Great castling 75
Große Rochade 75 was a German , American , Canadian and French FTX military maneuver in southern Germany , which took place in autumn 1975 and in which a total of 68,400 NATO soldiers took part.
Division of troops
The BLUE exercise force was composed as follows:
- Headquarters of the 10th Panzer Division , Sigmaringen
- Panzergrenadierbrigade 28 , Dornstadt b. Ulm
- Panzer Brigade 29 , Sigmaringen
- 30th Panzer Brigade , Ellwangen
- Headquarters of the 1st Airborne Division , Bruchsaal
- Homeland Security Command 18 , Neuburg an der Donau
- 3rd Brigade / 1st US Armored Division , Ansbach and Bamberg
- 3rd FR Regiment de Hussards , Pforzheim
- Reconnaissance Regiment 10
- 240 light engineer battalion
- three German fighter-bomber squadrons with F-104G fighter planes
- a 1st Canadian Air Group fighter-bomber squadron with Canadair CF-104 star fighters
- Parts fr. Jagdbomberstaffel 7 u. 13 with Mirage IIIE
- German weapons school with Fiat G-91 / R3 u. T3
RED was structured as follows:
- Headquarters of the 4th Jägerdivision , Regensburg
- 4th CA-Mechanized Brigade Group (CMBG), Lahr
- 3rd Battailon / 37th US Field Artillery Regiment ( M110, 203 mm howitzer )
- Pioneer Command 2
-
17th USAF (17 EAF) with four fighter-bomber squadrons ( Phantom F-4D and E)
- US 26th USAF Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Ramstein Air Base
- US 36th Fighter Bomber Wing (36th USAF Tactical Fighter Wing), Bitburg Air Base
- US 50th Fighter Wing (Jagdbombergeschwader 50), Hahn Air Base
- US 52nd Fighter Wing, 52nd USAF Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem Air Base
- 3rd USAF Fighter-Bomber Wing (3rd Tactical Fighter Wing), F-11E
- 20th Tactical Fighter Wing Upper Heyford , Southeast England
The management and referee service with 9,610 soldiers, 2,430 wheeled and 50 tracked vehicles were provided by:
- for BLUE: 12th Panzer Division , Veitshöchheim
- for RED: 1st Mountain Division , Garmisch-Partenkirchen
This included 3,340 men for training troops and referee services.
scope
The exercise "Große Rochade 75" under the direction of the II Corps took place from September 8 to 20, 1975 in good weather conditions in Bavaria in the Nuremberg , Passau , Munich and Augsburg area . A total of 68,400 soldiers (including 11,555 reservists, 5,000 Americans, 3,000 Canadians and 1,000 French), as well as 16,400 wheeled and 2,950 tracked vehicles took part. In addition, 200 helicopters and 300 combat aircraft were used. It was the Bundeswehr's largest exercise up to that point .
procedure
The guest and press staff, consisting of 600 people, was in Bogen. The course of the exercise was announced in a field newspaper with a circulation of 25,000 copies. The metropolitan area was in the Cham , Regen , Vilshofen , Pfarrkirchen , Neumarkt-Sankt Veit , Landshut and Straubing area . The deployment phase was divided into different phases:
- September 8, 1975 for communications troops
- September 9-13, 1975 for combat troops
- September 14, 1975 for Homeland Security Command 18 and French troops
- September 15 to 16, 1975 for the PzBrig 12 and PzBrig 30
The combat exercise took place from September 15 to 19, 1975 and the march back from September 17 to 20, 1975. The exercise topics included tactical tasks such as defense, counterattack, relieving in position, intercepting enemy attacks from positions in the depth, as well as delaying and taking on tank reconnaissance forces.
The command post (main) of Heimatschutzkommando 18 in Hadersbach was attacked by ROT and management documents were captured.
The following bridges were built by Pioneer Command 2 Ulm, consisting of Pioneer Battalion 4 from Bogen , Heavy Pioneer Battalion 210, the Heavy Pioneer Battalion of the II Corps, Amphibious Pioneer Battalion 230 (AmphPiBtl 230), Bridge Battalion 270 (PiBrBtl 270 with floating bridge hollow sheet device) and US pioneers . On the night of the 15th to the 16th September 1975 on the Danube at Straubing and Deggendorf (the ferrying bodies were at Niederaltdeich , wineries and Flintsbach ), so that could translate the fourth Jägerdivivision (RED) with its two brigades. Jägerbrigade 10 took the ferry at Mariaposching , and east of Irlbach , first with the MLC 55 ferry and then with a pioneer bridge. A total of 305 wheeled and 292 tracked vehicles crossed the Danube. The 11th Jägerbrigade also crossed the Danube in several places. In Pfelling there was an incident. A US MFAB / F (Mobile Floating Assault Bridge Ferry) mobile storm bridge / ferry hit a rock and sagged. A bridge was also built south of Bogenberg . A total of 372 wheeled and 297 tracked vehicles transferred.
Air landings were initiated on September 18, 1975 by taking on Airborne Brigade 25 with the two paratrooper battalions 251 and 252 near Gnotzheim , near Gunzenhausen . The landing zone was at Frontenhausen . Air support is provided through 300 missions per day as part of the NATO air force exercise " Cold Fire 75".
The march up and back was made with 70 trains. When the troops were relocated, 8,000 military vehicles on the motorways between Ulm , Munich and Ingolstadt caused peak loads on September 13, 1975 . The replenishment had to cope with 200 tons of food per day in 90 train cars. 35,000 pyrotechnic explosive devices, 8,000 anti-tank mines and 1.3 million popping cartridges were used to depict the battle .
The final battle led the Bundeswehr with three brigades in a large tank battle.
The performance of the US brigade was described as unconvincing. Große Rochade 75 ended with a final parade, among others in honor of the four-star general Ernst Ferber in Mitterharthausen . On the balance sheet, the costs of the exercise Great Castling 75 amounted to 17 million DM . Maneuver damage totaling DM 940,000 was caused in 1,037 cases of damage.
A total of five soldiers died in the exercise. Three of them in accidents: a rubber dinghy overturned on the Danube and three US soldiers drowned.
See also
Web links
- Army exercise 1975 "Big Castling" (documentary film)
- GRAND ROCHADE 75th Combat Exercise. Vol. 18. German Digital Library
- Great Castling 1975 on the Military Database
- Great Castling Gallery 1975 on Military Database
media
- The great exercises of the Bundeswehr 2nd DVD. Breucom-Medien, 2011, ISBN 978-3-940433-33-6 .