History

The 19th FAD (Field Artillery Detachment) was a nuclear weapons storage facility located in 't Harde, Netherlands established on March 1, 1960 housing W31 Honest John surface-to-surface missiles.

The Honest John batteries were truck-mounted, unguided 762mm missile carrying a nuclear warhead with a range of 30km; each launch battery consisted of two truck launchers, a staff battery and a fixed (towed) M115 Howitzer battery.

The howitzer battery consisted of four 203mm howitzers that were "dual capable" of firing high-explosive warheads or W31 nuclear warheads. In October of 1967, the 19th FAD Honest John launch batteries were withdrawn and replaced with the M115 Howitzer batteries, later the M115 Howitzers were replaced with the self-propelled M110 Howitzers that were also "dual capable" of firing high-explosive warheads or W33 warheads.

Since the 1970's it was known that control of nuclear weapons facilities should not be managed by any single FAD due to the obvious risk of being overrun by enemy forces; the solution for this vulnerability was to designate separate units to be in charge of one or more weapons facility to oversee nuclear tasks. Caused by political and social pressure these plans were never realized. In November 1989 the 19th FAD was dissolved.

Thanks to Ed de Bruin, webmaster www.41afdva.net