Ein bischen "bi" schadet nie: The German-Dutch Army Corps,
Abstract
Just a sample of the statements from military personnel who since 31 August 1995 belong to the bi-national Army Corps Staff. Daily before D-day, Lt Gen Reitsma talked about a merger. An apposite word, because a merger entails parent organizations amalgamating into a new organization. This paper takes a close-up look at the process. Take, for instance, the melting of two metals into an alloy. An alloy may have many advantages over the use of a pure metal. The material may be stronger or may be easier to process. But a number of conditions have to be met to bring about a sound alloy. The right temperature has to be achieved, and there has to be good fusion. If all we do is stick the metals together, the result is a botched job that readily disintegrates because the properties of the metal are not consistent throughout. An alloy consequently only has advantages if it is created in a technically correct way. For, although the properties of the original materials can no longer be immediately traced, their specific qualities still contribute to the new material. A similar process is facing the leadership of 1 (GE/NL) Corps, in Munster. The alloy we are talking about is that - of 350 Dutch and German military personnel who together, on an equal footing, are in charge of the troops who belong to the new Army Corps. The posts have been fairly divided, the location is German, the first commander is Dutch and the official language is English. The question here is what factors have a favorable impact on the fusion so that the desired amalgam is created. Of course we would prefer to design a series of tests to discover what these are. Unfortunately, in our case, we would meet with practical and ethical objections. We are, however, able to resort to our own research and the experiences of Enka-Glanzstoff (1969), Fokker-VWF/DASA (1969-1995), Hoogovens-Hoesch (1972-1982) and other literature and research.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA364065
Entities
People
- Charles J. Janssen
Organizations
- Royal Netherlands Army