaf, Beatrice de; Jong, Ben de; Platje, Wies (2007).Battleground Western Europe: Intelligence Operations in Germany and the Netherlands in the Twentieth Century.Het Spinhuis.ISBN9789055892815.Retrieved8 June2017.
- ^Bijl, Nick Van Der (2013).Sharing the Secret: The History of the Intelligence Corps 1940-2010.Pen and Sword.ISBN9781473833180.Retrieved8 June2017.
- ^"JHQ".www.baor-locations.org.Retrieved8 June2017.
- ^"British Army units from 1945 on - Provost Companies 101 to 169".british-army-units1945on.co.uk.Retrieved8 June2017.
- ^Grieve, Michael (22 July 2015)."'Now That I am a Civilian', Lieutenant Colonel Michael Grieve ".Currie Balerno.Retrieved8 June2017.
- ^"WRAC - Regiment History, War & Military Records & Archives".www.forces-war-records.co.uk.Retrieved8 June2017.