Army group
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An army group is a military organization (formation) consisting of several field armies, and is supposed to be self-sufficient for indefinite periods. An army group is usually responsible for a particular geographic area. In the Soviet Union an army group was called a "front". An Army Group is the largest field organization handled by a single commander in modern warfare, and usually includes between 400,000 and 1,500,000 troops.
Army groups may be multi-national formations. For example in 1944–45 during the Second World War, the Southern Group of Armies (U.S. 6th Army Group) was comprised of the US Seventh Army and the French First Army; and Montgomery's 21st Army Group was comprised of the British Second Army, the Canadian First Army, and the US Ninth Army.
[edit] World War II
In April 1943 the previously informal British-United States collaboration in the European Theater was strengthened by the establishment in London of a formal planning headquarters called Chief of Staff Supreme Allied Command, or COSSAC, and in February 1944 this headquarters was replaced by the final interallied headquarters for the Theater—Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). Under SHAEF, headed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the elaborate activities of planning, supply, training, and military-diplomatic consultation went forward to prepare for the forthcoming invasion. Although General Eisenhower also became (in January 1944) the commanding general of the European Theater of Operations United States Army, the staff organizations of SHAEF and ETOUSA were distinct. Each headquarters as a rule had its own staff sections manned by separate personnel. The staff organization in SHAEF was headed by the Chief of Staff and had as an important officer the Secretary of the General Staff. The G-2 and G-3 divisions of SHAEF, which comprise a portion of this accession, functioned according to the United States War Department General Staff pattern.
Five interallied ground commands known as Army Groups had operational control, under SHAEF, of the British, Canadian, French, and United States Armies in the European Theater--the Twenty- first Army Group, the Fifteenth Army Group, the Twelfth Army Group, the Sixth Army Group, and the First Army Group. Other organizations that approximated Army Groups were used in the Pacific Theater, but not named as such.
[edit] NATO 'Army Groups'
During the Cold War, NATO land forces in what was designated the Central Region (most of the Federal Republic of Germany) would have been commanded in wartime by two 'Army Groups'. Under Allied Forces Central Europe and alongside air force elements, the two Army Groups would have been responsible for the defence of Germany against any Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion. These two Principal Subordinate Commanders (PSCs) had only limited peacetime authorities, and issues such as training, doctrine, logistics, rules of engagement (ROE), etc., were largely a national, rather than Alliance, responsibility.
The two formations were the 'Northern Army Group' (NORTHAG) and the 'Central Army Group' (CENTAG). By World War II and previous standards these two formations were only armies, as they contained four corps each.[1] NORTHAG consisted, from north to south, of I Netherlands Corps (I (NE) Corps), I German Corps (I (GE) Corps), I (BR) Corps, and I Belgian Corps (I (BE) Corps). Its commander was the British commander of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). CENTAG consisted, from north to south, of III GE Corps, V US Corps, VII US Corps, and II (GE) Corps in the extreme south of the Federal Republic of Germany. The commander of the U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army commanded CENTAG.
In November 1991, the NATO heads of state and government adopted the "New Strategic Concept" at the NATO Summit in Rome. This new conceptual orientation led among other things, to fundamental changes both in the force and integrated command structure. Structural changes began in June of 1993, when HQ Central Army Group at Heidelberg, and Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) at Mönchengladbach, GE were deactivated and replaced by Headquarters Allied Land Forces Central Europe (LANDCENT), which was activated at Heidelberg on 1 July 1993.
[edit] See also
- ^ David C Isby & Charles Kamps Jr, Armies of NATO's Central Front, Jane's Publishing Company Limited, 1985
