101 Signal Group
101
Verbindingsgroep (101 Vbdgp)
Operational Role:
The Corps Area Communications System | ZODIAC
| Unit |
Location |
Peace
Strength |
War
Strength |
Staff
and Staff Detachment
101 Signal Group |
Stroe |
14/13/25
(52)
|
19/24/38/2
(83) |
| 107 Radio
Company [a] |
Stroe |
8/32/158
(198) |
8/33/231
(272) |
| 11
Signal Battalion |
Staff
and Staff Detachment
11 Signal Battalion |
Arnhem |
10/8/25 (43) |
12/20/91/2
(125) |
| 115
Divisional Signal Operations Company [b] |
Stroe |
7/25/119
(151) |
7/25/128
(160) |
| 130 Area
Signal Company |
Arnhem |
6/30/119
(155) |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 131 Area
Signal Company |
Arnhem |
6/30/119
(155) |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 132 Area
Signal Company [c] |
– |
– |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 133 Area
Signal Company [d] |
– |
– |
6/31/126
(163) |
| 41
Signal Battalion |
Staff
and Staff Detachment
41 Signal Battalion |
Harderwijk |
10/8/25 (43) |
12/20/91/2
(125) |
| 116
Divisional Signal Operations Company [e] |
Harderwijk |
7/25/119
(151) |
7/25/128
(160) |
| 140 Area Signal
Company |
Harderwijk |
6/30/119
(155) |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 141 Area Signal
Company |
Harderwijk |
6/30/119
(155) |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 142 Area Signal
Company [f] |
– |
– |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 143 Area Signal
Company [g] |
– |
– |
6/31/126
(163) |
| 106
Signal Battalion |
Staff
and Staff Detachment
106 Signal Battalion |
Ede |
10/8/25 (43) |
12/20/91/2
(125) |
| 114 ATS
Detachment [h] |
Ede |
4/27/17 (48) |
5/48/29 (82) |
| 120 Area
Signal Company |
Ede |
6/30/119
(155) |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 121 Area
Signal Company |
Ede |
6/30/119
(155) |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 122 Area
Signal Company |
Ede |
6/30/119
(155) |
6/32/135
(173) |
| 123 Area
Signal Company [i] |
– |
– |
6/31/126
(163) |
| 108
Signal Battalion |
Staff
and Staff Detachment
108 Signal Battalion |
Stroe |
10/8/25 (43) |
8/8/27/2
(45) |
| 117 Corps Signal Operations Company [j] |
Stroe |
7/26/93
(126) |
7/29/107
(143) |
| 118 Corps Signal Operations Company [k] |
Stroe |
7/26/93
(126) |
7/29/107
(143) |
| 119 Corps Signal Operations Company [l] |
Stroe |
9/34/153
(196) |
9/35/165
(209) |
| 150
Divisional Signal Operations Company [m] |
– |
– |
7/24/126
(157) |
| 101
Signal Group Peace Strength: 145/450/1710 (2305) |
| 101 Signal Group
War Strength: 190/744/2853/10 (3797) |
Notes
| a. |
Played an important
role in (Close) Air Support operations.1
|
| b. |
Likely to be assigned to 1 Division "7
December" in wartime.2
|
| c. |
RIM
company, filled by
the mobilisable personnel that had formed 131 Area Signal
Company in their active-duty
period between four and twenty months prior to mobilisation.3 14 |
| d. |
RIM
company, filled by
mobilisable personnel
that had
fulfilled their active-duty period in 130 Area Signal Company between four and twenty months prior to mobilisation.3 14 |
| e. |
Likely
to be assigned to 4 Division in wartime.4 |
| f. |
RIM
company, filled by
mobilisable personnel that had
fulfilled their active-duty period in 141 Area Signal Company between four and twenty months prior to mobilisation.3 14 |
| g. |
RIM
company, filled by
mobilisable personnel that had
fulfilled their active-duty period in 140 Area Signal Company between four and twenty months prior to mobilisation.3 14 |
| h. |
ATS: Automatisch Telegrafie Systeem, an automated telex
system developed by Philips and HSA (Hollandse Signaal
Apparaten) in the late 1970s. 114 ATS Detachment operated three, in
wartime probably four ATS centres (Dutch military designation TTC-4809).5 |
| i. |
RIM
company, filled by
mobilisable personnel that had
fulfilled their active-duty period in 120 Area Signal Company between four and twenty months prior to mobilisation.3 14 |
| j. |
Would set up and
operate the staff signal centre for the command post of 1
(NL) Corps.6 |
| k. |
Would
set up and operate the staff signal centre for the reserve command post
of 1 (NL) Corps.6 |
| l. |
Would
set up and operate the staff signal centres for the command posts of 1
(NL) Corps Artillery and Corps Logistic Command.6 |
| m. |
RIM
company until mid-1985, filled
by
mobilisable platoons that had fulfilled their active-duty period
in 115
Divisional Signal Operations Company
between
four
and twenty
months prior to mobilisation. After mid-1985 the
company lost its RIM status, retaining the same personnel until 1988.3
14 Likely to be assigned to 5 Division in wartime.7
|
Operational Role: The Corps Area
Communications System 8
The
primary mission of 101 Signal Group in wartime would be to set up and
sustain the
main component of corps communications, the corps
area-communications system (legerkorpsrayonverbindingssysteem).9
This was a mobile grid-type tactical area communications network,
comprising
- Twelve
mobile area signal centres, serving as the trunk nodes of the network,
interconnected through link-encrypted 30-channel radio relay links
which carried telephone and telex traffic. Each area
communications
centre (rayonverbindingscentrum, rvcen), set up and operated
by an area signal
company, was able to maintain twelve link-encrypted radio
relay
links (of which
generally six 30-channel and six 15-channel) and set up and operate one
relay
station. Each centre would be linked to at least two other
centres. The area signal company operating the centre
would send out up to five staff signal detachments that would
link major units
and formations to the network (see below), whilst lower level units
within the area of the centre would be able to connect to the
network
by their own
means.
- Staff
signal detachments sent out by the area signal
centres for the staffs of
- - 101
Signal Group, including relocation reserve;
- - 1
(NL) Corps Administrative Centre;
- - The
brigades, including relocation reserves;
- - The field
artillery groups, including relocation reserves;
- - 101 Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group,
including relocation reserve;
- - 101 and 201 Engineer Combat Group;
- - Other
outfits such as logistic units, reconnaissance or engineer
battalions, special staffs or units, as needed;
- - Adjoining Allied formations or units, or formations placed under corps command.
- Three
divisional staff signal centres
(stafverbindingscentrums, stvcen), including relocation reserves,
serving
as access nodes in the network, one for each division, each set up and
operated by a divisional signal operations company.
- Three
corps-level staff signal centres (stafverbindingscentrums,
stvcen), including relocation reserves, serving
as access nodes in the network for 1
(NL) Corps Staff, 1
(NL) Corps Artillery
Staff and Corps Logistic Command Staff, set up
and operated by the three corps signal operations companies.
- An automated telex system, set up and
operated by 114 ATS Company, comprising two to four mobile ATS
centres, each of which would be attached and linked to an area signal
centre.
- Syscon
(System Control), incorporated in 101 Signal Group Staff
Detachment. As needed, elements of Syscon would be attached to area
signal
centres.
The corps area
communications system would be augmented and supplemented as needed
with combat net radio, line and messenger subsystems. In
addition the system could tap into both the Dutch and
the West German civil telephone and telex networks (of PTT
and DBP respectively).10 The (hierarchical)
combat net radio
subsystem would in principle serve as a backup for
the radio relay communications described above, whilst the messenger
subsystem would be used where
other means of communications would be inefficient or impossible. The
line subsystem would still be of importance, not only to avoid
enemy electronic warfare measures such as radio jamming, but also
because the multitude of radio nets
within 1 (NL) Corps was
expected to cause interference problems. Radio silence would be
maintained as long as operationally feasible, with communications
running through an extensive line network, to be laid out through the corps sector by the line teams
of the area signal companies as soon as 1
(NL) Corps had
deployed.11 Vast quantities of
cable and line had been forward-stored in depots in West Germany for
this purpose.
One mobile area signal centre, in the rear of the corps sector,
would maintain communications with Royal Army
Signal Command
in the Netherlands through a troposcatter radio link. This enabled
direct and secure communications between Commander, 1
(NL) Corps and Commander-in-Chief
of the Army.
<
Possible configuration of
the corps area communications
system (schematic, partial)
Possible deployment of the corps area communications system
(main elements)
12
ZODIAC
13
Since 1979 the
Royal Army was in the process of implementing ZODIAC, a
complete automated mobile tactical communications system that
was being developed
by HSA, with Philips and GTE Products Corporation as
subcontractors. ZODIAC was the acronym for Zone, Digitaal, Automatisch,
Cryptografisch Beveiligd
(Zone, Digital, Automatic, Cryptographically Secured).
Designed in accordance with EUROCOM standards it would
be connectible to and partly interoperable with
several
other Allied communication systems, such as AUTOKO
(West
German), PTARMIGAN (British) and RITA (French). In June 1987 ZODIAC
successfully connected with the other systems used in the Northern
Army Group (NORTHAG) for the first time.
ZODIAC was
introduced in five phases, of which the first
two had been completed in 1980, involving the digitisation and
link-encryption of the radio relay network (see previous section)
and
the automation of all
telex traffic (see note h above). The implementation of phase three,
the
automation of all telephone traffic, and phase four, the
addition of
more nodes to the network, commenced after 1985 and took
well into the early 1990s to be completed. The last
phase,
which would involve the incorporation of sub-divisional staffs
and
mobile users into the network through Single Channel Radio Access
(SCRA), was never realised.
From
the above it becomes apparent that in 1985 the corps area
communications system was only half-modernised. Telephone exchange was
still operated manually, and despite the new radio relay
network
and automated telex system it still took too long to establish
connections (often more than five minutes), whilst, moreover, staffs
and units regularly found
themselves disconnected from the network altogether for longer
periods
of time.
<
_________________________________________________
| 1. |
|
Elands et al., Van telegraaf,
184-185, 230. < |
| 2. |
|
Elands,
Van Gils en Schoenmaker, Geschiedenis
1 Divisie, 237. Schulten, Zwitzer en
Hoffenaar, 1 Divisie,
153. < |
| 3. |
|
NIMH 205A/10,
Aflossing van
mobilisabele eenheden en
-aanvullingen d.d. 11 november 1983.
Ibid., d.d. 17
juni 1985. <
|
| 4. |
|
Felius, Einde Oefening, 161. < |
| 5. |
|
Elands et al., op.
cit., 206. Website 114 Ats, Verguisd
en geprezen. < |
| 6. |
|
Elands et al., op.
cit., 184,
236, 254-255. < |
| 7. |
|
Ibid., 183. < |
| 8. |
|
VS 2-1392/11, 3-3 t/m
3-5, Hoofdstuk 5, Bijlage C. VS 11-12, 7-1 t/m 7-5, 8-1. VS 11-50,
passim. Elands et al., op.
cit., Hoofdstuk vijf t/m zeven. Van de Fliert, PTT
op wielen, 8-9. < |
| 9. |
|
The corps
communications system (legerkorpsverbindingsstelsel) further
included combat net radio (sub)systems, a line communications system
and messenger
subsystems. VS 2-1392/11, 3-4 t/m
3-5. VS 11-12, 7-2. < |
| 10. |
|
PTT:
Posterijen, Telegrafie en
Telefonie. DBP: Deutsche
Bundespost. In peacetime PTT and DBP prepared for military
use of their telephone and telex lines. VS 11-12, 5-4 t/m 5-5. VS
11-50, 2-7. < |
| 11. |
|
The maldeployment
problems of 1 (NL) Corps
become apparent in this respect as well. <
|
| 12. |
|
Elands et al., op. cit., 228. < |
| 13. |
|
Elands et al., op. cit., 202-207,
223-227, 235-239. Hoffenaar en Schoenmaker, Met de blik, 318,
402-403. Raggett, Jane's Military Communications, 837. Huijsman, Geboorte,
53-55. Omlo, Afscheid,
36-37. Wennekes, Zodiac,
109-115. Website Crypto Museum,
ZODIAC. < |
| 14.
|
|
RIM was
the Dutch acronym for Direct Influx into Mobilisable Units (Rechtstreekse
Instroming in Mobilisabele Eenheden). For a survey of the
Royal Army's unit filling and reserve system see Gijsbers, Blik
in de smidse, 2222-2231;
Selles,
Personele
vulling;
Berghuijs, Opleiding,
14-23. In English: Isby and Kamps, Armies,
341-343; Sorrell, Je
Maintiendrai, 94-96; Van
Vuren, The
Royal Netherlands Army Today, Military Review April 1982, 23-28. < |
|