Fulda Gap

[besilarius]

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/the-lovely-little-town-that-would-have-been-absolutely-screwed-by-world-war-iii-933229e2ea52

[bayonetbrant]

wow - some interesting info there, but a ton of stuff that's also wrong to the point of almost being reckless.

the Gap was the responsibility of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR), a unique mechanized reconnaissance unit of approximately 5,000 men.

Nope.  Not unique.  In fact, not even unique within 150 mile radius.  2nd ACR had an identical MTOE, screening VII Corps along the southern inter-German border as well as the German-Czech border.

Armored cavalry regiments were not your typical ground combat unit. Each consisted of more than 100 heavy Abrams battle tanks and an equal number of Bradley cavalry fighting vehicles.

Once converted to the M1/M3 MTOE, each squadron had
-  3x cav troop with 9/13 + 2 mortar carriers
-  1x tank co w/ 14/0
-  1x How Bat w/ 6 x M109s
total ground strength of a squadron was 42 / 40 / 6 / 6  w/ the HQ tanks
total ground strength of the regiment was 126 / 120 / 18 / 18  so the math is pretty close here
What's missing is a sense of the doctrinal frontage those guys had to cover with that amount of equipment, which is roughly 2x that of a division

However, before they went to the M1/M3 series, they were mixed all the way down at the platoon level w/ a combination of M60A3s and M113s (usually 2 / 3), at 3 per TRP, plus a tank company in each squadron.  If you're talking pre-1984 or so, it was a very, very different world for those guys.

the 3rd Armored and 8th Infantry Divisions, consisting of another 700 Abrams tanks and an equal number of Bradley fighting vehicles, plus attack helicopters and artillery

This almost reads like each division had 700 tanks / Brads.  Combined, they were probably around that number, not individually.

The land aspect forces would be tanks and infantry holding the front lines, supported by artillery.

Actually, it was intended to be a more mobile, flexible defense, with the intent of trading space for time to allow the "air" component mentioned above to work their interdiction / CAS magic and leave the front line forces more vulnerable to attrition.

Both sides had low-yield nuclear rockets and artillery, but the Americans also had nuclear land mines,

Yes, but those "nuclear land mines" were not under the control of V Corps.  They also weren't intended as the kind of über-obstacle that this article makes it sound.  They were intended to blow high-value targets in place (like nuclear weapons storage sites) as a last resort only if they couldn't be moved / secured, not to create a brigade-sized potholes.

And the photo of the Davy Crockett?  They were initially deployed as a deterrent measure, but no one was stupid enough to ever plan for their use since their fallout zone was greater than their range.  You were effectively shooting an atomic hand grenade at yourself with the intent of taking a bunch of the bastards with you.  They were fielded for barely a decade before we figured out how idiotic they were.

Not a bad bunch of platitudes by someone who has heard a little bit about the Cold War from some drinking buddies, and probably na informative article to anyone born after 1995.  But it's actual facts are pretty incomplete, and conflate a lot of changes in plans over 40+ years into a single scenario that never existed for the entire duration of the inter-German standoff.

[Airborne Rifles]

A mentor of mine in the army liked to tell a story about his dad, who was a Davy Crockett platoon leader:

Their doctrine was to have the mortar set up with their APC's facing away from the rockets direction of flight and the engine running. They would launch dummy rounds in training and practice jumping in the tracks and roaring away because the blast radius or whatever was greater than the range of the weapon. The problem was, the training rounds never actually flew as far as they were supposed to, and the mortarmen could never drive fast enough to get out of the danger zone.

Well, on one field exercise he had a colonel helicopter in to watch them train. The young PL decided to ask the colonel about the discrepancy between the doctrine and the reality of what would happen if they ever launched one of the nukes. His answer: "son, that's why we have lieutenants doing this job."  ;D

[mirth]

Well, on one field exercise he had a colonel helicopter in to watch them train. The young PL decided to ask the colonel about the discrepancy between the doctrine and the reality of what would happen if they ever launched one of the nukes. His answer: "son, that's why we have lieutenants doing this job."  ;D

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Great post BB, I may have some game design questions for you.

[Capn Darwin]

We covered the area around Fulda in Red Storm and we are looking at other areas nearby for some new maps and such down the road. The approach lanes and terrain make for some interesting tactical planning.  O0

[bayonetbrant]

you need a scenario around here