101 Engineer Combat
Group 1
101
Geniegevechtsgroep (101 Gnggp)
Operational Role | Atomic Demolition Munitions
Unit |
Location |
Peace
Strength |
War
Strength |
Staff
and Staff Company
101 Engineer Combat Group [a] |
Wezep |
18/27/80
(125)
|
24/37/122/2
(185) |
11
Engineer Battalion [b] |
Wezep |
29/73/374 (476) |
31/89/552/2 (674) |
41
Engineer Battalion [c] |
Seedorf
(GE) |
29/74/376
(479) |
31/89/551/2
(673) |
103
Engineer Battalion [d] |
– |
– |
31/88/555/2
(676) |
462 Engineer
Battalion [e] |
– |
– |
31/88/555/2
(676) |
105
Pontoon Bridge Company [f] |
Wezep |
6/21/125
(152) |
5/21/134
(160) |
104 Medium
Girder Bridge Company [g] |
– |
– |
5/14/72
(91) |
108 Diver Platoon [h] |
Wezep |
1/10/34
(45) |
1/11/44
(56) |
102
Construction Machine Company |
Wezep |
6/22/121
(149) |
6/26/166
(198) |
107 Dump
Truck Company |
Wezep |
4/13/76 (93) |
5/14/115
(134) |
101 NBC
Decontamination Company |
Wezep |
4/17/81
(102) |
5/21/113
(139) |
111
Special Assignments Platoon [i] |
Wezep |
2/6/37 (45) |
2/6/40 (48) |
101 Engineer Combat Group Peace Strength: 99/263/1304 (1666) | 101 Engineer Combat Group War Strength: 177/504/3019/10 (3710) |
Notes
a. |
This unit included a terrain documentation group in charge of
collecting, filing and keeping up-to-date all engineering-relevant
information on the corps sector in West Germany. The resulting terrain
documentation archive (terdoc-archief) increasingly held general
military geographic information as well and would, over the years, grow to be the main provider of such information for 1 (NL) Corps.2 | b. | Likely to be
assigned to 1
Division "7
December" in wartime.3
| c. | Likely to be assigned to 4 Division in wartime.3 4 In September 1986 the battalion was brought up to (near)
war strength by placing the Short Leave
company on active duty.5 | d. | GRIM
battalion, largely filled by mobilisable companies and platoons that
had fulfilled their active-duty period in 41 Engineer Battalion up to
twenty months prior to mobilisation.6 18 | e. | GRIM
battalion, largely filled
by mobilisable companies and platoons that had fulfilled their
active-duty period in 11 Engineer Battalion up to twenty
months prior to mobilisation.6 18 | f. | Equipped with German hollow-deck bridge materiel (Hohlplattenbrücke). Probably under the command of 201 Engineer Combat Group in wartime for bridging operations on the Weser and/or Aller rivers.7 | g. | Filled by personnel from the general pool of mobilisable
reserves
(vrij-indeelbaar bestand) that had fulfilled their active-duty
period in relevant functions up to eight and a half years prior to mobilisation.6 Most
or all of these reserves would have served their active-duty period in
the medium girder bridge group of 11 or 41 Engineer Battalion.8 | h. | Formed in 1982.9
| i. | This unit
was
to enable the deployment of US Army nuclear land mines (referred to as
Atomic Demolition Munitions or ADM) in the Netherlands corps sector by providing the necessary transport, field storage, security, communications and
engineer support.10 For such operations 111 Special Assignments Platoon would in wartime be reinforced with
a detachment from 567th (US)
Engineer Company, based in Hanau (GE), and an armoured infantry platoon.11 This combined
outfit, designated the ADM Detachment, would be placed under operational command of Commander, 1 (NL) Corps whilst executive command would lay with the divisional
or brigade
commander in whose area of responsibility the weapon(s) would be used. The emplacing, priming and
detonation of the devices would be carried out by specialist teams
from the aforementioned US Army engineer detachment.12 The ADM were stored under US Army Custody, possibly in Hanau (GE) or Sögel-Lahn (GE).13 See further the Atomic Demolition Munitions section below. |
Operational Role
In
the first few days after mobilisation 101 Engineer Combat Group would
be occupied preparing the corps sector for defence by
creating defensive positions and executing a variety of barrier and
obstacle plans. The forward-deployed
41 Engineer Battalion would be assisted in these operations by
engineer units from I (GE) Corps until the remainder of 101 Engineer Combat Group would arrive.14
Once war would have broken out the tactical situation would determine the group's further operations, as its
units were not capable of combat engineering and thus had to stay clear of advancing enemy formations.1 Subsequent operations were expected to be focused on keeping open tactically and logistically important roads in the corps sector. This would include the Corps Rear Area until 201 Engineer Combat Group was mobilised and ready to take over the responsibility of engineering operations there.15 <
Atomic Demolition Munitions
Atomic
Demolition Munitions, first allocated to 1 (NL) Corps in 1962, were designed to block or channel enemy
forces by creating massive obstructions for which the necessary conventional means
would be unavailable or insufficient. In 1977 the ADM allocated to 1 (NL) Corps included both Medium Atomic Demolition
Munitions (MADM), with reported yields of 0.5, 1, 5, 8, 10, and 15 kilotons (W45
warhead), as well as Special Atomic Demolition Munitions (SADM),
which were man-portable and are reported to have had variable yields in the range of 0,01 to
1 kiloton (W54 warhead).16
As can be gathered from note i above, the ADM were
property of the United States and would remain under US Army control at all times. Any
request for the detonation of ADM had, ultimately, to be decided
upon by the president of the United States. The request sequence was
probably identical or similar to the procedures to authorise a
nuclear mission for the dual capable artillery.
By 1985 ADM had become both technically obsolescent and politically controversial. Following NATO's Montebello Decision of 1983, which
reduced the number of nuclear warheads in Europe, the ADM were
withdrawn, as a consequence of which 111 Special
Assignments Platoon was disbanded in 1986.17 <
_________________________________________________
1. | | It should be noted that the designation Engineer Combat
Group is somewhat delusive: this formation
type and its subordinate units were neither designed
nor equipped for combat engineering; see for instance VS 5-154, I-1.
In 1975 the more adequate designation Geniegroep was
reverted to the previously used Geniegevechtsgroep,
apparently because it was an (internally) well established designation
and the new one caused confusion. NL-HaNA 2.13.110 inv. nr. 267,
Naamswijziging geniegevechtsgroep, 1975. | 2. | | Elands
et al., 250 jaar,
201. Huysman en Duijnhouwer, Terreinkennis, 227. | 3. | | Elands
et al., op. cit.,
201, 226. | 4. | | Felius,
Einde Oefening,
161. | 5. | | SSA-MvD, CLAS/BLS 7643, Memorandum Realisatie Legerplan 120-1B d.d. 22
maart 1985. | 6. | | NIMH 205A/10,
Aflossing van
mobilisabele eenheden en
-aanvullingen d.d. 11 november 1983.
Ibid., d.d. 17
juni 1985. | 7. | | Hoffenaar en Schoenmaker, Met
de blik, 195. Elands et al., op. cit., 192, 227, 233. | 8. | | NL-HaNA
2.13.110 inv. nr. 263, organisatietabellen en autorisatiestaten (OTAS)
staf, staf- en verzorgingscompagnieën 11 en 41 Geniebataljon, 1976.
Elands et al., op. cit., 239. In peacetime 11 and 41 Engineer
Battalion
each had one such group, comprising ± 10 men with MGB
materiel, in their staff and support company. Both groups
would go to 104 Medium Girder Bridge Company in wartime. This arrangement was transferred to 107 Dump Truck
Company in 1986 when a medium girder bridge platoon was placed on active-duty
with that unit. Ibid. | 9. | | Elands
et al., op. cit., 259. | 10. | | NL-HaNA 2.13.110 inv. nr. 1389, voorstel tot wijziging OTAS 111 Peloton
Speciale Opdrachten, 1977. Elands
et al., op. cit., 195. It will be noted that the details of
ADM operations as given on this page are based on the aforementioned
NL-HaNA document from 1977; changes may have been implemented between that year and 1985. It will further be observed that the wartime role of 111 Special Assignments
Platoon was not dissimilar to the supporting role of 23 Royal Army Detachment in the operations of the dual-capable artillery.
| 11. | | NL-HaNA 2.13.110 inv. nr. 1389, op. cit. It is worth noting that in this 1977 document, being a proposal to reorganise and enlarge 111 Special
Assignments Platoon, the commander of 1 (NL) Corps finds this
unit to be unable to fulfill its wartime role adequately. One
of the issues observed was the need
for an armoured infantry
platoon to be attached in a security role (then permanently
assigned to a platoon from 43 Armoured Infantry Battalion),
an
arrangement that was found to be highly problematic for both
the armoured infantry battalion involved as well as for the ADM
Detachment itself. Other issues found were deficiencies in the
platoon's control, communications and transport capabilities. Being
not quite contemporary,
this information is given for what it is worth; it is
however apparent
that the corps commander's proposal to reorganise 111 Special
Assignments Platoon into a company-size unit with its own
security-role
infantry was not followed through.
| 12. | | Ibid. In 1977 the
567th (US) Engineer Company fell under the 130th
(US) Engineer Brigade in Frankfurt (GE); for nuclear release procedures
it fell under 552nd US
Army Artillery Group (552nd USAAG) in Sögel (GE).
At this time the arrangement was that in wartime 567th (US) Engineer
Company would detach two five-men ADM Emplacing Teams and
one ADM Control headquarters to 1 (NL) Corps, which units
would be incorporated in the abovementioned ADM Detachment. Ibid. Isby and Kamps, Armies,
375. Website U.S. Army in Germany, Engineer Division. | 13. | | In
1982 it was thought that about fifteen ADM were earmarked for deployment in
the 1 (NL) Corps sector, and that these were stored in Sögel-Lahn (GE). Anonymus, Opslag en transport, 23, 25, 55. This location seems plausible given the involvement of 552nd US
Army Artillery Group (see footnote 12). The Stockholm
International Peace Research Institite (SIPRI) estimated the total
number of ADM stored in Western Europe at about three hundred. Ibid., 23. | 14. | | These initial engineer operations, under operational command of 3 (GE) Armoured Division, would involve 41 Engineer Battalion, 41 Armoured Engineer Company,
3 and 120 (GE) Engineer Battalion and the three armoured engineer
companies of the West German division. Elands et. al., op. cit.,
227-228. See also 41 Armoured Brigade, Operational Role: The Corps Covering Force. For a detailed order of battle of I (GE) Corps and 3 (GE) Armoured Division in 1989, see Dragoner, Bundeswehr, Teil 2.1. | 15. | | For this section: Elands et al., op. cit., 227-228, 232-233. | 16. | | NL-HaNA 2.13.110 inv. nr. 1389, op. cit. Elands et al., op. cit., 195. Cochran,
Arkin and Hoenig, Nuclear
Weapons, 38, 52, 60. Mechtersheimer und
Barth, Militarisierungsatlas,
342. Website The Nuclear Weapon Archive, Complete List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons (the W54 is referred to as Mk-54 SADM there). For reference: the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 had
a yield of 15 to 16 kilotons. Ibid. | 17. | | Elands et al., op. cit., 270. Hoffenaar en Schoenmaker, op.
cit., 375, 398. Training of new personnel for 111 Special Assignments Platoon ceased as of August
1985. HTK 1984-1985, kamerstuknr. 18600 X ondernr. 54.
The disbandment of the platoon enabled 43 Armoured
Engineer Company to be placed on active duty in September
1986. Elands et
al., op. cit., 270. Hoffenaar en Schoenmaker, op. cit., 398. | 18. | | RIM was
the Dutch acronym for Direct Influx into Mobilisable Units (Rechtstreekse
Instroming in Mobilisabele Eenheden). GRIM was a variant of
this system, meaning "Largely RIM" (Grotendeels
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. |
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