Army group

After the surrender of Japan, the Imperial Japanese Army was dissolved, except for the Dai-Ichi So-Gun, which existed until 30 November 1945 as the 1st Demobilization Headquarters.

The Western Allies established six separate army groups during the Second World War, although no more than five existed simultaneously.

Led by British and American officers, they included troops from numerous allied nations; the British–American 15th Army Group also included Canadian and Polish corps, divisions from Brazil, India, New Zealand and South Africa and a Greek brigade.

As part of Operation Quicksilver, the Allies set up a seventh, fictitious First United States Army Group.

During the Cold War, NATO land forces in what was designated the Central Region (most of the Federal Republic of Germany) would have been commanded in wartime by two army groups.

These two principal subordinate commanders had only limited peacetime authorities, and issues such as training, doctrine, logistics, and rules of engagement were largely a national, rather than NATO, responsibility.

By World War II and previous standards, these two formations were only armies, as they contained four corps each.

This new conceptual orientation led, among other things, to fundamental changes both in the force and integrated command structure.

Structural changes began in June 1993, when HQ Central Army Group (CENTAG) at Heidelberg and Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) at Mönchengladbach were deactivated and replaced by Headquarters Allied Land Forces Central Europe (LANDCENT), which was activated at Heidelberg on 1 July 1993.