NATO, WAPA and the indefensibility of LandJut in NGP and D85

[JDR Dragoon]

So six brigades you already mentioned, add 4 brigade equivalent HS formations and you have 10. The Danes created a couple of small brigade like formations to support and the ACE quick reaction force had allocated a minimum of 1 brigade. Actuallt a UK light mech brigade was earmarked for the area and could be ready on short notice as well as the rest of the ACE force.

So NATO did in fact have a force of about 12 brigades (assuming a couple of days warning) excluding local and coastal defense.

The HS units in TK Schleswig Holstein totalled 2 regiments of motorized infantry (weak infantry brigades with very few Anti Tank weapons) and 2 semi-armoured brigades (one of which was attached to 6th Panzergrenadier permanently). Out of this, 1 Regiment and 1 Brigade would likely be earmarked to defending Hamburg in a static role. This leaves us with 6th panzergrenadier (with an attached HS Brigade) covering the Inner German border and a single HS regiment covering the rear areas (plus various "Sicherungskompanien" and such, but lets ignore them for the moment). Even with "a few days" warning, the Jutland Division won´t be in position and neither will the ACE Mobile Force or the UKMF. This leaves us with 4 armored Brigades and a weak Infantry brigade to hold the line against an entire WAPA army. After a few days leading elements of the Jutland divisions might make its presence felt and after half a week or so the entire division plus Corps troops will probably have reached its area of responsibility. The Ace Mobile Force and the UKMF requires about a week to be ready too (but can deploy relatively quickly once ready). The problem here is, that neither the UKMF nor the ACE Mobile Force will necessarily go to LandJut (as mentioned above the UKMF might equally go to reinforcing LandZealand instead of LandJut, and the ACE Mobile Force might be sent anywhere from Turkey to the North Cape).

The problem is, that by the 1980s, NATO would at best get 3-4 days of warning before a WAPA attack. With this kind fo warning, most of the Jutland Division will still be under deployment and the UKMF and Ace Mobile force will still be marshalling and organising their transport when the attack hits. Danube Fron 85 presents an even gloomier scenrio: Here NATO gets less than 24 hours of warning before the attack hits.....