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
CENTAG wartime structure in 1989 command of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), which would employ the three corps' of First Army as needed. Three armored divisions of the First Army were based within Germany and held yearly maneuvers with their allies to train for the moment French units would be committed to CENTAG (see also: Structure of the French Army in 1989). The complete wartime structure of CENTAG in the fall of 1989 at the end of the Cold War follows below: The 56th Field Artillery Command was organized to always report directly to the highest commander in Europe at the time. Therefore, during