Allied Forces Baltic Approaches (BALTAP) was a Principal Subordinate Command (PSC) of the NATO Military Command Structure, with responsibility for the Baltic Sea area. It was in existence from 1962 to 2002 and consisted of the Danish Armed Forces, units of the West German Bundeswehr and allied wartime reinforcements.
The NATO command Baltic Approaches was created on 8 January 1962, with headquarters in Karup, Denmark. It was created at Germany's urging, in order to end the previous separation of the German naval forces between the NATO commands Northern Europe and Central Europe. After the changes in the international security situation in 1990, the command was restructured in 1993 and deactivated in 2002.
The area of responsibility of BALTAP comprised the territory of Denmark (without Greenland and the Faroe Islands), the German states Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein and the eastern North Sea, the Baltic approaches with Skagerrak, Kattegat, the Danish straits, and the Baltic Sea. One peculiarity was the responsibility for air defence over the German part of the BALTAP area. Until 1990, the western Allies were responsible for air defence over the whole Federal Republic of Germany on the basis of the occupation statute. After France had withdrawn from the integrated military structure of the alliance, this task was undertaken by the United States and the United Kingdom. The Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF) was responsible for the area of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, and was led by a British officer from RAF Germany, with headquarters in Mönchengladbach.[1]
BALTAP was led by a Danish officer with the rank of a Lieutenant General or a Vice Admiral, who had the designation Commander Allied Forces Baltic Approaches (COMBALTAP). His deputy was a German officer of the same rank. From 1962 to 1993, COMBALTAP was under the NATO command Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) in Kolsås outside Oslo in Norway. After a change in the NATO structure, it was placed under Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) on 1 October 1993. For the operational command of the air and sea forces, a partial assignment of these forces to Allied Forces Northwestern Europe (AFNORTHWEST) with its component commands AIRNORTHWEST and NAVNORTHWEST was made.
In case of war, COMBALTAP would have had to lead the NATO forces assigned to it. According to plans, all Danish forces with the exception of some units in the outer regions were to be placed under COMBALTAP. Germany had provided for its land and air forces stationed in the BALTAP area, and its entire naval and naval air forces, to be subordinated to COMBALTAP. In addition, external reinforcements from the United States and Britain (UK Mobile Force, primarily 1st Infantry Brigade) were planned.
^Brian Wanstall; Luftverteidigung im Ostseeraum - Dänemark bewacht die Meerengen; in: Interavia 12-1982, S. 1297ff
and 27 Related for: Allied Forces Baltic Approaches information
German/Danish NATO command AlliedForcesBalticApproaches (BALTAP). BALTAP was a principal subordinate command under the AlliedForces Northern Europe Command...
July 1962 and the establishment of Commander AlliedForcesBalticApproaches (COMBALTAP), German naval forces were shifted into that command. Thereafter...
(COMLANDZEALAND) in Ringsted, Denmark Allied Air ForcesBalticApproaches (COMAIRBALTAP) in Karup Allied Naval ForcesBalticApproaches (COMNAVBALTAP) in Karup *...
that opposed the Central Powers AlliedForcesBalticApproaches, a command of NATO active from 1962 to 2002 AlliedForces North Norway, a command of NATO...
coastal waters were under the command of NATO's Allied Command Channel and AlliedForcesBalticApproaches.[citation needed] Therefore, most major naval...
country into the European theatre. The US led Alliedforces in the Pacific theatre against Japanese forces from 1941 to 1945. From 1943 to 1945, the US...
the German Navy's naval aviation and placed under command of AlliedForcesBalticApproaches. In 1960, the Luftwaffe received its first Lockheed F-104 Starfighter...
direct approaches to the Belgian and Dutch coast via the English channel and the North Sea and as BALTAP's German-Danish Allied Naval ForcesBaltic Approaches...
and Allied Forces BalticApproaches. Unlike most other NATO commands NON was a staffed entirely by members of the Norwegian Armed Forces. Its operational...
The British also intervened in the Baltic theatre (1918–1919) and in the Caucasus (1917–1919). French-led Alliedforces participated in the Southern Russia...
to 1979 held the position of Commander of the NATO Naval forces in the Baltic Sea Approaches (COMNAVBALTAP). U-123 sank the Spanish-registered motor ship...
allied East German Navy was absorbed by West Germany and the Polish Navy no longer supplemented the strength of the Baltic Fleet. Russian Land forces...
multinational corps in NATO, Allied Land Forces Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland (LANDJUT) (in its turn, a part of AlliedForces Northern Europe). From 1962...
of the Red Army Baltic Offensive of 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured most of the Baltic states and trapped the remaining German forces in the Courland...
then transferred to the Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force (4 ATAF) and the AIRBALTAP, AlliedForcesBalticApproaches at the headquarters in Karup, Denmark...
The Baltic Landwehr or Baltische Landeswehr ("Baltic Territorial Army") was the name of the unified armed forces of Couronian and Livonian nobility from...
(Commander Allied Naval Forces North Norway) and Chief of the Operations Division on the staff of COMNAVBALTAP (Commander of AlliedForcesBalticApproaches)....
). Вооружённые силы стран СНГ и Балтии. Справочник [Armed forces of CIS countries and Baltic states. Handbook] (in Russian). Moscow: Современная школа...
Bomarsund fortress on Åland Islands. In the August 1855, the Western AlliedBaltic Fleet tried to destroy heavily defended Russian dockyards at Sveaborg...
between 1977 and 1985 as the wartime headquarters for NATO's AlliedForcesBalticApproaches (BALTAP). At the end of the Cold War, BALTAP was disbanded...
NATO in 1991 and served as a branch chief at Headquarters, AlliedForcesBalticApproaches (BALTAP), in Karup Municipality, Denmark, where he served until...
Global Information
Denmark
West Germany
North Atlantic Treaty Organization