Land Command

[1] The headquarters, abbreviated as STRATCO, was established on 1 April 1968 in the wake of the government's decision, announced in January of that year, to withdraw all British troops from bases east of Suez.

[2] Its major task was to direct the strategic reserves of the British Army; its headquarters was formed from HQ Southern Command at Erskine Barracks near Fugglestone (Wilton, Wiltshire).

The first Commander-in-chief of the new Command was Lieutenant General Sir John Mogg KCB, CBE, DSO, (previously Commander-in-chief, Southern Command), who described the reasoning behind its formation as being: "to raise the standard and training of field force units to ensure any force sent abroad is correctly prepared, equipped and mounted to carry out its task speedily and successfully".

[7] In 1995, HQ United Kingdom Land Forces at Wilton assumed control of troops in Germany and most other places.

Bringing all the army's conventional fighting forces into one command allowed the new commander-in-chief, initially General Sir John Wilsey, to better prioritise operational commitments and to reduce the higher overhead costs previously spent in maintaining four-star operational commands both in the UK and in Germany.

HQ Land Command was given control of several functions previously executed by the General Staff within the Ministry of Defence (Army).

In the last of those, the General Officer commanding reported to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for operations in support of the civil power.

[15] Land Command was later divided in 2003, under the LANDmark reorganisation, into two suborganisations, Field Army and Regional Forces, that paralleled the Cold War structure of UKLF.

[22] 3 Commando Brigade, formed predominantly by units of the Royal Marines but with significant army support, was under the direct command of the Commander-in-Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET).

The fourteen new Civil Contingency Response Forces (CCRFs), each parented by a TA infantry battalion, were also linked into this structure.

They form force elements which may be called on, alongside regular units, by the established chain of command (Ministry of Defence, Army Headquarters, HQ Land Forces, Support Command and Regional Brigades) in the event of a request for military assistance by the civil authorities.