United States Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) is an Army Service Component Command/Theater Army responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the United States European Command and United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) area of responsibility.
During the Cold War, it supervised ground formations primarily focused upon the Warsaw Pact to the east as part of NATO's Central Army Group. Since the revolutions of 1989, it has greatly reduced its size, dispatched U.S. forces to the Persian Gulf War, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Kosovo War, the war in Afghanistan and increased security cooperation with other NATO land forces. From 1967 to 2006, the U.S. Army Europe dual hatted with the Seventh Army. The Seventh Army has since been dissolved and merged into the command.
On October 1. 2020, the Army announced that United States Army Africa would consolidate with U.S. Army Europe to form a new command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The two commands were consolidated on November 20, 2020.
History World War II
The European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) was a Theater of Operations responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the European theatre of World War II from 1942 to 1945. It commanded U.S. Army Ground Forces, U.S. Army Air Forces, and U.S. Army Service Forces operations north of Italy and the Mediterranean coast. It was bordered to the south by the North African Theater of Operations, US Army (NATOUSA), which later became the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTOUSA).
When the war ended in Europe on 8 May 1945, the ETOUSA headquarters was located in Versailles, France, just outside Paris. As Eisenhower and his staff began to prepare for the occupation of Germany, the ETOUSA headquarters staff moved to Frankfurt, Germany. In Frankfurt the staff was co-located with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces and the Office of Military Government, United States. ETOUSA was redesignated Headquarters, United States Forces European Theater (HQ USFET) on 1 July 1945, remaining in Frankfurt.
At the end of the war, the total U.S. Army strength in Europe was 2.4 million: two Army groups (6th and 12th), five field armies (First, Third, Seventh, Ninth and Fifteenth), 13 corps headquarters, and 62 combat divisions (43 infantry, 16 armor, and 3 airborne). There were 11,000 tanks and armored fighting vehicles. Within a year rapid redeployments had brought the occupation forces down to fewer than 290,000 personnel, and many of the larger formations had departed or been inactivated.
The Seventh Army headquarters remained in control of the western portion of the American zone, and the Third Army controlled the eastern portion. In November 1945, the two field army commanders organized district "constabularies" based on cavalry groups. The Seventh Army was inactivated in March 1946, in Germany. On 1 May 1946, the zone-wide United States Constabulary headquarters was activated at Bamberg. In mid-1946, the tactical units consisted of the Third Army (Heidelberg) with three infantry divisions (1st, 3rd and 9th) and several separate regiments (3rd, 14th, 29th and 508th Airborne). The 3rd Infantry Division was in the process of being redeployed back to the United States. Another separate infantry regiment – the 5th – was located in Austria but came under the control of US Forces in Austria.Reorganization of Tactical Forces in Post-war Germany , accessed October 2022. In 1947 Headquarters Third Army returned to the United States. From then until the early 1950s, the structure of the American occupation forces consisted of the 1st Infantry Division, a separate infantry regiment, and the U.S. Constabulary of 10 cavalry regiments.
From 1947 to 1954, the 351st Infantry Regiment served as the main body of Trieste United States Troops, on the border of Yugoslavia.
Cold War
On 15 March 1947, United States Forces, European Theater (USFET) was "replaced by the army command known as European Command (EUCOM). ..The Army element of the joint European Command headquarters was initially called Headquarters, U.S. Ground and Service Forces, Europe."
On 15 March 1947, HQ USFET was formally redesignated Headquarters, European Command (HQ EUCOM) (not to be confused with the present joint command, "USEUCOM", which was formed on 1 August 1952). Between February and June 1948 the headquarters relocated to Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg, where it remained until June 2013. The Army element of the joint European Command headquarters was initially called Headquarters, U.S. Ground and Service Forces, Europe.
On 15 November 1947, U.S. Ground and Service Forces, Europe, was renamed U.S. Army, Europe (USAREUR) to accord with the new Department of the Army nomenclature for such commands. USAREUR was a nonoperational, "paper" organization that provides the ground and service commander with the command functions required for administrative and logistical support. To it were assigned all ground and service units in the command except those assigned to the Office of Military Government, United States; to the Office of the Commander in Chief of European Command; to U.S. Air Forces Europe; to the U.S. Navy, Germany; and to a few exempted War Department agencies. The offices and personnel of the general and special staff divisions of EUCOM headquarters performed USAREUR's general and special staff duties. The principal function of the commanding general of USAREUR became the establishment and maintenance of high standards of discipline. General Huebner also became Commanding General, USAREUR.
The Berlin Blockade began 24 June 1948 when the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied control. Even though Allied forces in the city were outnumbered 50–1, General Lucius D. Clay, in charge of the US Occupation Zone in Germany, gave the order for the Berlin Airlift. Headquartered out of Wiesbaden Army Airfield, the Allies supplied almost 9,000 tons per day of supplies to the beleaguered city until the blockade was lifted on 12 May 1949.
From 1948 to 1950, Cold War tensions grew, and the outbreak of hostilities in Korea in June 1950 heightened east–west tensions in Europe. The Seventh Army was reactivated at Vaihingen, Stuttgart in late November 1950. The two U.S. Army division sized units in the U.S. Occupation Zone of Germany, the First Infantry Division and the U.S. Constabulary, were assigned to the Seventh Army. Within a few weeks other assignments to the Seventh Army included the V and VII Corps. Due to President Truman's 10 December 1950 Declaration of a National Emergency as a result of circumstances in the Korean War, four CONUS based U.S. Army divisions were alerted to move to the U.S. Occupation Zone of Germany (these divisions were known as the augmentation force to the U.S. Army in Europe). A main concern was possible Soviet attempts to "take advantage" due to their numerical superiority in Germany during the Korean War. The first augmentation division to arrive overseas in Germany was the 4th Infantry Division in May 1951, followed by the 2nd Armored Division and the 43rd and 28th Infantry Divisions during summer and fall of 1951.
On 24 November 1950 EUCOM activated HHC Seventh United States Army at Stuttgart to take over the command of the ground and service forces from USAREUR, while other USAREUR functions revert to EUCOM. General Eddy became CG of Seventh Army. HQ USAREUR continued to exist, without troops, to fulfilled certain legal requirements in connection with court-martial and other responsibilities.
A new joint, multi-service United States European Command was established in Frankfurt, Germany on 1 August 1952. General Matthew B. Ridgway became commander and Gen. Thomas T. Handy deputy commander. On that day, the U.S. Army headquarters at Heidelberg, formerly known as EUCOM, became Headquarters, United States Army, Europe. It remained in Heidelberg under the temporary command of General Handy (who wore two hats in both USEUCOM and USAREUR for a while). As Cold War tensions continued to escalate in 1952, General Williston B. Palmer commanding the 2nd Armored Division authorized the founding of the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Vaihingen-Stuttgart under the direction of Samuel Adler in support of U.S. cultural diplomacy throughout Europe. Army – "Musical Ambassadors, Soldiers Too" James I. Kenner. Editor Lt. General Walter L. Weible. Association of the United States Army Vol 9. No. 1 August 1958 p. 60-62 – Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra
In 1953, the Korean War Armistice was signed, and tensions began to ease in Europe. About 13,500 soldiers manned each of the USAREUR divisions. New equipment fielded at the time included the M48 tank, the M59 armored personnel carrier, and tactical nuclear weapons. On 25 October 1955, the Southern Europe Task Force (SETAF), a logistical command, was formally activated in Italy. The headquarters, commanded by Maj. Gen. John H. Michaelis, was temporarily established at Camp Darby, near Livorno, Italy with units additionally stationed in Vicenza and Verona. Shortly after activation, SETAF moved the headquarters to Caserma Passalacqua in Verona, Italy. An airborne battalion eventually joined SETAF.
On 15 July 1958 USAREUR forces were ordered to assist the Lebanese government. Task Force 201, the Army component of Operation Blue Bat rapidly deployed more than 8,000 Soldiers from Europe to Beirut by air and sea. As the situation quickly stabilized, all U.S. forces redeployed from the country within 4 months.
Although the Korean War – open East–West conflict – had ended, political tensions remained high in Europe. Particularly troublesome was the impasse over the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, the former British, French and U.S. zones of occupation) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, the former Soviet zone of occupation). East Germany [the DDR] was considered by many countries over the years to be nothing more than the Soviet Zone of Occupation; this changed in 1973 with the UN recognition of both Germanies.
Berlin posed an additional problem; it was surrounded by East Germany, but Great Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union all occupied sectors in the city. In the early years, travel between the sectors was unrestricted. At the time Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev announced in June 1961 that the Soviet Union was planning to conclude a peace treaty with the East German government, 3,000 East German refugees flowed daily into Berlin.
Suddenly on the night of 12 August 1961, the Soviets closed the border crossing points and began to construct the Berlin Wall, isolating the three western sectors of the city both from East Germany and the Soviet sector, or East Berlin. In response, the United States deployed an additional armored cavalry regiment to Europe, along with additional support units. USAREUR strength reached a post-World War II high of 277,342 in June 1962 as the crisis deepened. That 1946–1991 Cold War maximum USAREUR troop record gradually reduced over time.
The command dispatched the reinforced 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry Regiment, to Berlin to strengthen the existing garrison (2nd and 3rd Battle Groups, 6th Infantry). The nuclear armed USAREUR did not go to DEFCON 3 during 22 Oct to 20 November 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis due to political reasons. Almost all other US Forces worldwide were at DEFCON 3 per JFK's 22 October speech and direction to the Pentagon.