NATO, WAPA and the indefensibility of LandJut in NGP and D85

[Narwan]

Hi there,

I only got the game this weekend and was checking the forum for it on the Blitz (I'm a long time SP player). This area happens to be a bit of a specialyt of me (been researching it for SP scenario's campaigns).

The NATO defense does in fact meet the 12 brigade (equivalent) requirement. Responsible for the defense of this area was the Heimatschutzen. People tend to think of these as old men only fit for garrison duty but the truth is far from it. The best comparison is the US national guard. These vary from (near)active line formations almost as good as regulars to the aforementioned 'old men'.

The german Heimatschutzen (HS) was more or less the same size as the Bundeswehr. Heimatschutzen was to conduct the bulk of defensive operations (throughout germany, not just the north) and rear area offensvie actions (vs para's, airassault, breakthrough's etc) freeing up as many Bundeswehr troops as possible for mobile (offensive) operations.

There were six area commands for the HS of which the SH area was one. Each area had 2 brigades (both including armor battallions and apc's) and 2 or 3 motorised infantry regiments (2 for SH). These were all 'independent' formations but a divsional HQ was available to command these (and with 'divisional' support formations). These were available for mobile operations within the area command. For static and coastal defense there were dozens and dozens of independent platoons, companies and a few battallions as well as naval troops and air force security formations.

HS could be called up rather quickly (as they served in their own area). Readyness levels for the brigades were as high as 90% for some.

So six brigades you already mentioned, add 4 brigade equivalent HS formations and you have 10. The Danes created a couple of small brigade like formations to support and the ACE quick reaction force had allocated a minimum of 1 brigade. Actuallt a UK light mech brigade was earmarked for the area and could be ready on short notice as well as the rest of the ACE force.

So NATO did in fact have a force of about 12 brigades (assuming a couple of days warning) excluding local and coastal defense.


Narwan

ps this area was one of the first I checked out and I noticed a lot of NATO forces missing. So I agree with your assesment of something needing to be fixed