Assembling an army in Belgium to fight Napoleon's resurgent forces in the spring of 1815, the Duke of Wellington formed it into army corps, deliberately mixing units from the Anglo-Hanoverian, Dutch-Belgian and German contingents so that the weaker elements would be stiffened by more experienced or reliable troops.

However, Wellington did not employ the corps as tactical entities, and continued his accustomed practice of issuing orders directly to divisional and lower commanders.

When he drew up his army on the ridge at Waterloo, elements of the various corps were mixed up, and although he gave the Prince of Orange nominal command of the centre, that officer had different forces under him.

[11] Finally, the Haldane Reforms of 1907 established a six-division British Expeditionary Force for deployment overseas, but only Aldershot Command possessed two infantry divisions and a full complement of 'army troops' to form an army corps in the field.

[20] Order of Battle during the final advance in Artois 2 October-11 November 1918[2][21] General Officer Commanding: Lieut-Gen Sir Arthur Holland BGGS: Brig-Gen G.V.

After the Germans broke through Allied lines in the Battle of France in May 1940, the BEF was forced to retreat to Dunkirk for evacuation to England.

The Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the BEF, General Lord Gort, ordered Barker to form the rearguard with I Corps to cover the evacuation, and surrender to the Germans as a last resort.

However, the acting commander of II Corps, Major General Bernard Montgomery, advised Gort that Barker was in an unfit state to be left in final command, and recommended that Major General Harold Alexander of the 1st Division should be put in charge.

Barker After returning to Britain, I Corps remained there, based at Hickleton Hall in South Yorkshire within Northern Command, on anti-invasion duties, preparing defences to repel a German invasion of the United Kingdom.

After fighting for two months in the Battle for Caen, I Corps was subordinated on 1 August 1944 to the Canadian First Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Harry Crerar, for the remainder of the Normandy campaign[34] and the subsequent operations in the Low Countries.

[35] I Corps participated in Operation Astonia (the capture of Le Havre) and Clearing the Channel Coast.

I Corps later helped to garrison "The Island" area between Arnhem and Nijmegen in the aftermath of Operation Market Garden.

Its headquarters administered 21st Army Group's logistics area around the port of Antwerp, Belgium until the end of the war.

The division was located at Verden an der Aller, Germany, and formed part of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR).

In the late 1960s, new anti-tank and defence in depth concepts were developed as fears of a possible surprise attack by the Warsaw Pact grew.

[53] The basic concept was to draw Soviet armoured forces into kill zones along their anticipated route of advance.

In the late 1970s the Corps was reorganised as four small five-battle-group armoured divisions plus a roughly brigade sized infantry 'Field Force'.

It, like the Mason Review, aimed to balance the British military in line with the nation's financial resources and save manpower.