Map from Strategic Geography: NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and the Superpowers; by Hugh Faringdon; 1989
NON-SOVIET WARSAW
PACT ARMIES
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia had two armies: the 1st (Czech) Army
(comprising one tank and three motor-rifle divisions), with its headquarters at
Příbram, and the 4th (Czech) Army (two tank, two motor-rifle divisions) at
Písek. Each of these Czech armies had a larger than normal engineer component,
with one engineer brigade, one bridging brigade and one construction brigade in
each army, with more under central control. Total strength of the Czechoslovak
army (1984) was 148,000, of which approximately 100,000 were conscripts.
East Germany
The German Democratic Republic’s Nationale Volksarmee (NVA)
was considered to be both the most efficient and the most loyal of the
satellite armies, and fielded two armies: the 3rd (NVA) Army, with its
headquarters at Leipzig, and the 5th (NVA) Army at Neubrandenburg. Both
consisted of one tank and two motor-rifle divisions, all of which were
maintained at Category A (90–100 per cent strength) in peacetime and were
backed by a very efficient mobilization system. The total peacetime strength of
the NVA was some 120,000 (1984), of which 71,500 were conscripts.
Poland
Poland provided three armies, which in peacetime were based
in each of the three military districts, and virtually all of which were
scheduled to come under direct Soviet command in war:
• Silesian Military District – one army of three tank and
two motor-rifle divisions;
• Pomeranian Military District – one army of two tank and
two motor-rifle divisions;
• Warsaw Military District – one army of three motor-rifle
divisions but no tank divisions.
The 6th Airborne Brigade was stationed in the Pomeranian
Military District, and the 7th Sea Landing Brigade was stationed on the Baltic
coast, from where it would have taken part in amphibious operations against
Denmark in war. The Polish army did not have the specialist engineer brigades
found in the Czech and East German armies. The total strength of the Polish
army in 1984 was 210,000, of which 153,000 were conscripts.
Unlike their opponents in NATO, where commonality ceased at
corps level, the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact forces were all organized on Soviet
lines and used mainly Soviet equipment, some of which, such as tanks, was
manufactured locally under licence. The equipment was not, however, exclusively
Soviet, and Czechoslovakia, for example, produced armoured personnel carriers
and self-propelled guns to its own designs, some of which were also used by
Poland.
WARSAW PACT PARACHUTE
FORCES
Soviet Airborne
Forces
Throughout the Cold War the Soviets maintained by far the
largest airborne forces in the world, and, as in most armies, these enjoyed an
elite status, with special equipment and special uniforms (including a sky-blue
beret). Their importance was further emphasized by the fact that they were not
part of the normal army chain of command, but were subordinated direct to the
Ministry of Defence. There were seven airborne divisions, all of which were
maintained at Category A in peacetime, each consisting of three airborne
regiments, an artillery regiment and an air-defence battalion, together with
communications, engineers and logistic units – a total of some 8,500 men. In
war they would have been tasked directly by the Ministry of Defence for a major
strategic mission or allocated to lower headquarters for specific operations,
possibly on a scale of one airborne division to each major front, or probably
more than one in the case of the Western TVD.
Soviet airborne forces were equipped with a large range of
lightweight equipment, which was specially designed for the airborne role. Such
airborne items ranged from self-propelled guns and tracked personnel carriers
to lightweight folding saws, and airborne troops were always the first to
receive new standard weapons, such as 5.56 mm rifles.
Soviet airborne units were particularly intended for desantnyy
missions – a Russian term denoting operations in enemy rear areas, carried out
in co-ordination with the forward elements of the ground troops, and with the
aim of maintaining the high momentum and continuity of the offensive. Such
missions would almost certainly have included the traditional airborne task of
seizing vital ground or crossings in advance of major thrusts by ground troops,
possibly as the opening move in a war in western Europe. Probable missions
would have included seizing bridgeheads across major rivers, such as the Elbe,
Weser and Rhine; capturing forward airfields; and attacking nuclear-supply
points, communications centres and major logistics concentrations. This was
confirmed by Marshal Sokolovskiy:
In the last war,
airborne troops were used chiefly for support of ground troops in defeating
enemy groupings, while now they must also perform independently such missions
as [the] capture and retention or destruction of nuclear missile, air force and
naval bases, and other important objectives deep within the theatres of
military operations.
The airborne troops had a flexible organization, being
designed to conduct operations in divisional, regimental or battalion
strengths, depending upon the requirement. The normal tactic was for pathfinders
to form the first wave of the assault, arriving in the battle area by
parachute, with the aim of securing the drop zone (DZ) and marking it for the
main assault force, which arrived after a minimal interval and dropped together
with its heavy equipment. In most larger operations securing an airfield or
creating an airstrip would have been a high priority, to enable later troops
and heavy equipment to be air-landed rather than air-dropped. Soviet airborne
troops’ tactics were always very aggressive, and as soon as sufficient men were
available they began a rapid expansion to link the DZs to each other, coupled
with raids and assaults on any enemy units encountered.
The fixed-wing aircraft were provided by
Voyenno-Transportnaya Aviatsiya (Military Transport Aviation (VTA)), which
comprised some 1,700 aircraft, providing sufficient lift for the assault
elements of two airborne divisions simultaneously. From the mid-1970s onwards
three basic aircraft were used, the smallest being the four-turboprop Antonov
An-12 (NATO = ‘Cub’), which carried eighty paratroops or an equivalent load of
equipment and was equivalent to the USAF’s Lockheed C-130 Hercules. The second
and larger aircraft was the Ilyushin Il–76 (NATO = ‘Candid’), powered by four
turbojets, which carried 150 paratroops. Largest of all was the Antonov An-22
(NATO = ‘Cock’), which was capable of air-dropping either men or equipment,
although it seems unlikely that this would have been done in any but the most
benign environment, the aircraft depending instead upon the early capture of an
airfield. The VTA was reinforced by further transport aircraft from the Soviet
state airline, Aeroflot, which were intended to be used virtually straight away
for air-landing operations, although they required lengthy preparations before
undertaking parachute drops.
The VTA took part in all major exercises, but also obtained
valuable operational experience in conducting the airlifts to Prague in 1968,
to Egypt and Syria during the 1973 Middle East War, to Ethiopia in 1978 and in
the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Soviet airborne doctrine was that objectives should be a
maximum of 400 km from the front line for a divisional operation and a maximum
of 100 km for a battalion operation. Relief by ground troops was intended to
take place between two and seven days after the landing, although experience by
all armies in the Second World War suggested that such a meeting seldom went
according to plan.
Unless there was a reasonable expectation of total surprise,
an airborne assault would be preceded by intense air and artillery operations
to destroy enemy air defences along the line of the proposed route. Following
that, the transports would fly across friendly territory at medium height
before descending to low level to cross the front line for the approach to the
assault area. The aircraft formed into a stream for the actual drop, which took
place at a height of between 400 m and 1,000 m and a speed of 330 km/h, with
intervals between the waves. Divisional operations used between four and six
DZs, each approximately 4 km long and 3 km wide.
Other Warsaw Pact
Airborne Forces
The other Warsaw Pact countries all maintained a parachuting
capability: East Germany, Poland and Romania each had a brigade-size force;
Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia a regiment; while Hungary had one battalion. All
were organized along Soviet lines and used Soviet equipment, methods and
tactics.
CONCLUSION
According to NATO’s 1984 assessment, the Central Region (and
the southern part of the Northern Region) was faced by some ninety-five
divisions from the Soviet, East German, Polish and Czechoslovak armies. Of
those, some sixty-one divisions (16,620 tanks and 10,270 artillery pieces and
heavy mortars) were either deployed in the forward areas or held at a high
state of readiness and could have attacked within a few days of mobilization.
There were also seven airborne and two air-mobile divisions, based in the USSR,
which could have been allocated specific missions within the Central Region,
and a division-sized amphibious force in the Baltic. They were armed with some
of the finest equipment in the world, and the three forward Soviet armies were
positioned much closer to the IGB than were their opponents, adding to the
Alliance’s fear of a ‘bolt from the blue’. But they never attacked.
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