British Army of the Rhine

Anybody who thinks there were lots of British soldiers in the Rhineland is delusional and/or geographically challenged. Most were in Lower Saxony and Westphalia, if you draw a line between Dortmund and Munster you won't find much west of it, and I'm 99% sure no RAC, RA or Infantry or any 1, 2 or 3* HQs.

 

Saw a repeat of this just the other day so should be on the iplayer now and for the next 3-4 weeks. (Says 26 days at the mo.)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nj3xx

Would recommend. Not sure why "the Rhine", just an historical ref?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Army_of_the_Rhine#1945.E2.80.931994

Perhaps they already had the stationary (letter heads, stamps etc) and it was a war economy issue and the quickest way to get things moving there, by just keeping the name and running with it.

 

The Germans thought defensively that the Rhine was a natural barrier for access into the heart of Germany. Wacht am Rhein was the slogan adopted to instill the fever of national defence into the minds of Germans against an attack from the west from when Bismarck created the new Germany...now confined to history on account of the WW2 post war reconciliation with past adversaries.Passing around the vicinity of the Rhine,it is still possible to see Weinstubes, Weinhausen and the like named as "Wacht am Rhein"

After the Great War British forces occupied the Rhineland as imposed by the VersaillesTreaty. On withdrawal of the British occupation troops, the Rhineland would be a demilitarized zone as agreed by the Locarno Pact.The French for their part in the peace proceedings and projected by Clemenceau was that the Rhineland should be an independent state to use the territory as buffer state in order to negate any future aggression by Germany against France.Clemenceau,however did not get his way.

Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland against the Locarno Pact in an effort to correct the wrongs,as he saw it, of the Versailles Treaty and create the German Greater Reich.

As regards the two BAORs,the first one,the1918-1929,the official account of the occupation of the Rhineland is well documented by J E Edmonds HMSO publication,The Occupation of the Rhineland 1918-1929.The original intention was that the occupation forces would stay until 1932 .However,the British left in 1929 with the French occupation of the Ruhr and the Trier area being until 1931....economic times were reported to be the cause.