The British Army of the Rhine (Military History)

Introduction
The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) began life in 1945 as a postwar administrative headquarters deployed in support of the civilian authority of the British zone of occupation, northern Germany. With the activation of a NATO unified command structure in 1951, BAOR became an integral part, along with Belgian, Canadian, and Dutch army units, of the Northern Army Group (NORTHAG). Deployed on the European Central Front with its NORTHAG sister formations, BAOR was a significant feature of NATO’s forward shield of ground forces to deter or, if deterrence failed, to repel a major Warsaw Pact offensive on the Continent. To improve its combat effectiveness BAOR was equipped since the early 1960s with tactical nuclear weapons, and in so doing, became the first formation of the British army trained to fight and prevail on a nuclear battlefield. The deployment of BAOR on the European Central Front was symbolic of British political intent vis-à-vis European security and was the military means by which Britain sought to deter a conventional or nuclear Warsaw Pact attack. The history of BAOR, then, is not simply a history of an army formation. It is a history of British European security commitments, of NATO military strategy, and of the changing character of land warfare after 1945. This annotated bibliography presents the best quality scholarship relating to BAOR, from its inception until its replacement under the conditions of the 1994 Options for Change defense review with the twenty-five-thousand strong British Forces Germany.
History of the British Army
General histories of the postwar British army have largely failed to take into account the service’s preparations during the 1950s to fight a high-intensity land war against the Soviet Union in Europe. This is somewhat puzzling since such a campaign was one of the army’s most significant missions after 1945 and, accordingly, occupied the minds of some of its brightest thinkers. Histories of the postwar British army have traditionally sought to explain the paradox of why the service was able to develop a first-rate counterinsurgency doctrine after 1945 yet lacked an adequate doctrine for conventional war-fighting operations during the same period. Not all general accounts of the postwar army have overlooked the service’s experiences in developing ground forces for nuclear war, however. For example, Blaxland 1971 and Mallinson 2009 have produced histories of the army which are not entirely dominated by narratives of counterinsurgency operations and document the activities of BAOR during the Cold War. In the broader context, Barnett 1970 and Chandler and Beckett 2003 provide an essential overview of the experiences that have shaped the British Army over its long history. Likewise, French 2008 and Strachan 2000 have produced histories of the cultural attitudes of the British Army and how the institution relates to wider society.
Barnett, Correlli. Britain and Her Army, 1509–1970: A Military, Political, and Social Survey. London: Penguin, 1970.
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A sweeping review of four hundred years of British army history. Although our understanding of the service has been considerably deepened by subsequent scholarship, the book provides the broader context for thinking about the army after 1945.
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Blaxland, Gregory. The Regiments Depart: A History of the British Army, 1945–1970. London: William Kimber, 1971.
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Although the book is concerned primarily with the British army’s experiences prosecuting counterinsurgency campaigns after 1945, it proves a helpful reference guide to the composition of the British army and its overseas deployments between 1945 and 1970.
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Chandler, David, and Ian Beckett, eds. The Oxford History of the British Army. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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A comprehensive history of the British army aimed at undergraduate students and the general reader. Includes a chapter on the activation of BAOR and its composition throughout the Cold War against the background of government defense reviews.
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French, David. Military Identities: The Regimental System, the British Army and the British People c. 1870–2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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The best introduction to the regimental system of the British army. Includes a chapter on the creation of the postmodern regimental system between 1945 and 1970 against the backdrop of postwar austerity and the consequent reorganization and amalgamation of many regiments.
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Mallinson, Allan. The Making of the British Army: From the English Civil War to the War on Terror. London: Bantam, 2009.
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A general study of the historical experiences that have shaped the British army. Contains informative chapters on the precarious position of BAOR during the austerity years of 1946–1953 and of the contribution made by BAOR to conventional deterrence throughout the Cold War.
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Strachan, Hew, ed. The British Army, Manpower, and Society into the Twenty-First Century. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2000.
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A broad look at the cultural attitudes of the British army and its relationship with wider society. Includes two chapters on National Service and professional recruitment after 1945, both of which were issues that influenced force generation in BAOR throughout its existence.
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Contemporary Defense Commentary
The postwar years witnessed a proliferation of writings on British nuclear weapons policy and strategic planning more generally. Indeed, the 1950s provided many basic ideas on military strategy in the nuclear age, all of which influenced official thinking about the role of conventional land forces in Europe. For example, the concept of massive retaliation––which featured prominently in British strategic assessments throughout the Cold War––stemmed from the writings of the erstwhile Marshall of the Royal Air Force, Sir John Slessor, who published his seminal work on the subject, Strategy for the West, shortly after his retirement in 1954, and reaffirmed his views on the subject in his 1957 treatise. The renowned military theorist Basil Liddell Hart was also active during this period. Concerned primarily with land power, Liddell Hart 1950 critiqued the West’s defensive concepts for European defense as they related to land forces. His second major study of the postwar years, Liddell Hart 1960, goes on to assess the implications of tactical nuclear weapons to European defense. The most vivid account of how a tactical nuclear war in Europe might progress is offered by Miksche 1955, a treatise on the relationship between nuclear weapons and conventional land forces. Across the Atlantic, the golden age of nuclear strategy was ushered in by writers such as Bernard Brodie, Henry Kissinger, and Herman Kahn, who made important contributions to nuclear strategy and deterrence theory.
Brodie, Bernard. Strategy in the Missile Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959.
DOI: 10.1515/9781400875108Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A classic treatise written in response to the emergence of intercontinental ballistic missiles at the dawn of the thermonuclear age. Employs historical analysis methods to frame nuclear strategy as the logical progression in the evolution of airpower theory.
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Kahn, Herman. On Thermonuclear War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960.
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A controversial book in which Kahn considers the concept of victory in nuclear war. Draws on game theory and scenario planning to articulate how to prevent, fight, and survive a thermonuclear war.
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Kissinger, Henry. Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1957.
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A good introduction to the debate on limited nuclear war and the military utility of tactical nuclear weapons. A theoretical work that provides a solid intellectual reference point for thinking about flexible response in the 1960s.
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Liddell Hart, Basil. Defence of the West. London: Cassell, 1950.
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Prefaced by Liddell Hart’s observations on what he perceived to be mistakes made during the Second World War, he argues that well-trained, flexible, and highly mobile land forces are required to mount a successful defense of Western Europe.
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Liddell Hart, Basil. Deterrent or Defence: A Fresh Look at the West’s Military Position. London: Stevens and Sons, 1960.
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Contemporary defense commentary by Britain’s preeminent military theorist. Examines whether tactical nuclear weapons can solve the West’s defense dilemma at the onset of the Cold War. Includes a chapter on the conceptual challenges of European defense and how this affects tactics, doctrine, and organization in NATO land forces.
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Miksche, F. O. Atomic Weapons and Armies. London: Faber & Faber, 1955.
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A treatise by a Czechoslovak army officer in which the challenges of nuclear land combat are distilled and solutions offered. Provides a detailed account of the effects that nuclear weapons might have on the doctrine and organization of land forces.
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Slessor, John. Strategy for the West. London: Cassell, 1954.
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A personal view of the political-strategic problems facing the West by the erstwhile Chief of the Air Staff. One of the first published works to promote in written form the nuclear strategy destined to be known as massive retaliation.
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Slessor, John. The Great Deterrent. London: Cassell, 1957.
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Following on from his 1954 treatise, Slessor reaffirms his belief that strategic nuclear weapons remain the ultimate deterrent to global war, solidifying his position as one of Britain’s staunchest supporters of massive retaliation.
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Journals
A rich seam of information can be found in the numerous articles that began to proliferate in professional military journals during the 1950s. Publications such as the Army Quarterly and Defence Journal, British Army Review, and the RUSI Journal contain a wealth of articles that relate to the nuclear battlefield of the 1950s, so too do the branch-specific service periodicals, Journal of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers Journal, and the Royal Armoured Corps Journal. Professional journals are a useful source in that they provide an insight into the opinions and beliefs of military practitioners. This is particularly relevant when considering the emergence of new and untested weapon systems such as tactical nuclear weapons. Professional service journals provided a platform for serving officers to discuss the changing character of warfare and the type of tactics, doctrine, and organizations that would be required to be able to fight and prevail in atomic land combat. However, the journals have to be approached with care. Understandably, career officers and professional soldiers possessed a vested interest in “proving” that they could adapt in the nuclear age, and many soldiers provided theories on how their service could exploit the benefits of atomic weapons but avoid their effects. As a result, many of the articles are polemic in tone with the overarching aim of justifying the continued relevance of conventional ground forces in an age of nuclear plenty. Nonetheless, the journals offer a revealing insight into an officer corps that was struggling to come to terms with the nuclear revolution and the future role of conventional ground forces.
Army Quarterly and Defence Journal. 1920–.
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An established journal of the British army. There is a plethora of articles relating to the role of the British army in nuclear land combat.
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British Army Review. 1949–.
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The preeminent journal of the British army. Digital and hard copies from the 1940s onward are readily available and contain an abundance of articles on BAOR, nuclear land combat, and other subjects relating to the British army in Germany during the Cold War.
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Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 1945–.
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Published continually since 1945, the journal was founded by Manhattan Project atomic physicists. Articles relating to all of the major nuclear debates of the Cold War have appeared in the publication.
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Journal of the Royal Artillery. 1858–.
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The Royal Artillery would have performed a crucial role in delivering tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield. The journal contains an abundance of articles relating to the science and art of gunnery in the nuclear age.
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RUSI Journal. 1857–.
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The journal (formerly Journal of the Royal United Service Institution) of one of the world’s most prestigious and established think-tanks. Many articles relating to BAOR, British defense policy, nuclear weapons, and NATO strategy have appeared in the publication, many of which had been written by military practitioners.
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Military Review. 1922–.
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The US Army’s professional service journal. Throughout the Cold War the journal was inundated with articles relating to tactical nuclear warfare. The journal regularly reprinted articles that had been published in foreign service journals.
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Royal Armoured Corps Journal. 1945–1974.
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The professional service journal of the Royal Armoured Corps. The immediate postwar years in particular witnessed a proliferation of articles on how armored forces might be employed in a future ground war involving nuclear weapons.
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Royal Engineers Journal. 1870–.
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Articles published by serving officer on all matters affecting the Corps of Royal Engineers. Editions from the 1950s and 1960s are particularly rich in articles assessing the engineering challenges of nuclear land combat.
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Memoirs
That BAOR was symbolic of Britain’s commitment to European security and the NATO experiment meant that decisions relating to its manpower, composition, and deployments were highly politicized. The most important of those decisions were made at the level of the Cabinet Defence Committee and Chiefs of Staff Committee, the highest civilian and military decision-making bodies concerned with defense matters. Therefore, memoirs and firsthand accounts of the policymaking process provide essential insights in to how the role and functions of BAOR were articulated in official government and defense communities and how the organization related to broader British strategy, defense policy, and to the other services. For example, the memoirs of the immediate postwar prime ministers, Attlee 1962, Eden 1960, and Macmillan 1971, expose the difficult defense questions and Hobson’s choices facing British officialdom at the onset of the Cold War. Likewise, Jackson and Bramall 1992, a history of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, shines considerable light on the important work carried out by that organization throughout the Cold War. The Imperial War Museums Sound Archive provides additional color to the experiences of life in BAOR through the personal testimony of serving soldiers.
Attlee, Clement. Twilight of Empire: Memoirs of Prime Minister Clement Attlee. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1962.
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Memoirs by the prime minister who oversaw the introduction of National Service, the creation of NATO, and the rising threat of Communist expansion. Includes Attlee’s personal views on the difficult defense questions of his tenure.
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Eden, Anthony. Full Circle. London: Cassell, 1960.
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Eden was instrumental in pushing through a number of reforms to the central organization of defense during his time in office. The memoir illustrates some of the challenges of harmonizing civil-military relations in Britain as Eden recounts his often strained relationship with his military advisors.
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Imperial War Museums Sound Archive.
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A number of interviews conducted with officers and other ranks who served in BAOR provide a human dimension to the experiences of serving in BAOR throughout the Cold War.
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Jackson, William, and Edwin Bramall. The Chiefs: The Story of the United Kingdom Chiefs of Staff. New York and London: Brassey’s, 1992.
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The most comprehensive history of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee written by two senior military officers. Covers the major defense debates and military challenges for the whole Cold War period.
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Macmillan, Harold. Riding the Storm, 1956–1959. London: Macmillan, 1971.
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Of particular note in this memoir is Macmillan’s description of the 1957 defense review, the most robust since the Second World War which witnessed the first of many reductions to BAOR’s conventional manpower.
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Montgomery, Bernard L. The Memoirs of Field-Marshal The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein. London: Collins, 1958.
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Montgomery reminisces not only on his war-time experiences but on his time as the professional head of the British army and as NATO’s second-in-command. Montgomery brings to life some of the challenges that faced British decision-makers when crafting a new defense policy in a rapidly changing world.
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British Defense Policy
The decision to maintain the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Europe throughout the Cold War was as much a reflection of Britain’s attempts to enhance political cohesion in NATO as it was a military necessity. Therefore, the study of BAOR has to take place within the context of British defense policy. Only then can the roles, functions, and strategic rationales of BAOR be really understood. Furthermore, the fluctuation of BAOR’s strength and capabilities throughout its deployment can only be explained through an examination of British defense policy. There exists a vast literature on British defense policy after 1945 so the citations in this section have been carefully selected as studies that relate explicitly to the experiences of BAOR. Carver 1992, Harrison 2009, and Sanders 1990 place BAOR within the wider international context of British imperial decline and strategic readjustment after 1945. Martin Edmonds 1986 and Lawrence Freedman 1999 provide a succinct analysis of the major defense reviews that affected BAOR throughout its deployment. Scott 1993 and Vinen 2014 both offer a fascinating assessment of conscription and the role of national servicemen within BAOR, while Verrier 1966 delivers a polemic riposte to contemporary defense policies.
Carver, Michael. Tightrope Walking: British Defence Policy since 1945. London: Hutchinson, 1992.
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A broad assessment of British defense policy through the lens of government reforms and reviews. Concludes with an examination of the reduction of BAOR as part of the Options for Change defense review and the effect that this had on European security.
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Edmonds, Martin, ed. The Defence Equation: British Military Systems Policy, Planning and Performance. London: Brassey’s, 1986.
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A thematic assessment of the major defense debates in Britain after 1945. Includes a detailed and informative account of the strategic rationale, operational concepts, and composition of BAOR between 1945 and 1985.
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Freedman, Lawrence. The Politics of British Defence, 1979–98. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1999.
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A survey of the most important defense reviews for the period under review. Encapsulates well the difficult choices that had to be made about British involvement in European security and the continued funding of BAOR.
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Harrison, Brian. Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom, 1951–1970. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
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An extremely detailed yet wide-ranging account of British foreign and defense policy between 1951 and 1970. The book charts Britain’s retreat from empire and its attempts to adapt to the changing strategic environment of the postwar world.
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Sanders, David. Losing an Empire, Finding a Role: British Foreign Policy since 1945. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1990.
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An extensive, yet detailed, account of British foreign policy after 1945. Includes assessments of British Cold War relations with Europe and the superpowers and defense policy in relation to NATO. All of which is relevant to BAOR.
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Scott, L. V. Conscription and the Attlee Governments: The Politics and Policy of National Service 1945–1951. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204213.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The authoritative account of the first time Britain introduced conscription in peacetime. The book assesses the military rationales behind conscription and why National Service was essential to the Attlee administration’s defense policy. Provides an insight into the manpower problems that beset the British army.
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Verrier, Anthony. An Army for the Sixties: A Study in National Policy, Contract and Obligation. London: Secker & Warburg, 1966.
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Polemic in tone, this book reassess the role and functions of the postwar British army. Considers how successive governments in the 1950s and 1960s neglected Britain’s European security responsibilities in favor of imperial commitments and the strategic deterrent.
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Vinen, Richard. National Service: Conscription in Britain, 1945–63. London: Allen Lane, 2014.
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A detailed account of the life of the postwar conscript. Provides a human dimension to the hardships of National Service on the Central Front, its political background, and social consequences.
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Britain and European Security
The deployment of BAOR in Germany was inextricably linked to European security, and British thinking about the defense of Europe during the Cold War is interwoven with that of the history of BAOR. The three most important policy debates in relation to BAOR was the question of German rearmament and the consequent manpower implications, the mechanisms of European defense, and what level of military commitment Britain should pledge for European security. There exists a rich literature on Britain’s position vis-à-vis European security during the Cold War, so the citations in this section relate most closely to the experiences of BAOR. Mawby 1998a, Dockrill 1991, and Deighton 1992 examine the dilemma of German rearmament from a British perspective and the second order effects that this would have one the size and composition of BAOR. Howard 1989 and Baylis 1984 discuss the historical origins and strategic implications of a Continental strategy for Britain, and the mechanisms for such a commitment are assessed by Mawby 1998b and Ruane 2002 through an exploration of British views on the European Defence Community and the prospect of a European army.
Baylis, John. “Britain, the Brussels Pact and the Continental Commitment.” International Affairs 60.4 (Autumn 1984): 615–629.
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A succinct exploration of the fundamental defense debate in Britain during the 20th century. Assesses the relative merits of a military strategy underpinned by maritime and air power versus one that relies predominantly on continental land power.
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Deighton, Anne. “Arming the Key Battleground: German Rearmament, 1950–1955.” Diplomacy and Statecraft 3.2 (1992): 343–353.
DOI: 10.1080/09592299208405858Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The article provides a good overview of the political dilemmas confronting NATO decision-makers on the question of West German rearmament in the early 1950s.
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Dockrill, Saki. Britain’s Policy for West German Rearmament 1950–1955. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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The definitive guide to British policy toward West German rearmament in the early 1950s. Based on extensive archival research, the book analyzes how the British government balanced competing views within NATO on the prospect of a West German manpower contribution to European security.
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Dockrill, Saki. “Retreat from the Continent? British Motives for Troop Reductions in West Germany, 1955–1958.” Journal of Strategic Studies 20 (1997): 45–70.
DOI: 10.1080/01402399708437687Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the motives behind the British decision to reduce BAOR after 1955, one of the most controversial proposals facing NATO and the Western European Union in the second half of the 1950s. Assesses the effect that this decision had on Britain’s European and Atlantic allies.
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Howard, Michael. The Continental Commitment: The Dilemma of British Defence Policy in the Era of Two World Wars. London: Ashfield, 1989.
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A collection of lectures delivered by the author at the University of Oxford examining the friction of continental versus maritime strategies in British defense policy. A useful introduction to the historical origins of a dilemma which plagued policymaking during the Cold War.
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Mawby, Spencer W. “Détente Deferred: The Attlee Government, German Rearmament and Anglo-Soviet Rapprochement 1950–51.” Contemporary British History 12.2 (Summer 1998a): 1–21.
DOI: 10.1080/13619469808581477Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the Attlee administration’s attempts at rapprochement with the Soviet Union by pledging to abandon West German rearmament. Describes the backlash against plans for a German defense contribution after the outbreak of the Korean War.
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Mawby, Spencer W. “From Distrust to Despair: Britain and the European Army, 1950–1954.” European History Quarterly 28.4 (1998b): 487–513.
DOI: 10.1177/026569149802800403Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Charts the evolution of British policy toward the European Defense Community between 1950 and 1954. Highlights the parlous state of European defense preparations during the period and the dilemmas of raising German land forces for the defense of the Central Front.
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Ruane, Kevin. “Agonizing Reappraisals: Anthony Eden, John Foster Dulles, and the Crisis of European Defence, 1953–1954.” Diplomacy and Statecraft 13.4 (2002): 151–185.
DOI: 10.1080/714000354Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the British pledge in 1954, following the demise of the European Defence Community, to retain conventional military forces in Europe to deter Soviet aggression. Explains the political rationale for the deployment of BAOR on the Central Front.
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NATO Strategy
The British Army of the Rhine was an integral component of NATO’s conventional deterrent in Europe and was also equipped to fight with nuclear weapons. To understand fully the strategic rationales for BAOR and its assigned operational functions in war requires an understanding of wider NATO military strategy. A suitable starting point for exploring the mechanics of NATO defense policymaking and military strategy is the official textbook on NATO facts and figures published by the alliance’s NATO Information Service 1989. The conceptual elements of NATO nuclear strategy and defensive concepts, which evolved considerably over the course of the Cold War, are skillfully introduced by Freedman 2003. Its component elements are dissected in the edited collection Schmidt 2001, while Heuser 1994 and Heuser 1997 provide a deeper examination of the major turning points in NATO strategy and how they affected defensive concepts on the European Central Front. The practical and conceptual challenges facing Central Front forces, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the land battle, are critically assessed by Amme 1988. The scholarship cited below is suitable both for newcomers to NATO strategy and those seeking a more focused analysis on NATO military planning.
Amme, Carl H. NATO Strategy and Nuclear Defense. London and Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1988.
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A study of NATO strategic concepts and military strategy for the defense of the Central Front. Includes a chapter on the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the land battle and the conceptual problems that arise therewith.
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Freedman, Lawrence. The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy. 3d ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230379435Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Now in its third edition, this is the standard textbook for understanding nuclear strategy as it evolved over the course of the Cold War. Ideal for undergraduates and the casual reader.
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Heuser, Beatrice. “The Development of NATO’s Nuclear Strategy.” Contemporary European History 4.1 (1994): 37–66.
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A broad review of the evolution of NATO strategy in the formative stages of the Cold War. A useful reference work that examines the key turning points and defensive concepts underpinning NATO military strategy.
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Heuser, Beatrice. NATO, Britain, France and the FRG: Nuclear Strategies and Forces for Europe, 1949–2000. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1997.
DOI: 10.1057/9780230377622Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A comprehensive account of the evolution of NATO strategy from the first detailed defense plans contained in MC 14 to MC 400 and the end of the Cold War. Includes a chapter on British thinking about the potential political signaling functions of tactical nuclear weapons.
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Heuser, Beatrice. “Victory in a Nuclear War? A Comparison of NATO and WTO War Aims and Strategies.” Contemporary European History 7.3 (November 1998): 311–328.
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Concerned with the controversial question of whether there could be “victory” in nuclear war and, if so, what victory would have meant to NATO and the Warsaw Pact. At its core, the article compares NATO and Warsaw Pact war plans as they evolved during the Cold War.
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NATO Information Service. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation: Facts and Figures. 10th ed. Brussels: NATO Information Service, 1989.
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A detailed reference work published internally by the NATO Information Service. Includes chapters on defense planning, logistics, armaments cooperation, and the military organizational structure.
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Schmidt, Gustav, ed. A History of NATO: The First Fifty Years. Vol. 3. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2001.
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The third volume of the most comprehensive history of NATO to date contains a number of chapters on alliance nuclear strategy during the Cold War. Includes analysis of NATO strategic concepts and force structures and the technological aspect of nuclear strategy. Well researched with an extensive bibliography.
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British Nuclear Strategy
The existing literature on British nuclear strategy can be grouped broadly into two main categories––those that deal with the political dimensions of nuclear weapons and those that are concerned with military-strategic factors. The former is reflected in the work of Margaret Gowing, Andrew Pierre, G. M. Dillon, and A. J. R. Groom, whose 1974 study of British thinking about nuclear weapons is cited in this section. This literature is couched in the political rationales behind the British decision to develop an independent nuclear deterrent in the years after 1945. For these authors, the British nuclear weapons project was inextricably linked with the changing political environment facing decision makers in the late 1940s and early 1950s. While this approach provides some interesting insights into public discourse on nuclear weapons, the official views of the military are left wanting. Some of these shortcomings were addressed by the subsequent generation of scholars of British nuclear weapons policy in that they focused to a greater degree on the military and strategic dimensions underlying British nuclear weapons policy during the 1950s. Studies by Clark and Wheeler 1989, Navias 1991, and Baylis 1995 eschewed some of the previous interpretations of British nuclear weapons policy and opted instead in their work to define more clearly British thinking about nuclear strategy. As opposed to the more traditional analyses of British nuclear weapons policy, the starting point for many of these studies was that the origin of British nuclear strategy was not simply a reflection of the nation’s political and economic decline, but was rooted in the unique strategic predicament that faced British decision-makers after 1945. This revisionist account of British nuclear weapons policy was made possible by the opening up, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, of the archives relating to British nuclear weapons policy. Greater access to the files of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, the Joint Planning Staff, and the Cabinet Defence Committee, in particular, allowed new insights into the military dimensions of British nuclear weapons policy. The result was a great deepening of our understanding of the military aspects of nuclear strategy which reveals in the process the conceptual and practical challenges facing BAOR in preparing for the nuclear battlefield.
Baylis, John. Ambiguity and Deterrence: British Nuclear Strategy, 1945–1964. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198280125.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of the classic works on British nuclear strategy. Concerned primarily with the strategic nuclear deterrent but includes an examination of British thinking about tactical nuclear weapons. Of particular interest is a chapter on inter-service rivalries and its impact on army policy during the period under review.
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Baylis, John, and John Garnett, eds. Makers of Nuclear Strategy. London: Pinter, 1991.
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An examination of the theorists who were instrumental in shaping Western nuclear strategy. Of particular interest is the entry for Anthony Buzzard, who pioneered the strategy of graduated deterrence in the 1950s.
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Bluth, Christoph. Britain, Germany, and Western Nuclear Strategy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
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A comprehensive account of British and German policies toward nuclear weapons in an alliance context. The book gives a detailed account of the evolution of nuclear strategy in NATO throughout the Cold War. Includes a chapter on tactical nuclear weapons and the defense dilemmas on the Central Front.
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Clark, Ian, and Nicholas J. Wheeler. The British Origins of Nuclear Strategy 1945–1955. Oxford: Clarendon, 1989.
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A monograph that seeks to locate the British origins of nuclear strategy. Includes a detailed analysis of early thinking about the tactical application of nuclear weapons in BAOR during the immediate postwar years.
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Groom, A. J. R. British Thinking about Nuclear Weapons. London: Francis Pinter, 1974.
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A broad study that relates how the British government and public responded to the changing environment of the postwar world. Focuses on the main nuclear policy debates in Britain up until the mid-1970s including the economic and technological aspects of nuclear strategy, Press reactions, and the rise of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
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Navias, Martin S. Nuclear Weapons and British Strategic Planning, 1955–1958. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198277545.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A monograph about British nuclear policy and strategic planning in the second half of the 1950s. Detailed assessment of the British army’s thinking about the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the land battle. Covers the major defense reviews of the period and how they affected BAOR.
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Tactical Nuclear Weapons
As opposed to strategic nuclear weapons, which are well understood and have a wealth of literature dedicated to their analysis, tactical nuclear weapons are underrepresented in the mainstream literature. There have been some attempts, in the sixty years since battlefield nuclear weapons first entered the armories of the superpowers, to examine the issues surrounding tactical nuclear warfare, but these studies have been overwhelmingly focused on the American dimension. There is, however, sufficient material to aid scholars in researching British thinking about tactical nuclear weapons. Clark and Wheeler 1989 is a suitable place to start and links British thinking about tactical nuclear weapons to the broader nuclear debate in the 1950s. The evolution of NATO thinking about tactical nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s is covered by Macmillan and Twigge 1996. Nichols, et al. 2012 provides the wider historical and strategic context for examining BAOR’s relationship with tactical nuclear weapons. The most thorough assessment of the British army’s thinking about the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the land battle can be found in French 2012. Carter 2012 and Moody 2015 both offer accounts of NATO war-games and military exercises that featured the simulated use of tactical nuclear weapons.
Carter, Donald A. “War Games in Europe: The U.S. Army Experiments with Atomic Doctrine.” In Blueprints for Battle: Planning for War in Central Europe, 1948–1968. Edited by Jan Hoffenaar and Dieter Krüger, 131–153. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012.
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Although this book chapter is concerned primarily with the experiences of the US Army in developing a doctrine for nuclear land combat it touches upon pan-NATO exercises in which BAOR participated.
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Clark, Ian, and Nicholas J. Wheeler. The British Origins of Nuclear Strategy, 1945–1955. Oxford: Clarendon, 1989.
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Although concerned primarily with the strategic nuclear deterrent, the monograph provides insights in to the British Army of the Rhine’s thinking about the tactical use of nuclear weapons and examines the political bargaining and rivalries between the three fighting services.
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French, David. Army, Empire, and Cold War: The British Army and Military Policy, 1945–1971. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548231.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most comprehensive account of the experiences of the postwar British army. Includes a chapter on BAOR’s attempts to transform itself organizationally in preparation for nuclear land combat.
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Macmillan, Alan, and Stephen Twigge. “Past, Present and Future? Tactical Nuclear Weapons in NATO Strategy.” War Studies Journal 2.1 (1996): 76–88.
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This article provides an overview of the major NATO policy decisions regarding tactical nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s. Reaffirms the importance of historical insight to strategic calculation.
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Moody, Simon J. “Enhancing Political Cohesion in NATO during the 1950s or: How it Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the (Tactical) Bomb.” Journal of Strategic Studies (2015).
DOI: 10.1080/01402390.2015.1035434Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the political and strategic rationales for the adoption of a tactical nuclear force posture by NATO in the 1950s. Includes an assessment of war games and military exercises featuring BAOR and which simulated the tactical use of nuclear weapons.
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Nichols, Tom, Douglas Stuart, and Jeffery D. McCausland, eds. Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2012.
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An edited volume which takes a thematic approach to analyzing NATO’s relationship with tactical nuclear weapons. Includes informative chapters on the role played by tactical nuclear weapons in NATO strategy and the conceptual challenges of planning for tactical nuclear war.
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Northern Army Group
The British Army of the Rhine was just one formation within the multinational Northern Army Group (NORTHAG). How BAOR was integrated with its sister formations is therefore important for understanding how it planned to operate in a multinational setting. There is a scarcity of resources available for scholars specifically relating to NORTHAG. However, the citations listed below shine some light on BAOR’s relationship with its Belgian, Canadian, and Dutch partners on the Central Front. French 2012 provides the most comprehensive account of the activation of NORTHAG and BAOR’s role within it. This can be supplemented by Miller 1998, a narrative of the composition of 1 (BR) Corps, the cornerstone formation of British land forces in Germany. Duffield 1995 provides an extremely detailed account of the planning processes relating to NORTHAG, while Aldrich 2008 and Aldrich 2012 examines the intelligence gathering agencies within BAOR and NORTHAG. The Canadian contribution to NORTHAG has been documented skillfully by Campbell 2013. The shifting orders of battle for BAOR and NORTHAG throughout the duration of the Cold War can be found in Watson and Rinaldi 2005.
Aldrich, Richard J. “Intelligence within BAOR and NATO’s Northern Army Group.” Journal of Strategic Studies 31.1 (2008): 89–122.
DOI: 10.1080/01402390701785443Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most comprehensive examination of the intelligence gathering functions and capabilities of BAOR in the 1970s. Assesses the impact that the Yom Kippur War had on BAOR thinking about early warning and surprise attack in the latter stages of the Cold War.
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Aldrich, Richard J. “Waiting to be Kissed? NATO, NORTHAG, and Intelligence.” In Blueprints for Battle: Planning for War in Central Europe, 1948–1968. Edited by Jan Hoffenaar and Dieter Krüger, 55–74. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012.
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This book chapter provides a detailed account of Northern Army Group’s intelligence machinery. It examines Northern Army Group’s intelligence priorities and structures, how intelligence was gathered before the outbreak of war, and how the various intelligence agencies would collect information at the outbreak of war.
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Campbell, Isobel. Unlikely Diplomats: The Canadian Brigade in Germany, 1951–64. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2013.
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A fascinating study which explores NATO strategy and Canadian defense policy through the lens of NORTHAG’s Canadian Brigade Groups. Extensive use of recently declassified primary sources.
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Duffield, John S. Power Rules: The Evolution of NATO’s Conventional Force Posture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995.
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A history of defense management, planning, and strategy-making in NATO. The book is underpinned by detailed archival research and focuses on intra-alliance politics and the shifting balance of power in Europe throughout the Cold War.
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French, David. Army, Empire, and Cold War: The British Army and Military Policy, 1945–1971. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548231.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A comprehensive account of the experiences of the postwar British army. Contains a wealth of information on the origins of BAOR and its integration within the Northern Army Group and NATO.
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Miller, David. The Cold War: A Military History. New York: St. Martin’s, 1998.
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A sweeping history of the military dimensions of the Cold War suitable for undergraduates and the general reader. Addresses the activation of 1 (BR) Corps and its integration within NORTHAG.
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Watson, Graham, and Richard A. Rinaldi. The British Army in Germany: An Organizational History, 1947–2004. Tacoma Park, MD: Tiger Lily, 2005.
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A detailed reference work which charts the various organizational changes that took place within BAOR for the duration of its deployment in Germany.
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BAOR Doctrine
The evolution of BAOR’s doctrine for both conventional and nuclear war is a fascinating subject that reveals how the organization prepared for armed conflict and how it envisioned the character of a future war. Lider 1985 is a good starting place for understanding wider British military thought after 1945 which can be supplemented with McInnes 1996, a more focused study on doctrine and military thought within the postwar British army. Jones 1975 and Kiszely 1996 take a more theoretical look at BAOR doctrine within the wider context of the changing character of warfare and the British army’s attempts at adaptation. Souter 1993, while focusing on US Army war-plans, references a number of exercises that helped to shape military thinking within BAOR.
French, David. Army, Empire, and Cold War: The British Army and Military Policy, 1945–1971. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199548231.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The most comprehensive examination of the postwar British army. Includes a chapter on the development of BAOR’s doctrine for nuclear land combat and its operational status within NORTHAG. Meticulously researched with an extensive bibliography.
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Jones, Alun Gwynne. “Training and Doctrine in the British Army since 1945.” In The Theory and Practice of War. Edited by Michael Howard, 313–333. London and Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975.
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A concise account of how the political and technological changes of the postwar world affected the doctrine and organization of the British army. It is a study rooted in the theory of war and provides links to the writings of important military intellectuals.
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Kiszely, John. “The British Army and Approaches to Warfare since 1945.” Journal of Strategic Studies 19.4 (1996): 179–206.
DOI: 10.1080/01402399608437657Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An article which seeks to trace the evolution of the British army’s thinking about manoeuver warfare since 1945 linking it to the wider theoretical debate about the relative merits of attritional versus manoeuver-based approaches to war-fighting. Touches upon BAOR doctrine and the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
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Lider, Julian. British Military Thought after World War II. Aldershot, UK: Gower, 1985.
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A theoretical study of British postwar military thought covering all of the major defense debates on European security. Includes chapters on operational art, nuclear integration in NATO, and British doctrine for fighting with tactical nuclear weapons.
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McInnes, Colin. Hot War, Cold War: The British Army’s Way in Warfare, 1945–95. London and Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 1996.
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A succinct account of the experiences of the postwar British army with a focus on the conceptual element of combat power. Covers BAOR defense plans between 1970 and 1990 and changes in approaches to warfighting after the Bagnall reforms of the 1980s.
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Souter, Kevin. “To Stem the Red Tide: The German Report Series and Its Effects on American Defence Doctrine, 1948–1954.” Journal of Military History 57.4 (1993): 653–688.
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The article provides a good assessment on early Cold War American war plans for the defense of Europe. There is reference to joint Anglo-American war plans and outlines well the challenges of military planning on the Central Front.
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War Plans
BAOR did not embark upon the war for which it prepared. Consequently, there exists a plethora of war plans that were developed by BAOR in anticipation for a Warsaw Pact attack. These war plans reveal how army planners conceptualized the character of future warfare and how they would attempt to defend the Central Front against a numerically superior enemy. Evans 2012 provide a comprehensive review of how such plans in BAOR and NORTHAG were developed and how they evolved throughout the Cold War. Some of the methods by which planners informed their thinking about future war are covered by Kirby and Godwin 2008 in their analysis of operational research methods. The earliest British plans for war against the Soviet Union are described in a fascinating study by Walker 2013 while the edited collection Mastny, et al. 2006 provides valuable insights into military planning on the other side of the Iron Curtain. An examination of high-level military planning in Britain is provided by Cornish 1996 and Lewis 2003.
Cornish, Paul. British Military Planning for the Defence of Germany, 1945–50. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1996.
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A study of threat perceptions and military plans in the immediate postwar years. A good assessment of the role of BAOR in the British “three pillars” strategy and its war-time functions. Includes BAOR orders of battle for the time frame covered.
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Evans, Robert. “The British Army of the Rhine and Defense Plans for Germany, 1945–1955.” In Blueprints for Battle: Planning for War in Central Europe, 1948–1968. Edited by Jan Hoffenaar and Dieter Krüger, 203–215. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012.
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This book chapter, while not comprehensive, has considerable breadth in its scrutiny of the major war plans developed by BAOR planners between 1945 and 1955 for the defense of northern Germany. Includes helpful maps with BAOR garrison locations and defensive deployments.
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Karber, P. A., and J. A. Combs. “The United States, NATO, and the Soviet Threat to Western Europe: Military Estimates and Policy Options, 1945–1963.” Diplomatic History 22.3 (1998): 399–429.
DOI: 10.1111/1467-7709.00126Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Analyzes the often misguided attempts by NATO to estimate Soviet conventional capabilities between 1945 and 1963, and how the alliance responded to those assessments. The article demonstrates well the dilemmas of Central Front military planning. Detailed research based on archival sources.
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Kirby, Maurice, and Matthew Godwin. “Operational Research as Counterfactual History: A Retrospective Analysis of the Use of Battlefield Nuclear Weapons in the German Invasion of France and Flanders, May-June 1940.” Journal of Strategic Studies 31.4 (August 2008): 633–660.
DOI: 10.1080/01402390802088465Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A captivating study on how the British army attempted to inform learning about tactical nuclear combat through operational research. The article focuses on one particular experiment which saw the simulated use of tactical nuclear weapons grafted on to various military operations from the opening stages of the Second World War.
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Lewis, Julian. Changing Direction: British Military Planning for Post-war Strategic Defence, 1942–1947. 2d ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
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Examines the work of a wide range of British planning bodies including the Military Sub-Committee, the Post-Hostilities Planning Sub-Committee, the Post-Hostilities Planning Staff, the Joint Technical Warfare Committee, and the Joint Planning Staff. Includes a number of helpful appendices with lists of committee members and reproduced primary documents.
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Mastny, Vojtech, Sven G. Holtsmark, and Andreas Wenger, eds. War Plans and Alliances in the Cold War: Threat Perceptions in the East and West. London: Routledge, 2006.
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A comparative history of NATO and Warsaw Pact military planning spanning the duration of the Cold War. A collection of extremely detailed researched chapters which shine a light on operational planning on the Central Front from the perspective of both East and West.
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Thoss, Bruno. “Aims and Realities: NATO’s Forward Defense and the Operational Planning Level at NORTHAG.” In Blueprints for Battle: Planning for War in Central Europe, 1948–1968. Edited by Jan Hoffenaar and Dieter Krüger, 21–31. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012.
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This book chapter provides a succinct account of NATO’s attempts to instigate a credible forward defense policy in Germany during the early Cold War. Introduces readers to the nuanced dilemmas of the conventional defense of the Central Front.
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Walker, Jonathan. Operation Unthinkable, the Third World War: British Plans to Attack the Soviet Empire, 1945. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2013.
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A fascinating study of the earliest British plan for war against the Soviet Union. Provides insights into its political motivations, operational design, and prospect of success. Includes reproduced primary documents and maps.