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The Central Army Group (CENTAG) was a NATO military formation comprising four Army Corps from two NATO member nations comprising troops from Canada, West Germany and the United States. During the Cold War, CENTAG was NATO's forward defence in the southern half of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The northern half of the FRG was defended by the four Army Corps of NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG). During wartime, CENTAG would command four frontline corps (II German, III German, V US, and VII US).
Air support for CENTAG would have been provided by Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force (FOURATAF). In peacetime, the U.S. Army's 32nd Army Air Defense Command was administratively part of U.S. Army Europe; if mobilization had occurred, plans called for it to be operationally controlled by FOURATAF.
In addition to these forces, the French Forces in Germany (made up of the 1st Army Corps and 2nd Army Corps) were associated with the Army Group. In 1966, France had withdrawn from the NATO Command Structure, but it still wished to take part in the defence of Western Europe. A series of secret US-French agreements, the Ailleret-Lemnitzer Agreements, made between NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and the French Chief of the Defence Staff detailed how French forces would reintegrate into the NATO Command Structure in case of war. Three armored divisions of the First Army were based within Germany and held yearly maneuvers with their allies to train for the moment French units would be committed to CENTAG (see also: Structure of the French Army in 1989).
The estimated wartime structure of CENTAG in the fall of 1989 at the end of the Cold War follows below. The main source for U.S. entries is Johnson, Andy; Callahan, Pat (2012). NATO Order of Battle 1989.
