"Units along the East West Border" Topic

Hey all

im wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of a listing of the units along the East West border in the 80-85 period?

im looking for WARPAC and NATO.

Here's a web page for Fulda, with info on some units for the mid-1980s:

digplanet.com/wiki/Fulda_Gap

By Border I take it you mean GSFG and BAOR etc as a whole,

Tally Ho!

yeah im looking at the whole area. im pretty new to it so any info or books you could point me to would be awesome

This page has lots of maps with the Corps sectors on them.

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Check your library for this book:
link

I just found this site for the BAOR: PDF link

Bear in mind that specific units changed somewhat from time to time.

Try the recent issue of 'Modern War' magazine, Jan/Feb 2015.

Early 80s, beware if you choose to navigate about Arrse you may find elements very offensive!

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Tally Ho!

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Tally Ho!

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Tally Ho!

This has been my online bible for doing the same thing:

link

At that time I was in the only US Cavalry Unit in Germany whose mission when the balloon went up was to run like hell for the Rhine river!

Which unit was that, ScoutJock?

11th, or 14th Cav, or other?

I was always under the impression you guys were supposed to perform recon, screen, delay and degrade the enemy forces, which probably more accurately means act as a speedbump, and "die in place", though perhaps they used a slightly more acceptable term than that.

Being outnumbered 5:1 – 8:1, depending upon the measures, doesn't sound like a very good position to be in.

From accounts I've read of the preparations at Fulda, if that's near where you were stationed, it appears that anyone from the Armored Cav units would be very lucky to pull back through the 3rd Armored Division's positions, or those of the 1st Infantry.

That is especially true if nukes started flying, since there were 140+ planned for a very small region, just to the northeast of Frankfurt.

According to a friend of mine who was in some sort of recon outfit in the 80's, the role of cavalry was to "die somewhere scenic a few minutes after the war started".
He was kind of a gloomy person though :)

D Troop 2/1 Cav assigned to 2AD FWD. Our mission was to secure the pomcus sites so when the rest of III Corps showed up, they could pick up their gear and get in the fight.

Thanks for the additional info, ScoutJock.

I suspect, Weasel, he wasn't too far off the mark, and I can see how that would make one a bit like that.

From the Fulda site, one of the "inspirational speeches" posted there was from their commander, who wanted each man to make the enemy pay dearly with five men killed for each one of their casualties, given they were outnumbered 5:1 in the local theater.

Seems like a pretty gloomy plan to me, especially if and when the nukes started flying.

Just seeing the map of the impact points for the 140+ tactical nuke warheads, in such a small region near Fulda, drove home the point to me.

There's not enough sunblock in the world to help with that kind of exposure.

Yeah, we always figured if things went nuclear, we might as well turn around and attack east because the pomcus sites would be a large glow in the dark crater!

I was in E Trp 2nd ACR our mission was to fall back using delaying actions for 2 or 3 days and then DIP at the escarpment. We figured we would be at the escarpment on the first day, if you were lucky.

Jim

This is a fascinating thread and I would love to know what the escarpment was. I imagine it was West,before the Rhine river. Let us know Scout19508a if you can.

I think he means east of the Rhine River, given their anticipated deployment zone, and doctrine.

I wasn't aware there was an escarpment there, though, so that is interesting.

My geological knowledge of Germany is a bit lacking, so I need to work on that.

Anyone know of a good source for topographical maps of the region along the East/West German Border?

I'm thinking 1/50,000 might be a good starting place, with the region around Fulda, but I'm also interested in other areas too.

Kropotkin it was east of Nurnburg and I am not sure how much of a escarpment it was but that was what we called it. I would also like to get some 1:50,000 maps from my Camp Hof days.

Jim

Some info here: link