Royal Army Signal Command
Commando
Verbindingen Koninklijke Landmacht (CVKL)
Part
I | Part II |
Operational Role
Unit |
Location |
Peace
Strength |
War
Strength |
Staff
Royal Army Signal Command |
Den
Haag |
44/43/26/36 (149)
|
53/59/64/31 (207) |
541
Signal Battalion |
Staff
and Staff Detachment
541 Signal Battalion |
Deventer |
6/7/9/1
(23) |
8/5/19/1
(33) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [a] |
– |
– |
2/-/1
(3) |
A
Signal Operations Company
|
Arnhem |
2/11/109/87
(209) |
3/26/249/87
(365) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
1/19/41
(61) |
B Signal
Operations Company
|
Deventer |
1/14/87/29
(131) |
2/24/151/18
(195) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
3/9/31
(43) |
C
Signal Operations Company
|
Groningen |
1/2/20/14
(37) |
1/6/69/14
(90) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
2/15/59
(76) |
D
Signal Operations Company [c]
|
Eibergen |
6/33/119/1
(159) |
9/41/161
(211) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
3/-/10
(13) |
E
Signal Operations Company
|
Oirschot |
2/9/71/73
(155) |
4/22/220/73
(319) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
1/14/44
(59) |
Support
Company [d] |
– |
– |
4/20/94
(118) |
|
18/76/415/205
(714) |
40/204/1149/193
(1586) |
543
Signal Battalion |
Staff
and Staff Detachment
543 Signal Battalion |
De
Lier |
6/6/7/1
(20) |
8/5/19/1
(33) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [a] |
– |
– |
2/-/1
(3) |
A
Signal Operations Company
|
Den
Haag |
13/37/148/39
(237) |
17/47/255/39 (358) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
-/15/59
(74) |
B Signal
Operations Company
|
De
Lier |
3/30/143/41
(217) |
8/37/281/41
(367) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
3/16/48
(67) |
C
Signal Operations Company
|
Utrecht |
3/21/119/59
(202) |
7/33/226/59
(325) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
1/14/39
(54) |
D
Signal Operations Company
|
Breda |
2/7/48/29
(86) |
3/10/110/29
(152) |
└ Replacement Holding Detachment [b] |
– |
– |
1/9/30
(40) |
Support
Company [d] |
– |
– |
4/21/97
(122) |
|
27/101/465/169
(762) |
54/207/1165/169
(1595) |
Notes
a. |
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 five and a half years prior to mobilisation.2 |
b. |
These
replacement holding detachments were filled by mobilisable personnel
that had fulfilled their active-duty period in the companies to which
they would would be attached, up to eight and a half years prior to
mobilisation.2
3 |
c. |
Would
in wartime maintain a secure communications channel between Commander-in-Chief
of the Army and Commander, 1 (NL)
Corps
in West Germany through a tropospheric
scatter radio link (troposcatter) with the corps
area communications system. The company would also
provide
a troposcatter link between National Logistic Command and its
subordinate 201
Service Support Command in West Germany. In addition the
company handled "various international radio communications".1 |
d. |
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.2 |
Part
I | Part II |
Operational Role
Unit | Location | Peace
Strength | War
Strength |
898
Signal Battalion [a] |
Staff
and Support Company
898 Signal Battalion |
Eibergen |
4/17/11/1
(33) |
4/17/11/1
(33) |
Signal Company
|
Eibergen |
23/75/199/54
(351) |
23/75/203/54
(355) |
Electronic
Information Processing Section
|
Eibergen |
2/-/-/40
(42) |
2/-/-/40
(42) |
|
29/92/210/95
(426) |
29/92/214/95
(430) |
Royal Army
Signal Command Peace Strength: 118/312/1116/505
(2051) |
Royal Army
Signal Command War Strength: 176/562/2592/488 (3818) |
Note
a. |
898
Signal Battalion was the strategic signals
intelligence (SIGINT) unit of Commander-in-Chief
of the Army.
Operations comprised detection, interception,
direction-finding, registration,
decoding/deciphering, translation and analysis of radio message
traffic
generated by potential opponents. Main targets were Soviet and
East German (GDR) military commands in the northern half of
the GDR, such as the Soviet 2nd Guards Tank Army and the GDR's 5th
Army. Personnel worked in five
shifts, twenty-four hours a day, and included a group of
crypto analysts trained by the Military
Intelligence School. The battalion operated three radio direction-finding posts: one at
their home base in Eibergen, named "Alpha", and two in West
Germany: "Delta" in Dillingen an der Donau and "Sierra" near
the town of Heide. In the 1970s Delta, and probably Sierra too, were
semi-permanent posts with DAF YA-126 one-tonne radio trucks
(KL/MRD-3554) parked in shacks. The battalion was "shrouded in
secrecy" and worked closely with the Army Intelligence
Service (Landmacht Inlichtingendienst, LAMID).4 |
Operational Role
The main tasks of
Royal Army Signal Command were to
operate and sustain the army's territorial communications system
and to
maintain communications with 1 (NL)
Corps (see 101
Signal Group).
The territorial communications system was predominantly static
and consisted for the larger part of civil (PTT) networks. It
comprised telephone and telex networks, radio networks including the wartime
tactical radio networks of National
Territorial Command,
radio relay and troposcatter links, and a messenger network. For
efficiency reasons, but also to increase system redundancy in wartime,
Royal Army Signal Command worked closely with the Royal Air Force,
co-using their modern Automated Switched Communications Network (ASCON)
for telephone communications, and Automated Message Switching System
(AMSS) for telex
communications. The Command also worked closely with the PTT: to
further increase redundancy the old disused low frequency dual-cable
PTT telephone network was
converted and expanded into
an emergency army telephone network during the 1980s,
which network should be able to remain
operational in extremest of circumstances: it was immune to the
electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated by a nuclear explosion
and its nodes
were located in nuclear and chemical-proof PTT bunkers. In addition
to the above the territorial communications system was linked
to the Royal
Navy and NATO
communications systems. In wartime it would also be used by territorial
units operating in West Germany in the rear of 1 (NL) Corps (Rear Combat Zone).5 <
_________________________________________________
1. |
|
Elands et al., Van telegraaf,
198-199. |
2. |
|
NIMH
205A/10, Aflossing van mobilisabele eenheden en -aanvullingen d.d. 27
mei 1980. Ibid, d.d. 11
november 1983. Ibid., d.d. 17 juni 1985. |
3. |
|
The
unit filling schemes in NIMH 205A/10 (see footnote 2) show the
replacement holding detachments attached to the signal operations
companies of 543 Signal Battalion were only filled for
the first time in 1990; this is probably an error. They would typically
have been filled before in 1984, with the regular six-year
interval. The replacement holding detachments attached to the signal operations companies of 541 Signal Battalion were
filled in 1983 and 1989. In 1980 these detachments apparently did not
yet exist. Ibid. |
4. |
|
Elands et al., op.
cit., 171-173, 221.
Kluiters, De
Nederlandse, Supplement,
127, 146, 151. Vastenhoud, Historie. Website
898 Vbdbat. The Army Intelligence Service fell under the Ministry of Defence. Kluiters, op. cit., 127. |
5. |
|
VS 11-12, Hoofdstuk 6.
Elands et al., op. cit., 192-199. Hoffenaar en
Schoenmaker, Met de
blik, 299. ASCON
is described in detail in Raggett, Jane's Military Communications, 836. See also R.H. Rijntalder, Beëindiging Koude Oorlog 25 jaar geleden.
Herinneringen aan mijn actieve diensttijd tijdens de gewapende vrede
(Intercom
nrs. 1-3, 2016). PTT:
Posterijen, Telegrafie en
Telefonie. |
|