Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe of "Général d'Armée" Alphonse Juin, French Army. "Holdfast" was a major allied air-ground exercise involving 150,000 British Army of the Rhine, Dutch, Belgian and Canadian troops of NATO's Northern Army Group in coordination with the Allied Air Forces Central Europe. They maneuvered east of the Rhine River in the British Zone under the overall command of Lt. General Sir Richard Nelson Gale, British Army. Finally, "Rosebud" involved ground maneuvers by the U.S. Seventh Army in the American Zone of Occupation of Allied-occupied Germany. The initial plans saw the defence of Western Europe from a Soviet invasion resting heavily on nuclear
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe the flexibility and reach of land forces. The structure incorporated six "NATO Rapid Deployable Corps headquarters." Formed from October 2003, the NATO Rapidly Deployable Corps are designated High Readiness Forces (HRF), designed to be able to react on short notice. Although these forces cannot deploy on five days warning like the NATO Response Force (NRF), they have a longer sustainment capability in combat than the NRF, which is limited to 30 days. The Multinational Corps Northeast headquartered in Szczecin, Poland, was seen along with the downgraded Greek corps, as the third echelon deployable force in the NATO rapid deployment capability.