So viet forces in east germany devote consider able, ng time to mobility training and achieve a generally high level of proficiency. Pdf this article seeks to explain the political failure of the august, 1968 military occupation of czechoslovakia by forces of the warsaw pact find. The treaty provided for a unified military command and for the maintenance of soviet. Military political issues, warsaw pact, armed forces, ground forces, air, air defense forces, civil defense, rear services, defense. On 14 may 1955, in warsaw, albania, bulgaria, czechoslovakia, the german democratic republic, hungary, poland, romania and the soviet union sign a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, known as the warsaw pact. Esci chose to produce 16 poses in equal numbers, and when they researched the set they clearly consulted two books osprey elite 5 soviet bloc. Why cold war warsaw pact tactics work in wargaming. Warsaw pact, treaty establishing a mutualdefense organization composed originally of the soviet union and albania, bulgaria, czechoslovakia, east germany, hungary, poland, and romania. The warsaw pact is formed the soviet union and seven of its european satellites sign a treaty establishing the warsaw pact, a mutual defense organization that put. Likely avenues of attack by warsaw pact forces 5 2. Rivalling the size of the united states army, the combined ground forces of the six nonsoviet warsaw pact countries totalled over 775,000 active troops, with almost two million ground forces reserves. The warsaw pact was the military complement to the. Legro nato and the warsaw pact confidence and secu rity building measures csbms have long been the neglected stepchild of serious arms control analysis.
Cardboard castle an inside history of the warsaw pact on. Pdf the initial political failure of the warsaw pact intervention in. Part iii, which considers contingencies in which pact forces might be used, was issued as a separate report by the working group in. A comparison of natos pershing ii and ground launched cruise missiles glcm to the warsaw pacts ss4, ss5 and ss20 missiles. Osprey elite 010 warsaw pact ground forces free download as pdf file. Download soviet bloc elite forces, steve zaloga, osprey. Eastern block infantry with images cold war military. The warsaw pact air forces aircraft specials 6054byhansheiri stapfer, don greerpublisher. Cia analysis of the warsaw pact forces cia foia foia.
The warsaw pact command structure in peace and war rand. Treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance. May 21, 2014 the best thing about the warsaw pact our beloved mother russia see more ideas about warsaw pact, warsaw and armed forces. Chapter 4 the sovietwarsaw pact ground forces threat to. Warsaw pact simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Warsaw pact tactics ideally focused on the liberal application of the tank. How the warsaw pact planned to win world war three in europe by kyle mizokami last month in the national interest we discussed natos plan for world war iii in europe. The natowarsaw pact competition in the 1970s and 1980s. Soviet bloc elite forces, steve zaloga, osprey publishing, 1985, 0850456312, 9780850456318, 64 pages. While much has been published on the armed forces of the ussr during the 1980s, surprisingly little is available on the forces supplied by the other member nations of the warsaw pact. The principle weapon of the ground forces was the main battle tank.
The first surprise already in the introduction is the sheer landpower those nations had in comparison to nato. During the cold war, all sorts of things were published for the popular presses, but these often featured grainy photographs from sovieteastern european agencies, or photos of sovietbuilt hardware in armies outside the warsaw pact. Concentate their initial efforts in central europe, attacking with ground forces organized into five fronts 80 to 90 divisions. When the warsaw pact was founded in 1955 as a counterpart of nato.
The elite forces of the soviet union and its warsaw pact allies in the mid1980s were undoubtedly the largest in the world, and among the least known. This small german city was ground zero for a cold war. Cia analysis of the warsaw pact forces this study examines the role of clandestine reporting in cias analysis of the warsaw pact from 1955 to 1985. Part of the problem fun of modeling the cold war is that sources, particularly for the warsaw pact, can be a little more challenging to find in english. Constraining ground force exercises of nato and the warsaw. As a result, scholars have been able to explore many aspects of the warsaw pact that could only be guessed at in the past, including questions of military planning, force preparations and operations, nuclear command arrangements, and civilmilitary issues. The warsaw treaty organization wto, officially the treaty of friendship, cooperation and. If it is an early attack, operation unthinkable style, then id give the edge to the soviets due to the sheer number of soldiers they had deployed in europe, 3.
If a natowarsaw pact conflict occurred, we would expect the soviets within the european theater to. Just across the east german border was the group of soviet forces in germany, an. Total strategic missiles and bombers between 1971 and 1983, the soviet union surpassed nato in several critical measures traditionally used to evaluate the strategic balance. Rivalling the size of the united states army, the combined ground forces of the six nonsoviet warsaw pact countries totalled over 775,000 active troops, with. Numbers of major ships in 1976natowarsaw pact forces.
The soviet union established itself as a threat to the west at the end of world war ii by its military occupation of eastern european countries and the attempts of its armed proxies to capture. The largescale exercises of the pact forces simulate the role of those rces in the warsaw pact war plan, the sovieteast german front, aseconstu e rom exercise scenarios, apparently is tasked with the destruction of the main nato forces in germany deployed between hannover on the north and mannheim on the south. Locations provided for ground forces are the peacetime barracks positions and should be a guide to the actual wartime positioning of forces. Warsaw pact order of battle during the cold war axis. When the warsaw pact was founded in 1955 as a counterpart of nato, western officials disparaged it as a cardboard castle. In the 1970s the following were the main types deployed. Ace contains the majority of the nato ground forces and is based at the supreme headquarters allied powers europe shape in belgium. The most important of these activities is the system of joint military exercises. East germany, czechoslovakia, poland, bulgaria, hungary and romania.
Nato and warsaw pact 35 years soviet poster presidential palace in warsaw, in 1955 known as governors palace palac namiestnikowski, where the warsaw pact was signed. Done in warsaw, on may 1, 1955, in one copy each in the russian, polish, czech, and german languages, all the texts being equally authentic. Certified copies of the present treaty shall be transmitted by the government of the polish peoples republic to all the parties to this treaty. I and ii, devoted primarily to warsaw pact capabilities and composition, constitute a revision of the first phase report sr js 702 on the warsaw pact threat to nato issued by the working group in february 1970.
I have played more cold war warsaw pact games versus nato than most, at least in terms of the number of different rule sets i have used. It is an unclassified document based on information from open sources. Treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance warsaw, 14 may 1955 caption. The other papers include an overview budget issue paper and two background papers on firepower issues and mobility and logistics issues. Nie 111471, 9 sept 71, warsaw pact forces for operations. Both nato and the warsaw pact led to the expansion of military forces and their. The berlin blockade was the first military confrontation of the cold war which raised the possibility of war in europe, so the western european nations tried to establish an. Furthermore, the supreme commander of the unified armed forces of the warsaw treaty. Warsaw pact central front ground forces cold war arc. Moreover, as eastwest relations improved in the late 1980s, the naval competition received less attention from senior political leadership than did the strategic nuclear competition, and the natopact ground and air conventional force relationship. This booklet, through photographs and brief discriptions, is designed to provide the reader with an appreciation of the capabilities of the equipment employed by three of the major members of the warsaw pact, the ussr, east germany, and czechoslovakia. Thus, the issues raised in this chapter are likely to remain important for some time. Warsaw pact ground forces is, to my knowledge, the only reference for the nonsoviet members of the warsaw pact.
Numbers of major ships in 1976nato warsaw pact forces. The study is based on publicly available warsaw pact and western sources, as well as on the authors personal experience through the 1960s as a highranking pact officer, and on discussions with other former warsaw pact officers. With so many diverse armed forces to cover, one set was never going to do more than provide a taster of the subject. The lovely little town that would have been absolutely screwed. This has included the many civilian wargame rules such as wrg modern warfare rules and tim gows nato brigade commander, but i have also played professional military games such as contact. Warsaw pact ground forces gordon rottman, ronald volstad. The militarypolitical axioms shared by the armed forces o f the. Pact activities which prevent members of the pact from acquiring the capability to wage a war of territorial defense. Steam community guide warsaw pact doctrine and tactics. The warsaw pact and military security in central europe. It is fundamental to a successful nato response to an attack by warsaw pact forces. Although warsaw pact general purpose forces are structured for fa. If nato and warsaw pact had a war, could the warsaw pact. There was a real wartime scenario where the warsaw pact would attack out of the barracks positions, this would only provide nato a 2472 hour notification due to increased logistical and intell.