Rheindahlen Military Complex

JHQ Rheindahlen
Mönchengladbach
JHQ Rheindahlen
JHQ Rheindahlen Location within Germany
Coordinates	51°10′35″N 6°19′18″E / 51.17639°N 6.32167°E / 51.17639; 6.32167Coordinates: 51°10′35″N 6°19′18″E / 51.17639°N 6.32167°E / 51.17639; 6.32167
Type	Headquarters and barracks
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	British Army
Site history
Built	1952
Built for	War Office
In use	1952-2013
Garrison information
Occupants	British Forces Germany and NATO national contingents

JHQ (Joint Headquarters) Rheindahlen was a military base in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany active from 1954 to 2013. It functioned as the main headquarters for British forces in Germany and for the NATO Northern Army Group. Latterly it was also known as the Rheindahlen Military Complex, part of Rheindahlen Garrison. It was named after the local town of Rheindahlen, part of the city of Monchengladbach.

In 1952, work began on the British Forces Maintenance Area West of the Rhine. Part of the project included the construction of a joint British Army and Royal Air Force headquarters for the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in Rheindahlen. Colonel Henry Grattan was Chief Engineer of the construction project.

HQ BAOR moved from Bad Oeynhausen to Rheindahlen in October 1954, centralising headquarters functions previously located across several towns in Northern Germany. It was originally the HQ of the Northern Army Group (NORTHAG), Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2ATAF), British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) and Royal Air Force Germany (RAFG). Some 12,000 military personnel moved to the "town within a town" in a few weeks.

By the early 1970s the facilities in the complex included a NAAFI superstore and a smaller NAAFI store (Buschof NAAFI), German shops, a travel agent (Milatravel), two German banks (Commerzbank and Sparkasse), two post offices, dress shop (a Malcolm Club shop), YMCA Bookshop, libraries and cafes. There were separate full British Army (RAMC) and RAF Medical & Dental Centres, four British primary schools (St Georges, St Andrews, St Patricks, St Davids & St Christophers) and a Belgian school. There was one secondary school (initially Queens upper & lower until the senior school moved to Hostert Waldniel, later returning to JHQ and recombining as Windsor School.