A Warsaw Pact invasion would have come via three main paths through Germany.
As with that of the Americans, British and French, the
long-term Soviet deployment on the Central Front was, in the main, a direct
result of where the Red Army stopped in 1945, although there were some minor
adjustments during the forty years of the Cold War. The forces permanently
stationed in East Germany were designated Group of Soviet Forces Germany
(GSFG), with their headquarters at Zossen-Wünstorf, 30 km south of Berlin,
and comprised five armies, most of which were approximately equivalent to a NATO
corps in size.
The Soviet army believed that the basic form of military
strategy was the offensive, and all its (and the Warsaw Pact’s) planning,
organizations and exercises were devoted to this end. The 1945 organizations
lasted for only a short time, and from 1947 infantry regiments began to be
mechanized, using BTR-40P wheeled trucks. This process gathered pace in the
1950s, until 1957, when a major re-equipment programme began to bear fruit and
new-style tank and motor-rifle divisions were introduced, which were smaller,
easier to control and much harder hitting than their predecessors. These were
organized into two types of army: a ‘tank army’, in which tank divisions
normally predominated, and a ‘combined-arms army’, in which motor-rifle divisions
predominated, the number and type of divisions depending upon the army’s combat
mission.
The history of GSFG included some major equipment
milestones, which marked a significant increase in tactical capability. The
first of these was the fielding of T-62 tanks and BTR-60 eight-wheeled armoured
personnel carriers in the early 1960s, while in the early 1970s the Mi-24 (NATO
= ‘Hind’) helicopter gave a totally new capability to the Soviet air force’s
Frontal Aviation command. The changeover in artillery from wheeled to tracked
self-propelled guns, which came in the late 1970s, was also of major
significance, although it was made considerably later than in NATO. The final
stage was marked by the fielding of the new T-80 tank, which joined the front
line facing NATO in the mid-1980s.
THE WESTERN TVD
In war the Warsaw Pact forces in central Europe would have
come under the Western Teatr Voyennykh Destiviy (Theatre of Military Operations
(TVD)), which would have been subdivided into fronts, each composed of a number
of armies, and an air army. The commander-in-chief Western TVD controlled all
Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary and
Poland, as well as the second-echelon armies which would have been generated by
the western military districts in the USSR.
SOVIET ARMIES IN
GERMANY
In 1945 East Germany was occupied by six armies: the 1st,
2nd, 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies; the 3rd Shock Army; and the 8th Guards
Army.fn2 Of these, the 4th Guards Tank Army was gradually withdrawn to the USSR
in the 1950s, followed by the 3rd Guards Tank Army in 1960–61. This appears to
have overstretched the headquarters that remained, since, in the aftermath of
the 1961 Berlin crisis, a new headquarters unit, the 20th Guards Tank Army, was
formed. The other army was Frontal Aviation’s 16th Air Army, which remained in
East Germany from 1945 to the end of the Cold War.
From the 1960s onwards, GSFG comprised the following.
• The 2nd Guards Tank Army, the northernmost formation,
occupied an area near the Baltic south of Rostock, with its peacetime
headquarters at Fürstenberg–Havel, 60 km north of Berlin. Despite its title of
‘Tank Army’, it actually consisted of just one tank division, plus two
motor-rifle divisions.
• The 3rd Shock Army was located in the centre and, in view
of its intended role of thrusting across the North German Plain, it consisted
of four tank divisions and a single motor-rifle division, making it, at least
on paper, the most formidable fighting formation in any army. The title ‘Shock’
was conferred in 1945, but the name changed to 3rd Mechanized Army in 1947,
before reverting to 3rd Shock Army in 1957–8. The headquarters was at
Magdeburg, conveniently close to the IGB and just off the E8 autobahn, which
would have been the main axis of the army’s advance into West Germany in the
event of war.
• The 8th Guards Army was located in the south and, as its
intended role would take it through primarily infantry country, it consisted of
one tank division and three motor-rifle divisions. Its headquarters was at
Nohra, 10 km south-west of Weimar.
• The 20th Guards Army was located just west of Berlin,
effectively in the rear of the 3rd Shock Army. It consisted of three
motor-rifle divisions, and did not have an integral tank division. Its
headquarters was at Eberswalde-Finow, some 40 km north-east of Berlin.
• The 1st Guards Tank Army was virtually identical to the
3rd Shock Army, with four tank divisions and one motor-rifle division. Its
headquarters was at Dresden, in the south-east corner of the GDR.
GSFG also included considerably more supporting units
(artillery, engineers, aviation, communications and logistic services) than
other similar organizations in the Soviet armed forces. Thus, for example, GSFG
was supported by 34 Guards Artillery Division, which was three times the size
of a normal artillery division.
The offensive nature of GSFG’s wartime missions was
underlined by a further six reinforced bridging regiments and six amphibious
river-crossing battalions, whose wartime mission was to ensure that the many
rivers in West Germany and Denmark were crossed quickly. There were also two
assault-engineer regiments, specially trained in urban clearance tasks, whose
wartime missions would have been in cities such as Braunschweig and Hanover and
in the Ruhr. Two aviation regiments were equipped with Hind attack helicopters,
which established such a fearsome reputation in Afghanistan. There were also
eight spetsnaz battalions for employment in NATO’s rear areas, and one integral
airborne regiment, although GSFG had priority call on one or more of the
airborne divisions back in the USSR, which were normally under centralized
Ministry of Defence control.
The peacetime strength of GSFG amounted to some 380,000 men,
with 7,000 tanks, 3,000 infantry fighting vehicles, 300 helicopters and a vast
amount of artillery. All were manned at Category-A levels, which was usually
well in excess of 90 per cent of their wartime figure.
OTHER SOVIET FORCES
ON THE CENTRAL FRONT
Situated in Poland was the Soviet Northern Group of Forces
(NGF), with its headquarters at Legnica. In peacetime its troops consisted of
two motor rifle divisions and an air army. In war its position astride the
lines of communication from the homeland would have been absolutely vital to
the success of the offensive, and it would have been reinforced by units from
the USSR.
The third element, in addition to GSFG and NGF, was the
Central Group of Forces (CGF), which was formed in 1968, in the wake of the
Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. The headquarters was located at Milovice,
Czechoslovakia, some 30 km north-west of Hradec Králové, and after a rapid
build-up in 1968–71 the CGF was composed of two tank and three motor-rifle
divisions.
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