Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

The Multinational Division Central MND (C), was a multi-national division in NATO for Central Europe and had its headquarters at the British base in JHQ Rheindahlen near Mönchengladbach. The concept for this first genuine multi-national division in NATO with its four participating nations - Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands originated during the Cold War. The airmobile MND (C) was to support Northern Army Group Central Europe (NORTHAG) as a reserve formation. The MND (C) achieved operational readiness on 1 April 1994. The divisional staff comprised 50 officers, 54 NCOs and soldiers. The headquarters company initially had 154 soldiers from Germany. Its first commander was Major General Pieter Huysman from the Netherlands. On the full activation of the division each nation was to make available a parachute or airmobile brigade, combat support units and supply units. Four brigades from the participating nations were under command: the Belgian Para-Commando Brigade (Eversberg) the German 31 Airmobile Brigade (Oldenburg) the British 24th Airmobile Brigade (Colchester), from 1999: the 16 Air Assault Brigade and the Dutch 11 Luchtmobiele Brigade (Schaarsbergen)MND-C, with a theoretical strength of 20,000 soldiers, was the most important of the multi-national rapid reaction forces stationed in Europe and had the capability of deploying on worldwide military intervention missions. The Division would be placed under command of its superior formation, Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), on request. As part of the Forces Answerable to WEU (FAWEU) it was also possible for the MND(C) to be mobilised for military operations under the Western European Union (WEU). Because NATO became increasingly focussed on other crisis reaction forces (the so-called High Readiness Forces (Land)), the headquarters of MND (C) was disbanded on 25 October 2002. Its last commander was Major General Marc Jacqmin.

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 village of Rheindahlen, part of the city borough of Mönchengladbach.

The former Royal Air Force Rheindahlen, more commonly known as RAF Rheindahlen, was a non-flying Royal Air Force (RAF) military administrative base, becoming part of the Rheindahlen Military Complex (JHQ Rheindahlen) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; collectively a part of British Forces Germany (BFG). The Royal Air Force station was named after the nearby town and railway station of Rheindahlen. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was more commonly referred to as RAF Mönchengladbach; due to Rheindahlen being the Army's name for the same JHQ. It was unusual in that the RAF station land was publicly accessible, with public transport routes, and even German civilian mail service (Rheindahlen 2).

The former Royal Air Force Hospital Wegberg, commonly abbreviated to RAF(H) Wegberg, was a Royal Air Force (RAF) military hospital located in Wegberg, near the city of Mönchengladbach, in the then West Germany. It was opened in 1953 to serve the British Armed Forces personnel already in the area, and in anticipation of the construction and opening of the large RAF Rheindahlen base, nearby.

The Kranenbach is an orographically right-hand tributary of the Schwalm in the Lower Rhine county of Viersen. Its source is in the vicinity of Vennbachhof near Ungerath (in the municipality of Schwalmtal) at a height of around 60 m above NN. The stream has a length of just under 9.5 kilometres and empties into the Schwalm by the mill of Borner Mühle at a height of about 40 m above NN.. The Kranenbach picks up the waters of the Haversloher Bach (1.5 kilometres long), the Heidweiher Bach (1.5 kilometres long), the Vogelsrather Bach (1.7 kilometres long), the Schageher Bach (1.4 kilometres long) and the Berggraben which has a length of 2.3 kilometres. The Kranenbach was canalized in the years 1925/26. Its care and maintenance is the responsibility of the Schwalmverband, which has its head office in Brüggen.

Hostert is a residential area in the municipality of Schwalmtal, in the German county of Viersen. In 1970, it merged with Waldniel, 2.5 km further west, to form the municipality of Schwalmtal. It lies on the state road (Landstraße) from Schwalmtal to Gladbach. To the south it borders on the A 52 motorway. Linguistically Hostert means Hofstatt ("farmstead"). The settlement includes the complex of St. Josefsheim, built in 1909. After being built as a Franciscan priory, the monks were forced out by the Nazi regime and it was used as part of their child euthanasia programme. After the war it became a British military boarding school, Kent School, Hostert. Since that closed in 1993, the site has stood empty.

Kent School was a British secondary school in Germany, with boarding facilities, for the children of military personnel. It was located near the military complex at JHQ Rheindahlen, at Hostert, near Mönchengladbach. The school operated from 1963 until 1986 when it was amalgamated with Queens School, Rheindahlen, to become Windsor School. It was one of several secondary schools in Germany operated by the Service Children's Education organization.

Rheindahlen (called Dalen from the Early Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period around 1700, and Dahlen until 1878) is a town in the western and largest borough of the city of Mönchengladbach in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Since the reorganisation of Monchengladbach's boroughs (Stadtbezirke) on 22 October 2009 Rheindahlen has been part of Mönchengladbach West. From the granting of Nideggen town rights in 1354 until the incorporation of the mayoralty of Rheindahlen into M.-Gladbach on 30 June 1921, the place was an independent town. In 1878, the town was renamed from Dahlen to Rheindahlen in the Prussian Province of Düsseldorf by order of Emperor William I. Its renaming was primarily for postal reasons in order to avoid confusing the Dahlen in the Rhine Province with the municipality of Dahlen in Saxony within the North German Postal Zone. Its old name linguistically meant Delle or "hollow", which refers to the location of the village in a depression.

The Grenzlandring ("border-region ring"), sometimes written Grenzland-Ring, was a high-speed oval race track in the Lower Rhine area of Germany, around the town of Wegberg and close to Mönchengladbach and the Dutch town of Roermond. The concrete ring was secretly constructed in 1938-1939 as a "strategically important" supply route for construction of Nazi Germany's Westwall fortifications, at total cost of about 3.3 million Reichsmark. As a military project, it was not shown on road maps. After minor use early in World War II, the ring was disused, but survived the war largely intact. Immediately after the war, parts of the ring were used by U.S. and British military units. In 1947, the Grenzlandring, also known as the Wegbergring or Wegberg-Ring, was locally "rediscovered" when Carl Marcus, mayor of nearby Rheydt, drove one night along what seemed to be a more or less straight country road. When he passed a bicycle rider more than once, he suddenly realized that the road was in fact circular. Beginning in the late 1940s, the ring was used for auto and motorcycle racing. The all-time lap record was set in September 1949 by Bavarian Georg "Schorsch" Meier on a supercharged BMW 500 motorbike at 216 km/h (134 mph), and in September 1951 Toni Ulmen set the all-time record for cars, driving his Veritas 2000 RS to 212 km/h (132 mph).On August 31, 1952, for reasons never completely explained, Berliner Helmut Niedermayr crashed his Formula Two Reif/Veritas-Meteor at the exit of the Roermonder Kurve at nearly 200 km/h (120 mph),, killing 13 spectators and injuring another 42. Although the actual event was not stopped to avert panic in the crowds, racing was subsequently banned from the ring by the government, after a total of five competitions attended by an estimated 300,000 people.Subsequently, a southern section of the road was removed, while the remaining portion was asphalted for local traffic.

Wegberg (German pronunciation: [ˈveːkbɛʁk]; Limburgish: Berk [ˈbæʀ(ə)k]) is the northernmost town in the district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Waldniel is a village, part of the municipality Schwalmtal in the district Viersen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It has 11,750 inhabitants (December 2020).

The Battle of Dahlen was fought on April 23, 1568, between a Dutch rebel army led by Jean de Montigny, Lord of Villers, and a Spanish army commanded by Sancho Dávila y Daza. As a part of William of Orange's planned invasion, the Dutch rebels were trying to conquer the town of Roermond when the arrival of the Spanish force compelled them to withdraw. Dávila pursued the retreating force and inflicted a defeat upon Villers near the small town of Dahlen (today known as Rheindahlen). The survivors of this encounter sought refuge under the walls of Dahlen, where the Spanish infantry finally defeated them. This battle is sometimes considered the official start of the Eighty Years' War.