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US Army Transportation Terminal Command, Europe
US Army, Europe
Looking for more information from military/civilian personnel assigned to or associated with the U.S. Army in Germany from 1945 to 1989. If you have any stories or thoughts on the subject, please contact me.

Bremerhaven POE

US Army Trans Term Comd, Eur

MTMC-Eur

Leghorn POE

UK Terminal

Rotterdam Terminal

Rhine River Terminal
 
US Army Transportation Terminal Command, Europe 1968
 
1945 - 2003
(Source: 598th TTG History Sheet, MTMC website, 2003)

598th US Army Transportation Terminal Group

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2010
(Source: Trans Tribune, June 2010, 598th Tarns Bde )
 
Military Traffic Management Command Europe
 
1964 - 1983
Source: Military Traffic Management Command Europe Command History, found on the MTMC web site at http://144.100.189.52/hist/euhist.htm (dead link now)
The Military Traffic Management Command Europe has been operational under that name since January 1989. Prior to this, it was known as the Military Traffic Management Command, Transportation Terminal Command Europe.

The command was established in Bremerhaven, Germany, under the 17th Major Port on June 7, 1945. It was subsequently named Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation on March 14, 1947.

On Aug. 16, 1955, the Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation assumed control of all U.S. Army ports in the United Kingdom. Subports at Mannheim, Germany, and Rotterdam, Netherlands, were activated in 1957. They were added to the Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation to support U.S. forces in the Central European theater of operations.

On Dec. 31, 1961, the United Kingdom Terminal was established as a special activity of the Chief of Transportation. The Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation was redesigned as the U.S. Army Terminal Command on May 1, 1964. The jurisdiction of the newly established command was extended to the Port of Saint Nazaire, France, on July 1964. Three years later, in March 1967, the Saint Nazaire facility was deactivated due to the withdrawal of U.S. forces from France.

The expanding European-wide Transportation Terminal Command was again renamed in July 1969, this time as U.S. Army Transportation Terminal Group Europe. It assumed control of all Department of Defense common-user terminal activities in Northern Europe, the United Kingdom and Portugal. In 1970, The headquarters moved from Bremerhaven to Rotterdam.

On July 1, 1976, the command was transferred from the 4th Transportation Brigade, U.S. Army Europe, to the Military Traffic Management Command, Eastern Area. The name of the command became Military Traffic Management Command Transportation Terminal Group Europe.

In January 1977, the command became a major subordinate command of Military Traffic Management Command headquarters, which is located in Falls Church, Va. Terminal units in the Azores, Italy, Greece, Spain and Turkey were added to Military Traffic Management command Transportation Terminal Group Europe.

In January 1980, Transportation Terminal Unit Azores was transferred to MTMC Eastern Area. Military Traffic Management command Transportation Terminal Group Europe provided vital service and an important mission for projection of U.S. power into Europe. Therefore, MTMC Transportation Terminal Group Europe was redesignated in January 1981 as MTMC Transportation Terminal Command Europe.

Export cargo booking and contract administration functions performed by the Military Sealift Command were transferred to MTMC in October 1981. This resulted in the formulation of the Military Export Cargo Offering and Booking Office, subsequently renamed Ocean Cargo Clearance Activity, in Bremerhaven.

In June 1989, Ocean Cargo Clearance Activity was relocated to Rotterdam with offices in Naples, Italy, and London, England.

In June 1982, Transportation Terminal Unit Istanbul became an outport under TTU Izmir, Turkey. On July 14, 1983, TTU Iskenderun was also added.

Since July 1983, Headquarters MTMC Europe has been located in Capelle aan den IJssel, adjacent to the city of Rotterdam in The Netherlands. Today, MTMC Europe is a regional transportation command with staffed sites in 11 nations in the European, Mediterranean and Middle East areas. Its ports handle more than three million tons of cargo per year. The command executes MTMC's worldwide missions in the U.S. European Command and in parts of the U.S. Atlantic Command and U.S. Central Command's areas of operations.
 
Rotterdam Terminal
 
1959
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, August 21, 1959)
Three years ago, the US Army decided to initiate port operations at Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Operating as a sub-port of Bremerhaven POE, the operation handles about 18,000 long tons of cargo each month.

Lt Col Robert P. Flint is the commander of the sub-port. The personnel strength of the sub-port is 21 (including three officers and six enlisted men). Loading, shipping and other operations are performed primarily by Dutch stevedores and barge contractors.

Most of the cargo received at the port is transferred directly from ocean freighters to barges and shipped up the Rhine to the sub-port at Mannheim, Germany. Some of the cargo is transported by rail to its final destination such as the huge Quartermaster depots at Metz, France, and Nahbollenbach and Giessen in Germany. The remainder of the cargo goes by truck.

The determination of which mode should be used is made based on rates, type of cargo and other considerations. For example, the huge rolls of newsprint is transported by truck. Damaged newsprint can cause problems for the presses so additional handling is minimized by sending the rolls directly to STARS & STRIPES at Griesheim.
Most of the cargo shipped by barge up the Rhine River consists of food and subsistence for Army installations. Mannheim is the "breakdown" point for rations. Food shipments delivered by the barges are stored in warehouses there and then trucked to the various supply areas.

Another important type of cargo that arrive by barge are vehicles such as trucks, tanks and evfen Army airplanes.

General cargo makes up the bulk of the remaining cargo.

Cargo returned by barge from Mannheim to Rotterdam for shipment to the US consist primarily of CONEX containers filled with household goods of military personnel and their families as well as worn military vehicles that have been replaced.
 
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, March 9, 1964)
The Benelux Terminal with headquarters at Rotterdam (the Netherlands) handled 350,000 tons of cargo in 1963. The Terminal is subordinate to the US Army POE Bremerhaven in Germany and includes operations at the Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge. (Rotterdam handles 84 percent of the terminal's cargo; Antwerp takes care of 10 percent and Zeebrugge, the ammo port, handles the remaining 6 percent. Most of the cargo passing through the terminal consists of food for the commissaries; EES/AFEX goods; vehicles of all types; and ammo.)

CO of the Terminal is Lt Col Edmund V. Harnstrom (his office is located at the US Consulate in Rotterdam). He has a staff of 54: 3 officers, 7 EM's, 2 US civilians and 42 local employees. (Loading and unloading of ships is done by local stevedores.)

About eighty American-owned or MSTS ships are handled by the terminal each month. After the cargo has been discharged, the District Traffic Management Office arranges for transportation to depots in Germany or France (see article above).

The Benelux Terminal also works with the US Navy and the Coast Guard -- an MSTS (Navy) commander acts as shipping agent and a Coast Guard commander investigates accidents involving Merchant Marine ships. Plans also call for an Air Force representative to join this multi-service team to help coordinate USAFE shipments.
 
Rhine River Terminal
 
1966
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, May 9, 1966)
The Rhine River Terminal is an activity of the US Army Terminal Command in Bremerhaven, Germany.

The Rhine River Terminal was opened in 1956. Between 1956 and May 1966, more than 1.8 million tons of cargo have been processed at the terminal.

The inland waterway route between the US docks at Rotterdam and the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge in Belgium and the Rhine River Terminal at Mannheim is 750 miles and takes from 5 to 7 days by barge.

There are 22 sites along the Rhine River were US military cargo can be off-loaded. Bingen is one of them, there are three cranes there for that operation. Usually there are eight to ten barges being off-loaded on a daily basis. Another site is Karlsruhe where ammunition arriving at Zeebrugge is off-loaded.

Terminal Chief is a Major.

(Webmaster Note: another S&S article in 1968 mentioned that the Terminal consisted of 28 different sites in the Mannheim-Ludwigshaven area. In addition, there were two other main ports (Germersheim and Bingen) as well as four other sites along the Rhine River which the Terminal used exclusively for loading and unloading ammunition.)
 
(Source: STARS & STRIPES, September 20, 1968)
The Rhine River Terminal is located along the waterfront of the large inland port at Mannheim, near the junction of the Rhine and Neckar Rivers. The Terminal is responsible for shipments of cargo to military installations throughout Germany.

The facility is the only inland port operated by the US Army in Germany. The unit uses contractor-operated flat-bottom river barges to move a major portion of the cargo. Most of the cargo handled by the terminal comes from the Benelux Terminal in Rotterdam.

Loading and unloading of the cargo at the terminal is done by stevedores also under contract to a major Mannheim shipping company. There are 19 locations (along the Rhine River between the ports and Mannheim) with 21 cranes for loading and unloading. (One of the cranes is the 100-ton Goliath crane at Mannheim, thought to be one of the largest in Germany.)

All cargo (there are four classes: general cargo; bulk foods; vehicles; ammo) coming through the Mannheim terminal is further transported to its final destination by rail or truck. The 501st Trans Co at Ruesselsheim handles most of the line-haul movements (using 12-ton trailer-trucks).
 
(Source: 598th Trans Tribune, December, 2007)

Article on Goliath Crane
Article discusses 100-ton crane used at the Rhine River Terminal to load and unload M60 tanks and other heavy equipment from barges at the Inland Port of Mannheim.

1. Goliath at work

2. IH Dragon Wagons



3. Former Rhine River Det Bldg at Parkring 47, Mannheim



 
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