OOBs NATRES (Dutch army reserve) through the times

NATRES Dutch army reserve

Natres:

The NATRES stands for NATionale REServe.
The unit has been renamed a corps about a year ago,it  fields 5 battallions stationed in various places throughout the country.
The NATRES was founded in 1948 when the need arose to have well trained ready troops for defending the homeland, the base for this unit was formed by civilians who could be called in for acrive duty in a few hours time.
The main reason for forming this unit was because the majority of the regular army was fighting overseas in Dutch indies.
During the cold war it grew fast and at the end of the cold war the corps grew to 5 battallions.
During the cold war the tasks were:

1) Defending homeland
2) Guarding important military obects and industrial sites.
3) Assisting local authorities in times of crises, disasters and so on.

Natres units were also responsible for guarding the mobilisationcomplexes.
This was a very important task because the (in case of mobilisation) army reservists had to gather there to collect weapons and vehicles.

Organization:

Corps: fields 5 battallions.

A typical battallion fields 2 or 3 compagnies some have 4.
Each compagnie fields 3 platoons.
Each platoon has 3 riflegroups.
In addition each compagnie has a staff detachement too.
A battallion is attached to a region in the country and falls under command of the regional commander.
Throughout the years reorganisation after reorganisation passed.

The original formations formed in the 1950's had organic US style heavy wepon companies with .30 mg's and mortars,even antiaircraft guns, but in the current days OOB they are faced out.

During the 80's the Bren and Garand rifle were replaced by the FN Fal rifle and MAG machinegun.
Nowadays we have rifles and machineguns like the C7 and MINIMI light machinegun(5.56mm).

UPDATE

Since 2014 a new organization replaced the above model.
The corps is reduced from 5 to 3 batallions (on paper the strength remains but two staffs have been fased out)
The weaponry also changed, the Minimi and C7 have been replaced by the C7 dutch model.
The old DAF truck and Mercedes softtop are replaced by the Volkswagen Amorok


New C7


Minimi


Diemaco rifle


Mercedes Benz jeep


Daf Truck transport 4 ton

New Amorok

Main tasks now are:
1)Guard and secure military objects and industrial sites.
2)Assistance for local authorities.
3)Support police forces in times of crises
4)Assistance and support for all kind of events, like sportingevents,exhibitions and much more.
5)Ceremonial tasks. For instance duty at queens day(april 30), prinsjesdag(2nd tuesday september), memorialday(may4) and liberationdayevents(may5)


Guarding installations and assisting local authorities


Poles awarded dutch medal for their heroic actions during operation Market Garden



Sportingevents

yes I do

During the 1980's there was a need formulated to have camo uniforms.
The army developed its own set of uniforms, but.....it looked very close to the German Waffen SS type summer camo of 1944.
Allthough highly effective ,a newspaper got the news about the uniform and showed pictures of it.
Compare this to the fact that we also just bought the new ballistic helmet(frontally looked like the ww2 German helmet) and a lot of people sent angry letters to the government.
That was the end of the project.
The government thus decided to buy existing camo.
The army received the English style camo in 1995 with my former unit the first to test it.
The marines received the US style woodland.

henk