Der Weg in den Krieg - Germany‘s way to war

[Jotun]

The road to war: I (once again) present the German point of view.


Der Weg in den Krieg - Bundesrepublik Deutschland

4th April – The government of the UK informs its West German counterpart that its forces have been brought to a heightened alert status due to the situation in Poland and the Soviet reaction.

5th April – The Chancellor is informed by the BND (with material provided by British Intelligence) and military intelligence that according to SIGINT and ELINT intercepts in addition to the material provided by the UK, the Soviet Union is mobilizing its Category A and B divisions. The Bundeswehr raises its alert status.

7th April – Reports by NATO, the USA and the UK as well as several West German embassies and consulates across the Warsaw Pact nations confirm the military buildup. After hard discussions, the Social-Liberal cabinet of the West German government decides to further raise the Bundeswehr's alert status. All granted leave not yet taken is cancelled. The Generalinspekteur of the Bundeswehr, the organization's highest-ranking serviceman, honeymooning on Réunion island with his third wife, terminates his leave after just three days and returns to West Germany.

The first reconnaissance units of the Bundeswehr reach their forward positions at the IGB, ostensibly as part of a large-scale surprise exercise; the Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guards) steps up its patrol activity all along the country's eastern borders.
Members of the KSO, US Special Forces, the SAS and several other NATO special operations units fan out to check up on the prepositioned weapons and explosives caches for stay-behind units scattered all over the country. The inner security organizations intensify their observation of politically extremist individuals and organizations that could serve as Warsaw Pact fifth columnists in the event of a war, directly or by proxy.

10th April – News that REFORGER has been brought forward by several weeks catches the West German "peace movement" by surprise and the activists scramble to organize the usual demonstrations in front of major NATO installations such as Rhein-Main Airbase, Ramstein, the West German Ministry of Defence and various others localities. The Green Party begins denouncing "NATO and West German war-mongering" in an even more hysterical tone than usual, having, as shown by evidence gathered during the preparation of the successful outlawing of the party on 3rd May, been instructed to do so by the Stasi and KGB.

All West German servicemen on leave, no matter where they are, are ordered back to West Germany. The country asks all Western-aligned and neutral nations across the world to assist in their swift return to the country. In many cases, the servicemen hop on Europe-bound military flights while their families have to wait for free flights on civilian airlines. In the NATO countries, the families are cared for and supported by the respective armed forces. Many spouses and families elect to stay behind for the duration of the crisis.

The Bundesmarine's exercise Task Group 501.1, halfway across the Atlantic to a missile-firing exercise off Roosevelt Roads with over 100 midshipmen on board FGS Deutschland, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Bremen, is recalled to Germany and instantly reverses course, making for Europe at best possible speed. The midshipmen are exchanged for the regular crew members by helicopter as soon as the task group is within range of the Iberian peninsula.

All combat-capable Type U-206A submarines of the Bundesmarine in Kiel and Eckernförde are fitted with their mine-laying belts and begin preliminary planning of mining missions in the Neustadt Bight and off several East German and Polish ports[1].

All available German submarines set sail into the waters of the Baltic over the following week, taking up intercept positions along likely Warsaw pact axis of advance, accompanied by submarines from Denmark and Norway.


11th April – STANAVFORLANT, consisting of eight NATO destroyers and frigates, off the Bermudas at the time, receives orders to cancel its planned transit to Europe and report to SACLANT in Norfolk/VA for convoy duty. STANAVFORMED, consisting of seven units and sailing towards a port visit in Brindisi, is given the task of forming an ASW group in the Eastern Mediterranean. The two German frigates on tour with the Standing Naval Forces are ordered by the German ministry of defence to remain under NATO OPCON and with their respective Standing Naval Force.

Across the country, the alert siren system is tested repeatedly, breaking the usual test pattern, hammering home the point to the West German citizenry that things are getting serious. Over the following days, reminders of the relevant siren signals are posted in newspapers and on posters across the country.

Frightened citizens begin hoarding supplies, leading to numerous riot-like situations in front of supermarkets, prompting the German government to pass respective ordinances outlawing hoarding the very next day.

This and the sometimes hysterical coverage of the Polish Crisis by the media, leads, among other things, to a flood of concerned citizens reporting "suspicious" persons and neighbors as Eastern spies, swamping the police forces with calls. Less than three in one hundred of those reports have any value.

13th April – With conclusive evidence that the Soviet Union and by default its "allies" in the Warsaw Pact have started a full-scale mobilization, the West German Parliament convenes in Bonn under strong security measures. The governing parties of SPD and FDP, supported by the CDU/CSU, bring forward the movement that the State of Tension is to be declared and as a result the Bundeswehr is to mobilize its full complement of reservists, excepting those in vital job fields. It is passed with a comfortable majority, with just three votes against by pacifist SPD delegates and of course the whole Green faction.

Following this vote, the Bundestag votes by the same overwhelming margin to request full NATO assistance in preparing for – and if necessary, repel – an invasion by the Warsaw Pact.

By declaring a State of Tension, several dormant "Notstandsgesetze" (emergency laws), as intended by the West German constitution, come into effect. [2]
Most importantly, the constitutional protection of mail and telecommunications (phone, internet etc.) is downgraded significantly, as is freedom of movement. The security services of the Federal Republic of Germany further intensify widespread surveillance of organizations and individuals suspected of being sympathetic to the Warsaw Pact or posing a general threat to the mobilization and imminent war effort.

Immediately after the State of Tension has been declared, civilian traffic along vital roads, waterways and rail lines is severely restricted and military traffic is given absolute priority. All West German international airports also prioritize planes taking off or landing with a military tasking.

The West German government also temporarily suspends the Schengen agreement in order to make it more difficult for draft dodgers and deserters (of whom there are surprisingly few, given pre-war estimates) to leave the country. At the same time, all countries west of the Curtain neighboring Germany are asked to intensify their border controls for the same reason.

The Joint Committee, except for the Chancellor and his staff, are transferred to the Regierungsbunker (government bunker) in the Ahr valley.

The Technisches Hilfswerk (Federal Agency for Technical Relief), the main German civil defence organization, calls up its personnel in preparation for a full-scale wartime deployment[3].

14th April - West German Reservists are ordered by all available media to report to their respective mobilization units. Target strength of the mobilized armed forces is close to 1.3 million men - ad several thousand women in the medical service - under arms. Compliance is above pre-war estimates. Military Police and the state police forces are tasked with rounding up and arresting non-compliant persons as conscientious objection has been automatically suspended under the emergency powers of the state. Several policemen are wounded to varying degrees and one MP is killed during these roundups. The first acts of sabotage and civil disobedience take place all over the country, doing little to moderate damage as the police and other security serices have more leeway in doing their jobs. Arrests follow quickly.

In places with a strong leftist tradition such as the Schanzenviertel in Hamburg, riots erupt which, contrary to more peaceful times, are broken up without compromise by German Bereitschaftspolizei. A surprising number of the rioters do possess firearms and in the Schanzenviertel alone, almost three dozen rioters and five policemen are killed in firefights.

In the meantime, the first REFORGER units reach Germany and the troops proceed to their prepositioned equipment under strong international MP and police guard. The soldiers especially do not take kindly to being insulted, peppered with stones, eggs, the odd molotov cocktail and even being fired upon and response to such incidents is swift and decisive.

The Bundeswehr universities in Munich and Hamburg, the Leadership Academy (Führungsakademie - the joint staff and flag officer training school in Hamburg) and all other Bundeswehr training schools discharge their students to once again serve with their home units or in appropriate vacant postings. This measure alone frees up almost 30.000 men (the Bundeswehr universities alone yield 4.500 men).

15th April – The cabinet of the German government in close co-operation with the opposition CDU/CSU green-lights operation "Greif", which leads to the arrest and detention (and in some instances, "suicide by cop") of left as well as right-wing radicals all over the country. Another facet of this operation is the shutdown or blocking of web sites transporting the views of those individuals and/or their organizations. As a "package deal", a number of people being suspected of being agents for the East are arrested and detained as well, based on evidence resulting from the more intense surveillance after the declaration of the State of Tension. Operation "Greif" seems to be a smashing success as in the following days, violent anti-war protests across West Germany decrease in number by amost 80%. Most of the detainees are shipped to the Stuttgart-Stammheim prison which is deemed to be distant enough from the projected front lines to keep them from becoming a security concern. Stammheim prison also is the holding place for the Red Army Faction terrorists in West German custody. As an unintended but very welcome side effect, almost the complete underground support network for the Red Army Faction's latest generation is neutralized.

All of the detainees are charged with the appropriate offences detailed in sections 80-109k of the West German Criminal Code.

Just as in the UK, museums and art galleries, foremost those in West Berlin and along the IGB, begin removing their collections and transport them to secure locations far away from the IGB, in some cases they are flown to the USA or turn up in storage sites in the French Pyrenees.
Just in case, the same is done by high-tech firms – defence-related or not - close to the border who remove all documentation of their products and their production as well as most SOTA machinery.
The prime example is the main production site of Volkswagen, which is located in Wolfsburg, not quite three kilometers from the IGB. Within four days, all state-of-the-art production machinery and all electronic equipment is dismantled and sent westwards to safety.

In Bremerhaven, the first British ships carrying reinforcements from the UK arrive.


17th April – As frantic attempts to defuse the crisis are ongoing on the international stage, most east-west roads in the country are virtually blocked by people fleeing the areas close to the IGB while on the lanes leading to the east, military traffic has absolute priority. West German ELINT and SIGINT units as well as the forward-deployed troops report that Warsaw Pact units are massing along the Iron Curtain.

The Wallmeister units begin arming the first prepared obstacles all along Germany's border with the Warsaw Pact in conjunction with, and under the protection of, the regular Bundeswehr and Allied units. The number of people fleeing the Zonenrandgebiet (territory about 30 km deep along the Curtain) and likely target areas for artillery and air attacks reaches new heights.

18th April – As the first regular West German army unit, 6. Panzergrenadierdivision reports reaching full war strength. Including reservists, the division now has a manpower of over 28,000 men, the largest divisional unit in NATO.
Just like all other Bundeswehr units absorbing the stream of reservists, 6. Panzergrenadier has been running a desperate training regimen since the recall of the reserves to active duty in order to bring the reservists into something approaching fighting shape.

The last Bundesmarine submarines stand out to sea during the early morning hours, heading for their hunting grounds in the Baltic.

19th April – A radical group of "peace activists" mounts an armed assault on Rhein-Main airbase. They manage to penetrate the security perimeter with the aid of a sympathetic civilian guard and attempt to destroy or damage parked and taxiing American planes involved in REFORGER on the tarmac by way of firearms and explosives helpfully supplied to them by a deep-cover Stasi agent, as interrogation of the few survivors later reveals. USAF security responds before much damage can be done. Of the eleven "activists" involved in the assault itself, eight are killed outright and three wounded to varying degrees.

REFORGER wraps up for the moment as all units assigned to the initial defence of West Germany have now arrived in theatre.


20th April – At the eleventh hour, all Bundeswehr units report reaching full war strength. This has been accomplished despite continuing sabotage and civil disobedience perpetrated by committed but, after the success of Operation "Greif“, uncoordinated and directionless anti-war/pro-Soviet groups. Five members of the Rote Armee Fraktion perish in an ambush near the German parliament laid by GSG9 . The German government had received actionable intelligence from various independent sources that the terrorist organization planned an attack on the delegates in session.
The professional and volunteer fire services switch to their war footing, as do the states’ police forces who have been „at war“ for almost two weeks anyway. The THW is fully deployed across the country, waiting for the seemingly inevitable.


21st April – NATO assessment that an attack by the Warsaw Pact is expected within 24-48 hours has reached the Bundestag (parliament), yet most delegates are hesitant in declaring the State of Defence.

In the late evening, however, their hand is forced as reservists of a Naval Security Company guarding MFG 3 in Nordholz catch a commando unit of the GDR NVA's Luftsturmregiment 40 "Willi Sänger"[4] in the act of trying to infiltrate the airbase. The commandos are wearing standard West German Flecktarn uniforms, weapons and kit but are found out by an alert West German petty officer because they are wearing Heer insignia near a Naval Aviation base and their accents are slightly off when challenged (the Saxony accent is notorious in the whole of Germany and not easily unlearned). The resulting firefight kills all but two of the East Germans, wounding three West German naval infantrymen. Later on, this engagement would enter history as the first shots fired in Germany in World War Three. The East German unit was ahead of the timetable set by the Soviet leadership due to a communications mishap.

Word of the attack quickly makes it to the top of the West German chain of command and the Bundestag, still in session, sees the attack as the final straw. With more than the needed 50% of the delegates present, the Bundestag is legally able, and does determine on 23:17 CEST, that an armed attack on the Federal Republic of Germany is in progress with a comfortable majority of way more than the required two-thirds. The confirmation by the Bundesrat is equally unequivocal and quick.

The Federal Chancellor is now Commander-in-Chief of the Bundeswehr and is flown by helicopter under air cover to the Regierungsbunker to join the members of the Joint Committee who are already present. The Bundestag formally relinquishes its legislative powers to the Committee for the duration of the conflict. NATO is informed of the parliament's decision.

Security at vital installations across the country has been tightened after the attack on Nordholz and thus most attacks by Spetsnaz and other commando units can be thwarted, albeit with moderate to serious losses for the defending forces.

22nd April – At midnight, the State of Defence is made public via TV, radio and Internet to the general population by the West German President, as reqired by the German constitution.
Across West Germany, the first skirmishes between troops on security alert and Warsaw Pact commando units flare up and on precisely 01:30 CEST, the Third World War begins with a combined-arms attack by the Warsaw pact along the whole of the eastern NATO borders. One of the first locations to come under attack is the government bunker in the Ahr valley. Six companies of the Wachbataillon[4] distinguish themselves by utterly annihilating a regiment-sized Spetsnaz/VDV decapitation assault on the Regierungsbunker, incurring heavy casualties themselves.

The Joint Committe determines by vote that a state of war now exists between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Soviet Union as well as its allies at 03:11 local time. This declaration of war is made public by the Federal President at 08:00.


[1] For mining missions, two mine dispensers were essentially strapped to the submarine’s hull amidships to port and starboard, each containing 12 ground mines. Interestingly, the somewhat bulky contraptions did not significantly downgrade the subs’ performance (at least according to several German submarine officers I talked to over the years).

[2] State of Tension: National alert status one step below State of Defence. The Parliament has to pass this with a 2/3 majority.

[3] see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technisches_Hilfswerk for details

[4] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftsturmregiment_40 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40._Falls ... %C3%A4nger for details
[5] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachbataillon for details. For TLW, one can safely assume that the light infantry role is much more significant for the battalion.

[Jotun]

The wayback machine worked for once

Since I am on my phone, I‘ll format the piece tonight.

[Leander]

Not sure if I read that one before.
Good work.

[Jotun]

Not sure if I read that one before.
Good work.

I wrote it eight or nine years ago^^