Mobile Columns Corps
Korps
Mobiele Colonnes (KMC)
Part
I | Part II |
Part III |
Part IV |
Force
Profile and Operational Role | Reorganisations and
Disbandment 1984-1993
| Unit |
Location |
Peace
Strength |
War
Strength |
Staff
and Administration Company
Mobile Columns Corps |
Laren
NH |
20/44/14/16 (94)
|
– |
Service
Support Company
Mobile Columns Corps
|
Laren
NH |
2/13/14/21
(50)
|
– |
Materiel
Mobilisation Preparations Detachment
Mobile Columns Corps [a] |
Laren
NH |
1/12/-/22
(35)
|
– |
Staff
Mobile Columns Corps [b] |
– |
–
|
24/20/57/2
(103)
|
| 2
Mobile Column (Fire
Service) |
Staff
and Support Company
2
Mobile Column (Fire
Service) |
– |
– |
11/22/106/2 (141) |
| A Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| B Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| C Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| D Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| |
31/98/622/2
(753) |
| 5 Mobile Column (Fire
Service) |
Staff
and Support Company
5 Mobile Column (Fire
Service) |
– |
– |
11/22/106/2 (141) |
| A Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| B Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| C Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| D Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| |
31/98/622/2
(753) |
| 10 Mobile Column (Fire
Service) [c] |
Staff
and Support Company
10
Mobile Column (Fire
Service) |
– |
– |
11/22/106/2 (141) |
| A Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| B Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| C Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| D Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| |
31/98/622/2
(753) |
| 11 Mobile Column (Fire
Service) |
Staff
and Support Company
11
Mobile Column (Fire
Service) |
– |
– |
11/22/106/2 (141) |
| A Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| B Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| C Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| D Company |
– |
– |
5/19/129
(153) |
| |
31/98/622/2
(753) |
Notes
| a. |
Transferred
to the Mobilisation Preparations Division (Afdeling
Mobilisatievoorbereiding) of Staff, National Territorial Command per 1
October 1985.1 |
| b. |
Largely
formed with personnel of the Staff and Administration Company.2 |
| c. |
Disbanded
between July and December 1985. |
Part
I | Part II
| Part III |
Part IV |
Force
Profile and Operational Role | Reorganisations and
Disbandment 1984-1993
| Unit |
Location |
Peace
Strength |
War
Strength |
| 61
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
61
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/23/110/2 (146) |
| A Rescue/Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| B Rescue/Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| C
Rescue/Medical Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| Support Company |
– |
– |
4/11/93
(108) |
| |
51/94/767/2
(914) |
| 62
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
62
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 63
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
63
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 64
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
64
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/23/110/2 (146) |
| A Rescue/Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| B Rescue/Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| C
Rescue/Medical Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| Support Company |
– |
– |
4/11/93
(108) |
|
|
51/94/767/2
(914) |
| 65
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) [a] |
Staff
and Support Company
65
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 66
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
66
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 67
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
67
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
Note
Part
I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Force
Profile and Operational Role | Reorganisations and
Disbandment 1984-1993
| Unit |
Location |
Peace
Strength |
War
Strength |
| 68
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) [a] |
Staff
and Support Company
68
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 69
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
69
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 70
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
70 Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 71
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
71
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 72
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
72
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/22/108/2 (143) |
| A Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| B Rescue Company |
– |
– |
6/24/203
(233) |
| C Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| D Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/10/117
(139) |
| |
47/90/748/2
(887) |
| 73
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
Staff
and Support Company
73 Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/23/110/2 (146) |
| A Rescue/Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| B Rescue/Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| C
Rescue/Medical Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| Support Company |
– |
– |
4/11/93
(108) |
| |
51/94/767/2
(914) |
| 74
Mobile
Column (Rescue/Medical) [b] |
Staff
and Support Company
74 Mobile Column (Rescue/Medical) |
– |
– |
11/23/110/2 (146) |
| A Rescue/Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| B Rescue/Medical
Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| C
Rescue/Medical Company |
– |
– |
12/20/188
(220) |
| Support Company |
– |
– |
4/11/93
(108) |
|
51/94/767/2
(914) |
Notes
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Force
Profile and Operational Role | Reorganisations and Disbandment
1984-1993
| Unit |
Location |
Peace
Strength |
War
Strength |
| 31 Ambulance
Company |
– |
– |
5/19/255
(279) |
| 32
Ambulance Company |
– |
– |
5/19/255
(279) |
| 33 Ambulance
Company [a] |
– |
– |
5/19/255
(279) |
| 34 Ambulance
Company [a] |
– |
– |
5/19/255
(279) |
| Replacement
Depot [b] |
Staff
and Support Company
Replacement Depot [c] |
– |
– |
16/62/163/15
(256) |
| A Company |
– |
– |
7/28/183
(218) |
| B Company |
– |
– |
21/40/199
(260) |
| C Company |
– |
– |
8/33/226
(267) |
| D Company |
– |
– |
15/21/209
(245) |
|
67/184/980/15
(1246) |
| Emergency
Drinking Water Pipeline Company [d] |
– |
– |
7/35/298 (340) |
| Mobile Columns
Corps Peace Strength (June 1985): 23/69/28/59 (179) |
| Mobile Columns
Corps War Strength (June 1985): 855/1851/14114/51 (16871) |
Notes
| a. |
Formed in January 1986. |
| b. |
Would
receive replacement personnel, give them limited
training and send them to operational KMC units. Maximum capacity was
1,000 men. The Replacement Depot would also provide administrative and
logistic support to Staff, Mobile Columns Corps (see Part
I).3 |
| c. |
Included six water purification platoons for
which the company would provide administrative and logistic support
until the platoons would be deployed.4
|
| d. |
Would transport drinking water into one or
more disaster zones with pipeline material provided by the
Ministry of Welfare, Health and Cultural Affairs (Ministerie van
Welzijn, Volksgezondheid en Cultuur).5
|
Force Profile and Operational Role
6
The Mobile
Columns Corps (KMC) was a somewhat odd element within the
Royal
Army:
a civil defence corps manned by military
personnel and partly equipped with military materiel.7
Its wartime mission was disaster relief, which would mean operating in
the aftermath of large-scale
calamities
like
aerial
bombardment and nuclear attack. Primary KMC capabilities
comprised
firefighting, rescuing people from damaged or destroyed
buildings, first-line medical treatment of the wounded and their
evacuation to hospital facilities, and emergency drinking
water
provision.
The Corps was under
administrative
control of the Commander-in-Chief
of the Army, but in wartime it would come
under operational authority of the national civil defence organisation
(Bescherming Bevolking, BB) which fell under the Ministry of
the Interior
(Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken).8
KMC units would serve as mobile
reserves for Commander, BB.
About
twenty percent of KMC materiel was provided and maintained by the Royal
Army, comprising personal gear and standard
unit
equipment for logistic self-support. The remaining eighty percent
was provided and maintained by the Ministry of the Interior and
comprised task-specific materiel
such as firefighting apparatus, debris clearance equipment and medical
equipment. All KMC materiel was stored in mobilisation
complexes
owned or hired by the Ministry of the Interior. Task-specific materiel
included a number of mostly specialist vehicles, but
to provide
the Corps with organic
transport no less than some 3,900 civilian vehicles would be
requisitioned on
mobilisation.9
Because the Corps was a non-combatant organisation, protected as such
by
the Geneva Convention, its units were preferably not
to be
co-located with regular military units in wartime. Vehicles and
uniforms would
be marked with either the international civil defence distinctive sign
(a blue triangle on an orange circle) or the international red
cross
distinctive sign. Camouflage nets would not be issued. Armament was
strictly limited to personal weapons: FN
Browning Hi-Power pistol 9 mm
and M1 Carbine .30 inch. Moreover it appears
that only part of KMC personnel was armed.10
Though
personnel was to be drawn from the entire defence organisation, the
large majority came from the Royal Army's general pool of mobilisable
reserves (vrij-indeelbaar bestand). Conscript reservists selected for
KMC would be
called up for a two-week retraining course, usually at about
the age of
twenty-seven, before
being assigned to their unit. Some reservists would be called up again
after two years to participate in a unit refresher training. Each
Mobile
Column would be filled with new reservists every six
years. <
Reorganisations and Disbandment 1984-1993
11
Until 1971
there had been separate rescue and medical columns. As can be seen in Part II and III,
in 1985 the Corps was in the process of further integrating
its rescue and medical components to further
improve
operational coordination. This reorganisation had probably started in
1984.
In advance of new legislation two other reorganisations had been set in
motion as well: the gradual disbandment of the fire service columns
(Part I) to enable the formation of
new rescue/medical columns (Part III),
and the formation of ambulance companies Part
IV).
During
the 1980s the Netherlands emergency response and disaster
relief services were thoroughly reorganised. In March 1985 a new Fire
Service
Act (Brandweerwet) and a new Disaster Act (Rampenwet) came into effect,
whilst a year later the national civil defence organisation Bescherming
Bevolking (BB) was disbanded. These measures had been
in
preparation since the beginning of the decade. The consequences for the
Mobile Columns Corps may be summarised as follows:
- In
1980 there were still twelve mobile fire service columns. Though they
were, on paper, impressive formations with 24 fire engines, 24 motor
pumps, some 36 kilometres of fire hose material, a personnel strength
of 753 men and a firefighting capacity of some 2.4 kilometres
fire
front each, their equipment had become obsolete, on average
being
about
thirty years old in 1985, and there was no budget for replacement. As
the fire service columns were gradually disbanded the number
of rescue/medical columns would be gradually increased to
nineteen, which number
was later lowered to fifteen due to budgetary problems. The
firefighting role would be taken over by
civilian fire services, which were to be expanded. The
last of the fire service columns were disbanded before 1987, the last
firefighting exercise was held in 1983.
- Twelve
ambulance companies would be formed, with a total of 1300 medical
evacuation vehicles, to replace the capacity of the
disbanded
BB. Later these companies were to be reorganised into fifteen
medical evacuation companies which would be incorporated in
the
rescue/medical columns.
- On mobilisation KMC units would operate under the
command
of local fire service authorities.
- In addition to its wartime role, KMC units
could also be mobilised in
peacetime in case of an exceptional disaster.
Motivated by the end of the Cold War the government decided to disband
the Mobile Columns Corps per 1 January 1993. <
_________________________________________________
| 1. |
|
Wattel, Materiële
mobilisatievoorbereiding, 472, 477. |
| 2. |
|
Schipper,
Het
personeel, 349. |
| 3. |
|
NL-HaNA
2.13.110,
inv. nr. 504, Wijziging
otas aanvdep KMC d.d. 26 maart 1979. |
| 4. |
|
Ibid. In
1979 the water purification platoons had been marked as non-operational
because of the obsoleteness of their equipment; in 1980 the acquirement
of new equipment was still in study. Welters, Drinkwatervoorziening,
367. The 1985 personnel strength of the Staff and Support Company is
the same as in 1979 and water purification remained
part of KMC tasks until 1993, so it seems likely that new
equipment was acquired at
some point. Mes, Korps Mobiele Colonnes, Bijlage
6. |
| 5. |
|
Mes, op.
cit.,
Hoofdstuk II, 9-10. See also Hesdahl, Logistiek,
360 and Welters, op. cit., 367-368. |
| 6. |
|
Schipper,
op. cit. Koldenhof, De
opleidingen. Hesdahl, op. cit.
Van Vianen, Buiting en Van Delft, De
mobilisatievoorbereiding. [These
and other articles on KMC are included in the 1980
theme issue of Militaire
Spectator which can be downloaded here.]
Woerlee, Het
Korps. Mes, op.
cit. |
| 7. |
|
In 1952
the initial plan had been to form disaster relief columns
with civilian volunteers (Rijks Mobiele Colonnes), but there
was not nearly enough interest,
probably because those who were interested had joined the BB. Mes, op.cit.,
Hoofdstuk I, 1. Poelen, De
wordingsgeschiedenis, 346. |
| 8. |
|
Bescherming
Bevolking (Population Protection), in full: Organisatie Bescherming
Bevolking (OBB), was manned by civilian volunteers. See for
example HTK 1979-1980, kamerstuknr. 15817 ondernr. 1 (Taken van de Organisatie Bescherming
Bevolking in vredes- en oorlogstijd) and T. van Merwijk, Civiele
verdediging in het tijdperk van de wederopbouw (Zeist:
Rijksdienst voor Archeologie, Cultuurlandschap en Monumenten,
2007). |
| 9. |
|
For
pictures of KMC vehicles, see website Brandweermodellen Amsterdam en
Schiphol, Mobiele Colonnes I and Mobiele Colonnes II. |
| 10. |
|
In 1979
the inventory of Staff, Mobile Columns Corps included 66 weapons (37
pistols and 29 carbines) on a strength of 103 men. NL-HaNA
2.13.110,
inv. nr. 504, Reorganisatie Staf KMC d.d. 26 maart 1979. In the same
year the Staff and Support Company of the Replacement Depot
had 85
weapons (17 pistols and 68 carbines) on a strength of 256 men; these
were only for officers, sub-officers and messengers. Ibid., Wijziging
otas aanvdep KMC d.d. 26 maart 1979. Weapons were not only for
self-defence but also to prevent small enemy elements such as
paratroopers from interfering
with aid operations. Mes, op.
cit., 6. |
| 11. |
|
Mes, op.cit.,
Hoofdstuk II, Hoofdstuk IV, 19. Hanson, Het
ontstaan, 378. Schipper, op. cit., 12.
Woerlee, op.cit. Website Nationaal
Brandweer Documentatie Centrum, Bescherming Bevolking. See also
HTK
1984-1985, kamerstuknr. 18646 ondernr. 1 (Nota Civiele Verdediging 1984). |
|