How WWIII might have gone.

Am I being one of the guys with military experience..

The scary thing being of course the WAPA relying on Nukes from day 1 which wasn't a given in 1980 or rather not common knowledge.

Being an AA SG I commanded 2 40mm Bofors radar guided guns. Usually a Platoon would have 3 guns each but ours had been cut down to 2 with the third in reserve as Mid-East experiences gave a 82-83% chance of downing an aircraft with 2 guns vs. 85% chance at 3 guns. Better preserve one gun for replacement or set up a fourth Platoon.
Besides we had shitloads of WWII 40mm Bofors guns though manually operated just to put up some lead in the air. Dependant upon mobilization of reserves.
The expectation was that chemical weapons would be used to neutralize the Airbase hence we always used some time in chemical protection during manouevres - which was dreaded.

1980 the Jutland Division still had only two active and one reserve bde. It had then half the Leopard I tank complement of the 6. Pz.Gr.Division it was to fight alongside in Schleswig-Holstein; come 1994 it would be almost at par with the WGermans Mech. Inf. Division.
Those div's were some 50% heavier in manpower than the Soviet/WAPA ones though carrying around their own logistics and workshops which had been shaven off the WAPA ones to be provided by Army HQ which was supposed to give the NATO formations and edge in having all the necessary kit around and not having to ask Corps or Army for it making units more versatile.

Sjælland would be defended by two Mech.Bde.s. Though post Cold War Polish plans envision a large scale invasion of Denmark by the Poles it is regarded as mostly a Polish pipe-dream originating in the 1960's. The Poles didn't have the transport capacity to move 6. Airborne Bde. or the Marine Bde. The Soviets are thought to have been unwilling to lend the Poles the necessary assets.
1980 was the time of Polish Solidarnosc strikes and seemingly regime unwillingness to crack down. My younger brother went to Warsaw in the mid-1980s and were told by the Railway workers of said city that they had welded Soviet military trains to the tracks.. Not much moving through Warsaw railroad yards.
Seems not only the Czech's were unrealiable.

In the Baltic the Danish Navy seems to have been playing hide and surprise the WAPA Navy units regularly like sneaking Subs under the ships and then firing flares when clear or having MTBs and Fighterbombers run attacks runs at them. Of course the WAPA also did their part and quite roughly so.
Everybody ought to know about the "Whisky on the Rocks" in 1981 apparently caused by Soviet bad navigation and Sweden fending off the Soviet rescue force with two artillery pieces and a Fire Direction Radar.
The WAPA Navies may have seemed impressive but didn't impress their Baltic neighbours.
Even Danish Navy fishery inspection ships had an ASW capability. The train ferries were also to be impressed as minelayers in internal waters - mines having been fitted with rail wheels to run from depots to the ports and into the ferries. Also dieselelectric locomotives would dub as spare auxillery machinery in warships if needed.

NATO depots had been building since 1960 in Jutland.
On the national level there was to be stored supplies for three months demands - not relying on shipments from the Far East and with local plants to be part of the supply chain. Think we had some 3-4 oil refineries in those days.

The Airforce felt convinced of NATO support and survival if possible in a nuclear environment - at least that was the official line. Our planes were using transistors the WAPA still had tubes to minimize the effect of EMP! - so the Airforce said.

As to the mentioned operational plans regarding Czechoslovakia this is a new one to me. Did some reading on Czech Cold War military earlier in the year - they didn't seem too happy about being party to the Soviet run show. That in itself could indicate that such plans had been drawn up should the possibility materialize.

Still the nasty thing would be the WAPA initial use of tac.nukes even if NATO airforces should regain superiority within less than a week.
At least then our Artillery men knew that their 8" tubes were nuke capable.. and the depots holdning these were just south of the FRG-Danish border where the Jutland Division would operate anyway.

Will think some more about this; something might come to mind.

They lost upwards 45,000 aircraft in close air support missions, more than 29,000 thousand of them, which were Sturmoviks. The Russians were extremely active with what might be called direct close bombing or danger close of their own troops. German flak shot down hundreds of planes per operation. So did Russian AAA.

The planning was for 2 weeks and then the war goes nuclear exchange or peace of result. The NATO planners had good accurate estimates of Warsaw Pact ammunition reserves and log-caps. The WP had to reach the Rhine in 100 hours or they were Winchester and probably free-range shoot-exes. That explains the "active defense" nonsense the armies planned to fight (die in place.) in the first plans I read, before air land battle and then Soviet style "deep battle" took the place of that nonsense, too.  


a. It was passed to the Russians to make them blink at rung 4 on the escalation ladder. The practical reality is that chemical weapons are a good way to reduce sortie rates as turnaround of aircraft in a poisoned environment is "difficult". Personnel protection is manageable via full protective suits; but aircraft are extremely vulnerable to corrosives. 

b. See maps.





There is one exploit path near Luberec. The other axis passed through Plzen. The two axes were to meet at Prague and then joy ride into the GSF. The problem is that the Americans have to split the seam along the Ore mountains to reach Luberec... passing into the DDR right into the Russians coming through the Fulda Gap. Then they have to turn north and South and hope the Czechs and the Hungarians rebel.    

Another map.

 

The Germans would follow the Plzen route straight to Prague, supposedly to link up, and then the circus motors north. Wolkenkuckuckskonzept. There was a tertiary through Austria that was to follow Ceske Budojovicke, but that meant invading Austria as a preliminary. As a concept, it was cloud-cuckoo-land.    
Quite

Some past scenarios.

If WWIII Would Have Happened in the 1980s NATO Would Have Lost



Secondary article. NATO’s plan for World War III in Europe.


Well; we have discussed "die in place". It was never going to work unless the Soviet 1st, 2nd and 3rd echelon (steamroller) waves were disrupted at the 2nd and 4th echelon (supply and higher headquarters support.) by air or missile attack. That would include Pershing missile strikes into Poland.