Hohenfels (literally ''High Cliffs'') is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

in the district of Neumarkt in the region of

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lak ...

(german: Oberpfalz) in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. The town is host to the United States Army Garrison Hohenfels, which operates the Joint Multinational Readiness Center for training NATO armed forces.

Military

The

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

founded a training area in Hohenfels in 1938. During World War II there was a POW camp there,

Stalag 383 Stalag 383 was a German World War II Prisoner of War camp located in Hohenfels, Bavaria. History The German Army founded a training area near Hohenfels, Bavaria in 1938. A troop camp for trainees, located in a high valley surrounded by dense woo ...

On April 24, 1945, Major General Stanley Eric Reinhart's 65th Infantry Division captured Hohenfels. Major General Gustav Geiger, staff and guards surrendered. The POW camp with numerous British inmates was liberated. Later, between 1945-1949 the site became a

displaced persons camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

United States Garrison Hohenfels

In 1951, Hohenfels became a training area for the United States military and was used primarily by United States forces until 1956. In 1955, the German

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

was founded, and in 1956 the first German unit was stationed in Camp Poellnricht (i.e. Lager Pöllnricht). From 1956 to 1988, the ''Hohenfels Training Area'' was used by NATO forces consisting primarily of American, German, Canadian, and occasionally British and French forces.

Combat Maneuver Training Center

In 1988, Hohenfels became the home of the Combat Maneuver Training Center (CMTC), the mission of which was to provide realistic combined arms training for the United States Army, Europe, and Seventh Army's maneuver battalion task forces in force-on-force exercises. Exercises revolved around the fictional nation of Danubia and its three provinces of friendly Sowenia, hostile Vilslakia, and neutral Jursland. The opposing force was the fictional army of Danubia. The 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment represented the "4th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment". M113A2s were used to replicate Soviet

BMP-2 The BMP-2 (''Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty'', , literally "combat machine/vehicle (of the) infantry") is an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following on from the BMP-1 of the 1960s. Development hist ...

IFVs and

M60A3 The M60 is an American second-generation main battle tank (MBT). It was officially standardized as the Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60 in March 1959. Although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 tank series was never officially ...

tanks were used to replicate Soviet

T-80 The T-80 is a main battle tank (MBT) that was designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union and manufactured in Russia. The T-80 is based on the T-64, while incorporating features from the later T-72. The chief designer of the T-80 was S ...

tanks.

Joint Multinational Readiness Center

In December 2005 the CMTC was transformed and officially renamed the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC), part of the Joint Multinational Training Center (JMTC), which oversees training of all of

United States Army Europe United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) is an Army Service Component Command (ASCC) /Theater Army responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICO ...

(USAREUR).

References

External links