Forward defense
The forward defense (also forward strategy , advance defense or forward strategy ) was a strategy of NATO during the Cold War . It was based on the modified Strategic Concept for the Defense of the North Atlantic Area (DC 6/1, from 1952 then MC 3/5) adopted by the North Atlantic Council on December 3, 1952, and the Strategic Guidelines MC 14/1 of the NATO Military Committee . In May 1957 she lost their validity and was the strategic concept MC 14/2 of massive retaliation (Massive Retaliation) replaced.
The term forward strategy was originally used in the Federal Republic of Germany . In April 1961, as chairman of the NATO military committee , Adolf Heusinger ordered the use of the term forward defense to make it clear that NATO was not planning any attack operations. In 1967, the then Federal Defense Minister Gerhard Schröder had the term changed to forward defense in order to take the GDR propaganda away from an "aggressive offensive strategy".
The strategic military principle of a flexible front defense was also based on NATO's superiority in terms of nuclear weapons . Since the structure of the Bundeswehr and the commitments were implemented slowly increasing the staff and defense spending in NATO countries for financial and economic reasons, this new concept was the obligation of the defense of the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany against the armed forces of the Warsaw Pact ago . It corresponded to an existing line of defense on the Rhine . West Germany was considered a combat zone and delay area against an attack from the east. The attacker should be held up as long as possible in order to build up a stable defensive front and in this way to be able to hold as much of their own territory as possible and to mobilize further forces.
With the strategic guidelines MC 14/1, the defense planning of NATO in Central Europe had provided the following military strategic and operational armed forces goals:
- Achievement of air superiority
- Defense of NATO military bases and airfields
- Defense of Denmark (mainly Jutland and Zealand )
- Closure of the Baltic Sea accesses ( Kattegat , Skagerrak )
- Defense of airports and ports (including Bergen and Narvik ) in Norway
- Armed forces deployed between the inner German border and the Rhine - IJssel line , including deployment of tank units in the north German lowlands and defense of important bases in the southern low mountain range .
- Defense of northern Italy on the border with Yugoslavia ( Isonzo ) and the Italian Alps ( Dolomites and Southern Carnic Alps ),
- Control of the Western Mediterranean
- Destruction of all enemy bases on the coast of Albania (member of the Warsaw Pact from 1955 to 1968 ).
- Defense of Greece on the Struma River
- Closure of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles by Turkey
- Withdrawal of British, French and American troops from Austria to Italy
The use of the US strategic bomber fleet armed with nuclear weapons and other carrier-based warplanes from France, Great Britain and Italy, which were to carry out a counter-offensive from the air as far as the enemy hinterland, served as an option for alliance defense.
References
- ^ Topic: Strategic Concept . NATO
- ↑ Bruno Thoss: NATO strategy and national defense planning: planning and building the Bundeswehr under the conditions of a massive nuclear retaliation strategy 1952-1960 . 2005, ISBN 3-486-57904-5
- ↑ (Author collective :) Small Political Dictionary . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1973, p. 933
- ↑ SHAPE, Central Registry, Proj.12c, Reel 1, FM / 43, Staff Conference at SHAPE: May 18, 1951 and Reel 2 Defense Plan Central Europe, comments by the SHAPE team and the three NATO headquarters in Central Europe in Fontainebleau on November 16 and 19, 1951