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

[Narwan]

The HS units in TK Schleswig Holstein totalled 2 regiments of motorized infantry (weak infantry brigades with very few Anti Tank weapons) and 2 semi-armoured brigades (one of which was attached to 6th Panzergrenadier permanently). Out of this, 1 Regiment and 1 Brigade would likely be earmarked to defending Hamburg in a static role. This leaves us with 6th panzergrenadier (with an attached HS Brigade) covering the Inner German border and a single HS regiment covering the rear areas (plus various "Sicherungskompanien" and such, but lets ignore them for the moment). Even with "a few days" warning, the Jutland Division won´t be in position and neither will the ACE Mobile Force or the UKMF. This leaves us with 4 armored Brigades and a weak Infantry brigade to hold the line against an entire WAPA army. After a few days leading elements of the Jutland divisions might make its presence felt and after half a week or so the entire division plus Corps troops will probably have reached its area of responsibility. The Ace Mobile Force and the UKMF requires about a week to be ready too (but can deploy relatively quickly once ready). The problem here is, that neither the UKMF nor the ACE Mobile Force will necessarily go to LandJut (as mentioned above the UKMF might equally go to reinforcing LandZealand instead of LandJut, and the ACE Mobile Force might be sent anywhere from Turkey to the North Cape).

The problem is, that by the 1980s, NATO would at best get 3-4 days of warning before a WAPA attack. With this kind fo warning, most of the Jutland Division will still be under deployment and the UKMF and Ace Mobile force will still be marshalling and organising their transport when the attack hits. Danube Fron 85 presents an even gloomier scenrio: Here NATO gets less than 24 hours of warning before the attack hits.....

Taking the last point first. I can understand that being an assumption for making a better game but the reality was that the minimum preparation time for an out-of-the-barracks attack by the WP was measured in weeks (or even months depending on the period you look at). Assuming off course a division goes on the offensive as a whole division and not the reinforced battallion they could muster in a day or two from peace-time status.

There's a world of difference of preparing combat formations for complex offensive operations and getting them there and to call up reserves from the area to equip and deploy units in their own area.
I'm always puzzled how people can imagine the WP puppet armies to be mustered and deployed so quickly yet NATO activation takes for ever. The activation procedures for the UK reserves for europe, the dutch and the german HS were quite advanced and had proven themselves in extensive tests. These would be ready much sooner than the Poles for example.

There's always assumptions neede of course as the whole game is what-if but I feel the whole idea of 'from the barracks' attacks is at odds with the amount of troops actually available in the game for the WP. They seem to have had all the time to prepare but NATO didn't. What NATO planners knew for a fact (as corroborated from info gotten after the collapse of the WP) was that they would have ample time to react. So they could allow for dedicating reserves to these roles.
The only thing the WP might have gotten away with was to prepare only the soviet units in eastgermany and attack with these. Preparing the WP allies was tantamount to calling NATO themselves.
But since every variant I looked at sofar allows for a fair number of Polish, east german and soviet reserve formations (again whose preperation time would extend into months before being combat ready) it's not much to allow NATO a few days of preparation.
The current 'trade off' for the game is imo extremely unrealistic, at least to the point of a 'fantasy' set-up than a serious what-if.


As to the defense of the region; Hamburg is on the boundary between the regions. It would be likely cut-off from the rest of the peninsula fairly soon. It doesn't make sense to allot units to it's defense from a command (Landjut) from which they would then be physically detached. So two options, either they would in fact not stay in Hamburg but with the rest of the command or they weren't afraid of being cut-off (see my points above). Personally I find the second rather likely. I don't think the WP could have made it to Hamburg in a conventional scenario let alone cut it off.

The assignment of these HS formations to the defense of Hamburg is debatable. They may have been stationed in that area but so was just about all of the 6th division. Doesn't mean they'll fight there when the combat time arrives. From what I've been able to deduce Hamburg would be defended by a large number of additional smaller HS formations (basically everyone between hamburg and the border from these smaller formations would fall back to the city and add to the 5 or so dedicated companies) and be reinforced from the west, either by additional NATO or HS troops (there were two more HS regions behind Hamburg with their HS formations). Again working with the assumption of enough warning time that makes sense.

Their equipment might not have been the best but was still decent. In the mid 80's milans would have been the primairy AT weapon in many companies (with the SH command at the top of the list of getting the best equipment first) with M48's and 90mm destroyers in support. Pretty decent for defensive operations.

Narwan