1 Armoured Division

1 Armoured Division’s company- and battalion-size units are stationed from northern Germany to Hesse. Command and control is exercised by Division Headquarters at Oldenburg.

1 Armoured Division, a mechanised major unit, plans and conducts operations across the entire intensity spectrum, including national and collective defence, and provides personnel for multinational headquarters on operations. Furthermore, it continuously trains active-duty and reserve-duty personnel.

The Division’s motto, “Man Drup – Man To”, originates from Low German and translates roughly to “Up and at ‘em”.

610 Signal Battalion at Prenzlau, the only one of its kind in the Army, and 325 Artillery Support Battalion are also part of the Division.

Operations abroad

The Division is responsible for Army operations within the framework of Resolute Support in Afghanistan and for training support in northern Iraq and Somalia. 1 Armoured Division acts as lead division for the planning, build-up, and training of NATO’s quick reaction force, the land component of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, or VJTFVery High Readiness Joint Task Force (Land).

1 Armoured Division works in close concert with the Polish, British, and Dutch armed forces. The Dutch 43 Gemechaniseerde Brigade (43 Mechanised Brigade) from Havelte (Netherlands), for instance, has been integrated into the Division.

To accomplish their mission, the Division’s soldiers have various main weapon systems at their disposal, such as the Leopard 2 main battle tank, the Marder and Puma infantry fighting vehicles, the MARSMittleres Artillerieraketensystem (medium artillery rocket system) II rocket launcher, the PzH 2000 armoured self-propelled howitzer, the Büffel armoured recovery vehicle, the GTKGepanzertes Transport-Kraftfahrzeug Boxer armoured transport vehicle, the M3 amphibious bridging vehicle, the ribbon bridge, the Fennek reconnaissance vehicle and the Mammut heavy equipment transporter.

For the purpose of task accomplishment, the following agencies are directly subordinate to 1 Armoured Division:

• 9 Armour Demonstration Brigade
• 21 Armoured Brigade
• 41 Armoured Infantry Brigade
• 43 (NLD) Mechanised Brigade
• 325 Artillery Support Battalion
• 610 Signal Battalion
• 901 Heavy Engineer Battalion
• 1 Operations Support Battalion