3rd missile brigade

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The 3rd Missile Brigade (abbreviated 3rd RBr) was a large unit of missile troops and artillery of the National People's Army of the GDR . The brigade stationed in Tautenhain , State of Thuringia, was equipped with operational-tactical missiles and was subordinate to Military District III during peacetime.

history

Launch pad 2P19 of the operational-tactical missile complex 9K72
Launch pad 9P117M of the operational-tactical missile complex 9K72M

The Soviet employment principles distinguish ground-ground missile strategic, operational-tactical and tactical missiles. The missile complexes of strategic importance were combined in the Strategic Missile Forces . The units , which were equipped with operational-tactical missile complexes with ranges of several hundred kilometers, were assigned to the corps and armies (called military districts in peacetime). The tactical missile complexes were subordinated to the commanders of the motorized rifle or tank divisions. With the operational-tactical or tactical missiles, nuclear weapons, their warehouses, command centers, traffic hubs, airfields, ports, bases and concentration areas were to be fought by enemy troops.

After the R-11M or R-17 missile complex was included in the armament of the Soviet Army from 1955 , the deployment of missile troops in the states allied with the USSR began in the early 1960s. In the GDR, the 5th Missile Brigade , at that time as an independent Artillery Brigade 2 (abbreviated to sABr-2), was set up in Stallberg in 1962 . From 1968, the independent Missile Department III was formed from this missile brigade. This unit, equipped with the operational-tactical missile complex R-11M, later 9K72M ( which was named Scud-1a or Scud-1b by the Air Standardization Coordinating Committee (ASCC) of NATO ), was moved to Tautenhain (Thuringia) in April 1975 ) relocated and formed the basic structure for the formation of the 3rd Missile Brigade. The missile brigade itself entered service on May 25, 1975. The missile brigade initially included two missile divisions equipped with the 9K72M missile complex. In 1975, each missile department consisted of three starter batteries, the stick battery and the technical security train. The starter batteries were equipped with the launch pad 2P19. The missile brigade was technically subordinate to the chief missile troops and artillery in the command of Military District III. In September 1976 the 3rd Missile Brigade carried out the operational-tactical exercise Mercury 76 on the state polygon Kapustin Yar with a combat start. During this operational-tactical exercise, three operational-tactical missiles 8K14 were launched.

On March 1, 1978 the 3rd Missile Brigade received its troop flag and on February 29, 1980 it was given the honorary name Otto Schwab .

In 1978, the missile brigade began converting to the 9P117M1 launch pad. In the autumn of 1980 the structure of the rocket brigade was changed, the number of starter batteries was reduced from three to two per division, but each starter battery of the I. rocket division received two launch ramps 9P117M1 and each of the II. Rocket division two launch pads 2P19.

On December 1, 1982 a restructuring of the missile departments I and II was made again. The number of starter batteries was again increased to three, each starter battery was equipped with two start ramps 9P117M1. The missile brigade thus had 12 launch pads 9P117M1. Each starter battery had a so-called battle launch ramp (maintenance condition 1A) and a training battle ramp for training (maintenance condition 2B).

The last time an operational-tactical missile 8K14 was launched on September 1, 1988 by the 4th starter battery of the Second Missile Department on the Soviet state polygon in Kapustin Yar.

With the order 42/90 of the Minister for National Defense, the 3rd Missile Brigade and 5th Missile Brigade were removed from operational readiness with effect from April 1, 1990 . The missile complexes 9K72M of the 3rd and 5th Missile Brigades were handed over to the group of the Soviet armed forces in Germany . The missile brigade was to be converted into a missile brigade for tactical purposes and equipped with the 9K52 Luna-M and 9K79 Totschka tactical missile complexes . For this purpose, the commander of the 3rd Missile Brigade was subordinated to the missile departments of the 4th and 11th motorized rifle divisions and the 7th Panzer Division ; however, these plans were no longer fully implemented. As a result of the political change in 1989/1990 , the rocket brigade and the entire National People's Army were wound up on October 3, 1990.

Structure and equipment

Structure of the 3rd Missile Brigade

In 1986 the brigade consisted of:

  • the management body (staff)
  • the lead battery
  • the meteorological battery
  • of the I. Missile Department, equipped with the operational-tactical missile complex 9K72M (Missile 8K14)
  • of the Second Missile Department, equipped with the operational-tactical missile complex 9K72M (Missile 8K14)
  • the pioneer company
  • the repair company
  • material security for the company
  • the guard battalion (before 1986 there was no guard battalion)

In addition to the stick battery and technical battery, the I and II missile departments had three starter batteries with two puffs each. Each fire platoon included a launch vehicle 9P117M1, a washing and neutralization vehicle 8T311 and a transport vehicle Ural-375D . The total inventory of the missile brigade was twelve launch vehicles 9P117M1 of the missile complex 9K72M. The Mobile Rocket Technical Base 3 (BRTB-3) in Jena was responsible for supplying the rocket brigade with rockets, carriers and rocket fuel . This was professionally managed by the Head of Missile and Weapons Service in the Command of Military District III and was directly subordinate to the Chief of the Military District . The NVA had neither conventional nor nuclear warheads for the rocket complex 9K72M (rocket 8K14). These would have been supplied by Soviet troops in the event of war.

Exercises and use

The 3rd Missile Brigade formed the main firepower of the 3rd Army of the allied troops, which was acting in the so-called Luxembourg operational direction. The brigade should be used to combat NATO position troops, their command and air defense equipment and reserves. Linked to this was the massive use of nuclear weapons. The brigade was to take part in the so-called 1st nuclear strike of the front with the missile detachments of the divisions and the missile units and troop units of the group of Soviet armed forces in Germany. By destroying nuclear weapons, groups of opposing units, command posts, airfields and air defense facilities as well as logistical facilities, the Soviet military command believed that favorable conditions were to be created for stopping the attack by NATO troops and their destruction on their own territory. The NVA officers had no influence on target planning. The takeover and assembly of nuclear warheads and the use of missiles equipped with these warheads were therefore regularly practiced by the units of the brigade in peace. It was not until the 1985/87 discussions on the implementation of defense tasks that the operational principles changed. The new defense doctrine published as a result of these discussions in 1988 emphasized the defensive character of the fighting. In the 1988 exercise, Friendship-88 , details of a persistent defense on a tactical level were practiced for the first time in Military District III. In the course of this reorientation, the use of missiles with conventional warheads was increasingly planned and practiced by the missile troops of the NVA.

Exercise launches of operational and tactical missiles were carried out on the Soviet Kapustin Yar firing range . The 5th Missile Brigade exercised from 1963 and from 1975 alternated with the 3rd Missile Brigade. A total of 96 operational-tactical missiles of all types were launched in Kapustin Jar by units of the NVA.

Commanders

  • May 1, 1975 - March 31, 1976 Lieutenant Colonel Armin Hoffmann
  • from July 1975 Lieutenant Colonel Karl-Heinz Hoffmann (in charge of the tour)
  • April 1, 1976 - August 31, 1982 Colonel Friedrich Peters
  • September 1, 1982 - August 31, 1985 Colonel Gerhard Boh
  • September 1, 1985 - October 2, 1990 Colonel Ewald Winzer

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In this article, the place names customary at the time are used
  2. ↑ see facsimile ( memento from July 14, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ^ Structure of the 3rd Missile Brigade 1986–1990, variant ( Memento from February 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ see Lautsch: On the operational planning of the 5th Army in: Rüdiger Wenzke (ed.): The armed forces of the GDR and Poland in the operational planning of the Warsaw Pact
  5. ↑ see, inter alia, Naumann

Web links

literature