The 1st Canadian Division was reformed in November 1989 after the Canadian Government decided to end the Canadian Air-Sea Transportable (CAST) Brigade Group commitment to reinforce Northern Norway. 5th Canadian Brigade Group, or more accurately, 5e Groupe-Brigade du Canada, based in Quebec, was thus available for other tasks. The CAST rapid-reinforcement commitment had been encountering problems, most graphically demonstrated during Exercise BRAVE LION in 1986, which prompted Canada to start formal consultations with NATO about consolidating the CAST Brigade and 4th Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group, based in southern Germany. The two separate forces would have meant critical logistical and medical support needs would have gone unmet in case of real war. The hole thus created by the removal of the CAST Brigade Group was filled, to a degree, by the creation of a NATO Composite Force (NCF) which Canada promised a battalion group towards.
The headquarters was established, with both 4th and 5th brigades under command, at Kingston, Ontario, with a forward detachment at Lahr in Germany where the 4th Brigade was based. The main headquarters was intended to move gradually from Kingston to Lahr over a period of time, though this never, in the event, took place. With the division only having two brigades, it was assumed that in wartime, either a German or US brigade would be assigned to provide the necessary third manoeuvre element. Training and exercises were conducted with this in mind. Some changes were necessary to the two brigades, as the 5th Brigade only had three-quarters of the 4th Brigade’s personnel and equipment.
As finally envisaged, the Division would have had two brigades as its fighting formations, with the support organizations held at the divisional level. Once reinforcements had arrived from Canada, each brigade would have had one small armoured regiment (two squadrons, each 20 tanks), and two four-company infantry battalions. Divisional troops would have been a mix of former 4th and 5th Brigade units along with some troops from 1st Brigade Group in western Canada. 3rd RCHA was intended to have been re-equipped with the MLRS to provide general support, while a further engineer regiment, 6 CER, was to have been formed. The Fort Garry Horse was also to have been re-formed to provide a divisional reconnaissance capability.
As it became obvious that the Soviet threat was disappearing in the early 1990s, the future options for Canadian forces in Europe were increasingly debated. While a battalion-sized remaining Canadian force was discussed, eventually it was decided that all Canadian land forces would leave Germany by 1994. With units disbanding around them, Division Headquarters (Forward) was repatriated to CFB Kingston on 13 June 1992, and at this time the two-brigade Germany existence of the 1st Division effectively ended.
Back in Kingston the Division’s aegis was reduced to two units; a new 1st Canadian Division HQ and Signals Regiment (which incorporated Division HQ) and the 1st Canadian Division Intelligence Company (1 Cdn Div Int Coy). Its new role was to be capable of deploying a land-based, Joint Task Force Headquarters at Division level or a Joint Force Headquarters consisting of Navy, Army and Air Force personnel for territorial defence, contingencies and other missions including complex international scenarios. The Division HQ would train formation HQs, plan for contingencies and command assigned forces in crisis situations. The HQ had in priority, four roles operations, training, support and planning.
Since 1992 1st Canadian Division HQ operations have included the Canadian element of the UN Somalian mission, Operation DELIVERANCE, Operation LANCE in Rwanda; the aborted international intervention in Zaire, Operation ASSURANCE; OperationASSISTANCE in Winnipeg (the 1997 flood); Operation RECUPERATION in Ontario and Quebec (1998 ice storm); Operation PRUDENCE in Central African Republic; Operation ABACUS (the Year 2000 problem); and two Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) missions: Operation CENTRAL in Honduras, and Operation TORRENT in Turkey.
The Division Headquarters was stood down and amalgamated with 1 CDHSR and 79 Communication Regiment on June 1, 2000 to form the Canadian Forces Joint Operations Group (CFJOG). The CFJOG is intended to provide the Canadian Forces with a significant deployable operational level command and control capability. The CFJOG now consists of the Canadian Forces Joint HQ (CFJHQ), and the Canadian Forces Joint Signals Regiment (CFJSR)
Its tasks will include maintaining a deployable core staff to provide operational-level command and control capability;theatre activation to establish all new CF missions abroad; staffing and maintaining the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) Headquarters and 20 personnel at 48 hours notice to move; anddeploying a complete headquarters to provide a command and control function to senior Canadian commanders within an allied coalition or multinational force, when needed. The Division HQ has evolved into a fully joint Canadian deployable HQ capability to try to cater to the wide variety of missions likely to test the Canadian Forces in the twenty-first century. Implicit in this demise of a dedicated land manouvre headquarters is the recognition that purely national Canadian multi-brigade operations are very unlikely to be necessary in the foreseeable future.
Order of Battle, 1st Canadian Division, 19895e Brigade mechanisee du Canadia
HQ: CFB Valcartier, Quebec
12th Regiment Blindee du Canada
2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment
3rd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment
Artillery Brigade
1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (Lahr) (4 batteries M-109 SP)
3rd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (Shilo, Manitoba)
4th Air Defence Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery
5e Regiment d’artillerie legere du Canada (Valcartier, Quebec)(3 batteries M-109 SP)
4th CER
5e Regiment du genie du Canada
6th CER (not formed)
430 Escadron tactique d’helicopteres
444 Tactical Helicopter Squadron
The Fort Garry Horse (reconnaissance) (not formed)
Headquarters and Signals Regiment
Infantry anti-armour battalion (TOW Under Armour) (not formed)
Sources
Sean M. Maloney, War Without Battles: Canada’s NATO Brigade in Germany 1951-1993, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd, (Toronto,Montreal, and others) 1997.
Department of National Defence Internet Site, www.dnd.ca, accessed January 13, 2002.