Strong Weir 82

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Strong defense 82 as part of the NATO exercise series of "Autumn Forge 82" (along with Oksboel, REFORGER Golden Thunder, Northern Wedding , Quantum Junp, Bold Guard , Carbine Fortress and Able Archer ) was a German - American - Dutch FTX military maneuvers on Corps level in Lower Saxony , which took place in autumn 1982 and in which a total of 35,000 NATO soldiers took part.

Division of troops

The I. DE Corps was in charge of the maneuver . The following forces were assigned to the BLUE exercise force:

The RED exercise squads were composed as follows:

The following associations provided control and referee services:

scope

Starke Wehr 82 took place from September 10 to 17, 1982 in the Cuxhaven area , southern edge of Hamburg , Elbe side canal , Braunschweig , Hanover , Osnabrück , Vechta , Bremen and Bremerhaven . 35,000 soldiers (29,000 German, including 4,500 reservists, 3,000 American and 3,000 Dutch soldiers), 12,000 wheeled vehicles and 2,100 tracked vehicles (including 700 battle tanks ) took part in the exercise. For reasons of cost, the exercise was mainly carried out with "frame troops" in the first six of a total of eight days .

procedure

The overall exercise was divided as follows:

  • Phase 1 March, 10th to 13th September 1982: west of the Weser near Bassum , Hoya and Sottrum
  • Phase 2 battle, September 13 to 17, 1982: east of the Weser and north of the Aller. The commanding Lieutenant General Kurt von der Osten gave the exercise its name.

The 8th Cavalry Regiment needed 30 hours for the REFORGER transport from Fort Hood to the Weser. The pure flight time of the five C- 141s to transport the Reforger troops from take-off to landing on Ramstein AB was ten hours. They took over 40 M60 tanks at the POMCUS depot in Germersheim , which were transported by train in 18 hours, including from the Hoya loading station, to the training area near Achim, Bremen. A capacity of 115 trains with a total of 1,500 wagons was available for this purpose.

Bridges were built over the Weser near Minden and over the Dortmund-Ems Canal at kilometer 525 by the river pioneer command 701 for the 7th Panzer Division in four places. There were air landings near Wildeshausen by the paratrooper battalion 272 with approx. 300 soldiers and 80 air-transportable vehicles. Parallel to Starken Wehr 82, the air force exercise " Cold Fire 82" provided air support for the forces on the ground with approx. 300 flights by 250 combat aircraft, fighter bombers and 150 helicopters. The largest tank battle of the exercise took place on September 14, 1982, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., near Schwaförden .

The materials used were 120 guns , 315 rocket artillery systems , 300 meters of bridge construction equipment , 20,000 liters of kerosene , 100,000 liters of gasoline , 220,000 liters of diesel , 450,000 rounds (rifle cartridges), 10,000 ammunition for anti-aircraft weapons and 50,000 explosive devices. In total, maneuver damage totaled two million DM . 285,000 rations (800 tons) served as food, which meant an energy requirement of the soldier of 3,800 calories per head per day.

Web links

media

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ NATO maneuver series "Herbstschmiede" under the command of SACEUR Bernard W. Rogers
  2. ^ The 1983 War Scare: "The Last Paroxysm" of the Cold War Part II. Part II: "Blue's use of nuclear weapons did not stop Orange's aggression." Able Archer 83 Declassified. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 427
  3. Field Exercise, free-running exercise of the full force
  4. a b c d e Starke Wehr 82 on Military Database - The maneuver database
  5. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Strong Weir 82 on M136
  6. ^ NATO maneuvers. With south wind the flank becomes weak September 24, 1982
  7. Maneuver “Strong Defense” Der Spiegel. August 16, 1982