BAOR official documents

I've just got back from the National Archives in Kew, London where I've been researching a few things, and I took the opportunity to have a look at some files on the BAOR, which have been released in the past few years under the 30 years rule.

Found some useful statistics on the BAOR strength returns in 1974, namely that as many infantry soldiers were diverted from BAOR to Northern Ireland as were stationed in Berlin, some idea of the impact that NI had.

Also I found a very interesting document about the 1978 plans for evacuating casualties from Germany to the UK in the event of war. Originally the Government had planned to treat casualties in the BAOR area, but a lack of bed space meant the MOD devised a plan to transport casualties by rail to the channel ports (Ostend, Zeebrugge, and Calais depending on the French), then by converted Ro-Ro ferry to Dover, Folkestone and Harwich, and on by rail to NHS hospitals around the country. At the same time the Government were closing military Hospitals... some things never change! The MOD were assuming that there would be an 8 day war, with 6 days conventional warfare and 2 days tactical nuclear. They were planning for a total of 32,000 casualties.

In terms of logistics, In the mid 70's the Army devised a new plan for supplying the BAOR, mainly making sure that the forward fighting area (east of the weser) was kept clear, and that front line units kept enough stores to be self sufficient. Something interesting that was pointed out, that if the logistics of the BAOR weren't properly maintained then it would severely undermine its value as a deterrent, as Soviet intelligence would deduce that we weren't serious about maintaining it.

In terms of politics the original post-war reparations arrangement, whereby the German government met the costs of the occupying forces, expired in 1976. The Treasury actually considered that as Britain was undergoing a recession and struggling to afford the BAOR, they would try and get the German Government - even though the BAOR was there as guests and not occupiers - to meet the costs of keeping the BAOR in Germany. They even produced figures for how much the BAOR contributed to the German economy.

Finally, I found the detailed planning table for reinforcing the BAOR in the time of war in the mid 70's, including which units would take off from which airport, on which day after mobilisation, and their destination. Most of the reinforcements were TA - RA air defence, RE, RAMC, REME etc., apart from the 2 TA SAS regiments, some companies from about 10 TA Bn's were scheduled to be flown in, and the 3 TA Para Bn's. On the whole it wasn't much of a reinforcement, mainly reservists making up the support services. So, any of you guys who were out there in the 70's, if it kicked off you were pretty much on your own...

I'll write things up in more detail for my article (see my other thread), but I thought I would throw some info out there in the mean time

James,

I would have worked on all those plans, having been the TS Clerk in 1 (Br) Corps at the time