Home to HQ ARCC from 1994 to 2010 (1)
Also home to:
Headquarters Intelligence and Security Group (Germany) was located in Rheindahlen and comprised the following units:
2 Intelligence Company – Rheindahlen
3 Intelligence and Security Company – Berlin
4 Security Company – Dusseldorf (with Sections/Detachments in Emblem, Dusseldorf, Münster, Dortmund and Rheindahlen)
5 Security Company -Plathnerstrasse, Hannover
6 Intelligence Company – Rheindahlen
7 Intelligence Company – Bielelfeld (with Sections/Detachments in Verden, Hohne, Soltau, Lubbecke, Korbecke, Soest, Paderborn, Osnabruck, Münster, Herford).
Claims NW Europe 1992-2000? (1)
(1) Change of title to Area Claims Office NW Europe sometime around 2000. Responsible for Germany, Benelux, France, Norway, Austria and a few more countries.
A pen and ink/pencil drawing of the front of the building can be found here
JHQ under construction, July 1953.
THE NEW HEADQUARTERS – extract from The History of the Corps of Royal Engineers Volume X 1948-1960
In 1952 work began on the British Forces Maintenance Area West of the Rhine and project planning also started in July for a new combined Army/RAF HQ Colonel H Grattan was appointed CE (Special) for this project in August 1952, and preliminary work began in October A full account of the planning and building of this large HQ complex appeared in the RE Journals of March and June 1956, but it would be appropriate to give some record of the extent of the work There was a main office block 300 yards long by 180 yards wide with three storeys to provide nearly 2,000 offices There were sixty-five barrack blocks for British military and German civilians, and over 1,100 married quarters, all heated by district heating There were schools for 720 infants and 400 secondary school children; three churches, two cinemas and a swimming pool to Olympic standards Playing fields with pavilions were laid down to grass and some 7 million tree roots were grubbed out for these and for open spaces and roads There were NAAFI buildings, shops, stores and officers’ messes with single quarters, five dining halls, an officers’ club, clubs for warrant officers and sergeants and for other ranks The complex was designed to accommodate over 7,000 British and Allied servicemen and a civilian population (mostly German) of about 2,500 for ancillary services; a township of approaching 10,000 The site was the Rheindahlener Wald, a forest of about 1,000 acres without access roads; and great care was taken to preserve trees where possible and to provide a layout of scenic attraction The first priority was to lay the permanent roads, water supply mains and to provide electricity to give access and services for building contractors Twenty kilometres of road had to be built and 1,000 miles of pipes laid for water supply, heating, gas, electricity, sewage disposal and all that goes therewith All buildings were heated from two large boiler houses supplying district heating through seventeen calorifier stations The exploitation and development of the water supply was described in the RE Journal of March 1957 Colonel Grattan had the gift of water divining and was able to find an ample source of good water for the camp, independent of existing German supplies Four wells were bored and a water-works erected on site An important feature of the project was that it had to be built quickly since it had to be finished before Germany achieved sovereign status This was the condition upon which financial approval had been accorded because, after that date, the cost would fall upon the British taxpayer and not on the German support costs In the event, two years covered the period from the inception of the plan to the completion of the buildings; by any standards this must be judged a creditable achievement HQ BAOR moved from Bad Oeynhausen to its new HQ at Rheindahlen in October 1954 and established HQ Northern Army Group there
NB: The Big House/Kremiln was originally built for the new NATO Headquarters and contained at one end HQ BAOR and British led Headquarters Northern Army Group (HQ NORTHAG) Comprising the 1st British Corps, a German Corps with its HQ in Munster, a Belgian Division in the Rhineland, a Dutch Division south of the River Elbe and for a time the Canadian Brigade The other end was HQ RAF (G) and Headquarters 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force (HQ 2 ATAF)
(1) HQ Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) was formed in 1992 from the redundant HQ 1 (BR) Corps in Bielefeld but moved to Rheindahlen in 1994 and back to the UK (former RAF Innsworth near Gloucester renamed Imjin Barracks) last year
JPW
A snow covered JHQ in Jan 1985
Courtesy of Major Ian Dudding
Courtesy of Mr David Skitt
Courtesy of Mr Simon Moore
Courtesy of Mr Simon Moore
A street within JHQ showing the typical post war, low buildings of the 1950s.
Courtesy of Mr Simon Moore
I was at JHQ. Chief Clerk C Training Company, we were a bit further down the main road past the big house on the left. We were responsible for ensuring that all the Big House Staff did their annual BFTs/Wpns tests etc etc. (irrelevant of rank which was interesting at times!)
The OC was Major Cann, D&D; CSM was Sherwood Foresters; the Q was MCPSs o we were a right mix. I was also involved in the organisation of the Annual Rheindahlen Marches!
I had married quarters in Wickrath.
Tony Nuttall