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41
Armoured Brigade
41
Pantserbrigade (41 Pabrig)
| Unit |
Main Equipment |
Location |
Peace
Strength |
War
Strength |
Staff
and Staff Company
41 Armoured Brigade |
|
Seedorf
(GE) |
26/34/116
(176)
|
31/35/148/2
(216) |
| 41 Tank Battalion |
Leopard 2 |
Hohne
(GE) |
38/95/407 (540) |
37/98/443/2 (580) |
| 43 Tank
Battalion |
Leopard 2 |
Langemannshof
(GE) |
38/95/407
(540) |
37/98/443/2
(580) |
| 42
Armoured Infantry Battalion | YPR-765 | Seedorf
(GE) | 39/126/699
(864) | 43/126/716/2
(887) |
| 41 Armoured
Engineer Company [a] |
|
Seedorf
(GE) |
8/25/132
(165) |
7/27/182
(216) |
| 41 Field
Artillery Battalion [b] |
M109A2/A3 |
Seedorf
(GE) |
41/96/332
(469) |
30/94/436/2
(562) |
| 41
Armoured Antiaircraft Artillery Battery [c] |
PRTL, Stinger |
Langemannshof
(GE) |
9/33/104
(146) |
10/42/133
(185) |
| 41
Brigade Supply
Company |
| Seedorf
(GE) | 5/20/142
(167) | 7/27/265
(299) | | 828
Transport Detachment [d] |
| Seedorf
(GE) | 2/5/50
(57) | 1/5/50
(56) |
| 41
Brigade Repair
Company [e] |
|
Seedorf
(GE) |
11/72/273
(356) |
6/49/194
(249) |
| 611 Materiel Support Platoon Leopard 2 [f] |
|
Seedorf
(GE) |
1/7/24 (32) |
1/7/23 (31) |
| 125 Repair Company (Corps) [f] |
|
Hohne
(GE) |
6/38/115
(159) |
8/41/151
(200) |
| 503 Materiel Support Platoon PRTL [f] |
|
Hohne
(GE) |
1/8/19 (28) |
1/12/29 (42) |
| 41
Brigade Medical Company |
|
Seedorf
(GE) |
12/19/118
(149) |
19/21/144/2
(186) |
Notes
| a. | Brought up to (near)
war strength in January 1986 by placing the Short Leave platoon on active duty, which increased peace strength to 8/28/166 (202).1 | | b. | A
Battery was not stationed in Seedorf (GE) but in Oirschot (NL), serving as School Battery for B and C Battery.2 | | c. | Peacetime organisation; under command of 15 Armoured Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion in wartime. | | d. | Peacetime organisation; under command of 105 Transport Battalion, Corps Logistic Command in wartime. Under
direct command
of the Brigade in June 1985, by December 1985 placed under the command
of 41 Brigade Supply
Company. | | e. | Unit strengths shown are per July 1985; by December 1985 peace
strength had dropped to 8/52/192 (252) and war
strength to
8/47/173 (228). | | f. | Peacetime organisation; under command of Corps Logistic Command in wartime. 125 Repair Company (Corps) (in full: 125 Repair
Company Corps Support Battalion) was formed in September 1985 and had
taken 503 Materiel Support
Platoon PRTL
under command by December 1985. At that time 41 Brigade
Repair
Company
likewise had taken 611 Materiel Support
Platoon Leopard 2 under its
command.
Hitherto these two materiel support platoons had
been under direct command of the Brigade. |
Force
Profile
Together with 103 Reconnaissance Battalion
and 41
Engineer Battalion, 41
Armoured Brigade (reinforced) constituted the forward-deployed
element of 1
(NL) Corps
in West Germany.
In
terms of fire power, materiel, readiness and unit cohesion the
brigade certainly appears to have been the Royal Army's most capable
fighting force.3
The Leopard 2 main battle tank was arguably the best operational main
battle
tank
available at the time, whilst the YPR-765, thought perhaps
dismissible as
"the poor man's Bradley", was nonetheless a veritable infantry fighting
vehicle, rather than an armoured personnel carrier like the M113
or the YP-408.4 The brigade's officers and sub-officers were kept
knowledgeable about Warsaw Pact
military
organisation and tactics and periodically reconnoitered
the deployment areas, which had been charted in
detail for their
suitableness to support defensive, counter-offensive and
engineer operations.5 Conscript personnel serving in
Germany were picked more selectively
than those
serving in the Netherlands: for each batch of 120 conscripts needed to
fill one of 42 Armoured Infantry Battalion's line companies for
instance, 200 men were selected,6 who
would go through a further sifting process during the first four months
of basic training.7 Readiness
was high, with units permanently kept on a six hour
alert
status and
the
main body of the brigade brought up to near war
strength: 42 Armoured Infantry Battalion, 41 and 43 Tank Battalion and
41 Armoured Antiaircraft Artillery Battery had no
subunits on Short
Leave, whilst 41 Armoured Engineer Company was likewise brought up to near war strength in January 1986.8 The selective intake of personnel and the distance
from home, combined with a restricted
system of leave, created a sense of unity and interdependence that was
felt to be greater than in units based in the Netherlands.9 All this seems to have payed off in at
least some ways, as both in national
and international military competitions it were often the Germany-based
units
that
performed best.10
The Brigade's
Role in the Corps Covering Force
In
case of an actual or impending attack by Warsaw Pact forces, 41 Armoured
Brigade was to cover the approach march
and deployment of the rest of
1 (NL) Corps to its sector in West Germany and, if
necessary, fight an aggressive delaying battle to win time: the covering force battle.
In this role the brigade formed the nucleus of the covering
force (CF),11
the
composition of which changed over time as concepts of operation
evolved and reorganisations were implemented. A permanent factor in the
covering force was the assistance of 3 (GE) Armoured Division,
a role necessitated by the maldeployment
of 1 (NL) Corps. In case of alarm this division would take 41 Armoured
Brigade, 103
Reconnaissance Battalion and 41 Engineer Battalion under command and
secure the
Dutch corps sector until the bulk of 1 (NL) Corps would
arrive, which would take at least forty-eight hours but probably longer. Until relieved the reinforced German division
would operate under the command of 1 (NL) Corps.12
In 1979 the staff of 1 (NL) Corps had felt confident to give the
mobilisable 5 Division, recently mechanised and improved in readiness,
a
prominent
role in the
covering force battle.13 As soon
as possible the staff of 5 Division was to relieve 3 (GE) Armoured Division by
taking 41 Armoured Brigade under command and reinforcing it with 13 Armoured
Brigade and 52 Armoured Infantry Brigade,
which together would then form the covering force. Whether these reinforcements would
arrive from the Netherlands in time, and whether they would be able
to fulfill this
important and difficult role remained questionable however, especially regarding the
mobilisation-dependent components
from 5 Division.14
Covering Force, 1 (NL) Corps Sector, 1979-1985
In
July 1985 the staff of 1 (NL) Corps implemented a new plan of
operations which reflected a more realistic view on the readiness of
its formations and that of 5 Division in particular. Taking into
account the possibility of a surprise attack by the Warsaw
Pact's
large standing forces,15 it was
recognised that 5 Division, given its maldeployment and mobilisable
status, would likely not be able to play any effective role in the covering force operations. The new
covering
force, again under the operational command of 3 (GE) Armoured Division, would now
comprise 103 Reconnaissance Battalion, 3 (GE) Reconnaissance Battalion,
41 Armoured Brigade and 2 (US) Armored Division (Forward).16
This force was to fight the delaying
battle between the Inner German Border and the
Elbe-Seitenkanal (the Covering Force Area) for at least twenty-four hours, hopefully
enabling 1
(NL) Corps to deploy behind it.17
Covering Force, 1 (NL) Corps Sector, 1985-1989
_________________________________________________
| 1. | | NIMH 430, inv. nr. 55 (Slagorde KL stand 23 december 1985). SSA-MvD, CLAS/BLS 7643,
Memorandum Realisatie Legerplan 120-1B d.d. 22 maart 1985. < | | 2. | | A Battery serving as school battery: website 41AFDVA.NET, Geschiedenis van de 41e Afdeling Veldartillerie and other pages. < | | 3. | | For a somewhat wistful retrospect, see Matser, Untergang, 556-557. < | | 4. | | At this time the American M1 Abrams was still armed with a 105 mm rather
than a 120 mm
gun, whilst the British
Challenger had serious problems with its
fire control system. Zaloga, Abrams, 11.
Dunstan, Challenger,
16-23. "Bradley" refers to the American M2 Bradley infantry fighting
vehicle. For an overview of the YPR-765 in Royal Army service see
Staarman, De YPR-765. < | | 5. | | Bosch, Inzetbaarheid,
139. Elands et al., 250 jaar,
201. Felius, Einde Oefening,
306.
<
| | 6. | | Van de
Worp, 42 Schoolcie,
36. This selection took place after the
regular draft,
which would select about two men in each three called up. Isby
and Kamps, Armies,
325. < | | 7. | | Van de
Worp, loc. cit. < | | 8. | | Bosch, op. cit.,
139. Additional measures to increase the readiness of the troops in
Germany were underway: the Short Leave company of 41 Engineer Battalion
would be placed on active-duty in September 1986 (SSA-MvD,
CLAS/BLS 7643, op. cit.), and in October 1986 the
storage of materiel for the Short Leave
components of 103 Reconnaissance Battalion and 41 Field Artillery
Battalion would be centralised in Seedorf. SSA-MvD, CLAS/BLS 7643,
Memorandum Realisatie Legerplan
120-3B d.d. 22 maart 1985. < | | 9. | | Asbeek, Griffioen Special,
14, 39,
41. NIMH, D1499 DPL in BRD (army information film) (1988), 04:45, 07:28,
30:30. Restricted system of leave: in cycles of ten weeks
there was one long and one short period of leave (long
period: ten days,
including two weekends; short period: from
Friday to Monday). During
weekends, which began on Saturday at noon, readiness was ensured by
roll calls. Asbeek, op. cit., 23. Bosch, op. cit., 139. < | | 10. | | In 1985 A Squadron, 43 Tank Battalion won
the Canadian
Army Trophy (CAT), a biennial international tank
gunnery competition
amongst the armoured forces of NATO countries in Western
Europe.
In the next edition (CAT '87) C
Squadron, 43 Tank Battalion ended in fourth place overall whilst
achieving the highest score of NORTHAG participants.
At CAT '89 the trophy was won by A
Squadron, 41 Tank Battalion. Rens, Het Regiment Huzaren,
253. Zaloga,
Tank War,
51. Website
43 Tankbataljon, Canadian Army Trophy. Website
Mihalko, Canadian Army Trophy Competition
(lists all CAT scores from 1963 to 1991). In
1985 a team from 103 Reconnaissance Battalion became third in the
Boeselager Trophy, a German competition for reconnaissance units, out
of twenty-two participating teams from nine countries. Anonymus, 103 Verkenningsbataljon, 32. Teams from that
battalion came second in 1984, third in 1980, fourth in 1983 and fifth
in 1981and 1987 (website http://run.to/boreel, now defunct). Felius
reports that 42 Armoured Infantry Battalion "nearly
always" won the Generaal Bartelsbeker, the
national competition
for armoured infantry units (Felius, op. cit.,
232). < | | 11. | | In Dutch: beveiligende strijdmacht (bsm). VS 2-1120/2, II-6. VS 2-7200 (1983), toelichting bij bijlage 1 en 2, bijlage 1-3. Elands, Van Gils en Schoenmaker, Geschiedenis 1 Divisie,
213. < | | 12. | | Elands et al., op. cit.,
227. 3 (GE) Armoured Division temporarily under command of 1 (NL) Corps: information kindly provided by O.W. Dragoner. For a detailed order of battle of 3
(GE) Armoured Division in 1989, see Dragoner, Bundeswehr, Teil 2.1, 59-65. < | | 13. | | 5
Division was mechanised and restructured between 1975 and
September 1979 (Operatie Omega), the new mobilisation plan of 1979 advanced its mobilisation
by calling up one brigade in each of the three mobilisation phases,
rather than mobilising all three brigades in the last phase. Hoffenaar en Schoenmaker, Met de blik, 346. De Jong en Hoffenaar, Op herhaling, 115. Schoenmaker, 5 Divisie, 304-305. < | | 14. | | Hoffenaar en
Schoenmaker, op. cit., 355. Elands, Van Gils en Schoenmaker, loc. cit. Elands et al., op. cit.,
227.
De Jong en Hoffenaar, op. cit., 115. < | | 15. | | See 1 (NL) Corps, footnote 19. <
| | 16. | | This was the official
designation of 3rd Brigade, 2nd (US) Armored Division in its role as
forward-deployed element of III (US) Corps. Isby and Kamps, Armies, 373, 455.
Website U.S. Army in Germany, 2nd Armored Division (Forward). In 1989 the American
brigade was withdrawn from the covering force. Elands,
Van Gils en Schoenmaker, op. cit., 250. For a detailed order of battle of 2nd Armored Division (Forward)
in 1989, see Dragoner, Die Streitkräfte der USA, 51-53. < | | 17. | | For this paragraph: Hoffenaar
en Schoenmaker, op. cit., 384. Elands,
Van Gils en Schoenmaker, op. cit., 249. De Jong en Hoffenaar, op. cit., 115-116. < |
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