Fulda Gap - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Fulda Gap is a region of lower elevation between the former East German border and Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Named for the town of Fulda

Fulda

Fulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...

, the Fulda Gap was strategically important during the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

. "Gap" refers to a corridor of lowlands (between the Hohe Rhön and Knüllgebirge

Knüllwald

-Location:Knüllwald lies in the Knüllgebirge, a low mountain range, between the rivers Efze and Beise, south of Kassel.-Constituent communities:The community consists of sixteen centres: Appenfeld, Berndshausen, Ellingshausen, Hausen, Hergetsfeld, Lichtenhagen, Nausis, Nenterode, Niederbeisheim,...

mountains, and between the Spessart

Spessart

The Spessart is a low mountain range in northwestern Bavaria and southern Hesse, Germany. It is bordered on three sides by the Main River. The two most important towns located at the foot of the Spessart are Aschaffenburg and Würzburg....

and the Vogelsberg

Vogelsberg Mountains

The Vogelsberg Mountains are a group duct of ancient volcanic activity and are separated from the Rhön Mountains by the Fulda River and its valley....

mountains), which is suitable for operations by large-scale armored forces.

The Fulda Gap was one of two obvious routes for a hypothetical Soviet tank attack upon West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

from Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

, especially East Germany; the second route was the North German Plain

North German plain

The North German Plain or Northern Lowland is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain...

, and the third, less likely, route was up through the Danube River valley in Austria. The concept of a major tank battle along the Fulda Gap was a predominant element of NATO war planning during the Cold War, and weapons such as the AH-64 Apache

AH-64 Apache

The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew. The Apache was developed as Model 77 by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the...

attack helicopter and A-10 ground attack aircraft were developed with such an eventuality in mind.

Strategic location

Close to the Fulda Gap, the loss of Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, West Germany's financial heart, would have been a serious German and NATO loss as it was also home to two large airfields (Rhein-Main Air Base

Rhein-Main Air Base

Rhein-Main Air Base was a U.S. Air Force / NATO military airbase near the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It occupied the south side of Frankfurt International Airport. Its airport codes are discontinued....

) that were designated to receive U.S. reinforcements had war broken out.

The high ground between the two routes are the Vogelsberg Mountains

Vogelsberg Mountains

The Vogelsberg Mountains are a group duct of ancient volcanic activity and are separated from the Rhön Mountains by the Fulda River and its valley....

. Perhaps more important, the land between the Fulda Gap and the river Rhine was less rugged, offering favourable terrain for Soviet forces to reach and cross the Rhine before NATO could prevent it. The Fulda Gap route was less suitable for mechanized troop movement than was the North German Plain

North German plain

The North German Plain or Northern Lowland is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain...

, but offered an avenue of advance direct to the heart of the U.S. military in West Germany.

It is roughly the same route Napoleon chose to withdraw his armies after defeat at the Battle of Leipzig

Battle of Leipzig

The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...

. Napoleon succeeded in defeating a Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n-Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n army under Wrede

Karl Philipp von Wrede

Karl Philipp Josef Wrede, Freiherr von Wrede, 1st Fürst von Wrede , Bavarian field-marshal, was born at Heidelberg, the youngest of three children of Ferdinand Josef Wrede , created in 1791 1st Freiherr von Wrede, and wife, married on 21 March 1746, Anna Katharina Jünger , by whom he had two more...

in the Battle of Hanau

Battle of Hanau

The Battle of Hanau was fought on between Karl Philipp von Wrede’s Austro-Bavarian corps and Napoleon's retreating French during the War of the Sixth Coalition....

not far from Frankfurt; he safely escaped home to France. The route was also used by the U.S. XII Corps

XII Corps (United States)

The XII Corps fought from northern France to Austria in World War II. Constituted in the Organized Reserves in 1933, it was activated on 29 August 1942 at Columbia, South Carolina. XII Corps became operational in France as part of Lieutenant General George S. Patton's U.S. Third Army on 1 August...

during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

to advance eastward in late March and early April, 1945.

The Fulda Gap in the Cold War

Strategists on both sides of the Iron Curtain

Iron Curtain

The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...

understood the Fulda Gap's importance, and accordingly allocated forces to defend and attack it. NATO defence was primarily by the US V Corps. The actual East-West border in the Fulda Gap (see US Army Border Operations in "External links" below) was guarded by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) from 1972 to 1994.

Before 1972, the 14th ACR patrolled the Fulda Gap for twenty-four years, and before them, the duties had been performed by the 3rd Constabulary

United States Constabulary

The United States Constabulary was a United States Army military Constabulary force. From 1946 to 1952, in the aftermath of World War II, it acted as an occupation and security force in the U.S...

Regiment and the 1st Constabulary Brigade.

The armored cavalry's (heavy, mechanized reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

units equipped with tank

Tank

A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...

s and other armored vehicles) mission in peace was watching the East-West border for signs of pre-attack Soviet army movement. The armored cavalry's mission in war was to delay a Soviet attack until other units of the U.S. V Corps could be mobilized and deployed to defend the Fulda Gap.

The armored cavalry would have also served as a screening force in continuous visual contact with the Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...

forces, reporting on their composition and activities. The divisions assigned to defend the Fulda Gap were the 3rd Armored Division [3rd AD], and the 8th Infantry Division (Mechanized) [8th ID].

The V Corps' principal adversary was the Soviet 8th Guards Army, which was to be followed by additional armies (including the 4 armored divisions and 1 mechanized infantry division of the Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army), making the Fulda Gap a key entry route for the Soviet Bloc to western Europe in any hypothetical battle in Cold War

Cold War

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

; both armies were well-equipped and held high-priority for receiving new equipment.

As stated, defending the Fulda Gap from a Warsaw Pact invasion would have been the 3rd Armored Division and the 8th Infantry Division of the US V Corps. As the principal defense force, their mission, along with the 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division (1976–1984), would have been to fight and stop invading forces, not delay them. In practice it was unknown how effective they would have been in either role due to the vast numbers of tanks and infantry the Soviets were able to field. According to The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--The Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Policy, Volume VI, 1955-56 by Kenneth W. Condit (Washington: GPO, 1992), Atomic Demolition Mines

Atomic demolition munitions

Atomic demolition munitions , colloquially known as nuclear land mines, are small nuclear explosive devices. ADMs were developed for both military and civilian purposes. As weapons, they were designed to be exploded in the forward battle area, in order to block or channel enemy forces. ...

were in place for many years in the Fulda Gap.

From 1979 onwards, the first V Corps unit detailed to move further into the Fulda Gap in the event of the beginning of hostilities (Note: over two-thirds of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) was stationed along the Inner German Border in the Fulda Gap) was the 8th ID's 1st Battalion, 68th Armored Regiment (1-68 Armor)

68th Armored Regiment (United States)

The 68th Armour Regiment was first activated in 1933 in the Regular Army as the 68th Infantry Regiment -Lineage:The 68th Armour Regiment was first activated in 1933 in the Regular Army as the 68th Infantry Regiment (Light Tanks)-Lineage:The 68th Armour Regiment was first activated in 1933 in the...

, stationed at Wildflecken

Wildflecken

Wildflecken is a municipality in the Bad Kissingen district, at the border of northeastern Bavaria and southern Hesse. In 2005, its population was 3,285; the postal code is 97772. Wildflecken is in the picturesque Rhön hills and nature-park....

, south of the Gap. The mission of 1-68 Armor was to establish a defensive line across part of the Gap, providing a shield behind which other V Corps units could advance and defend. The 3rd Armored Division's 533d Military Intelligence Battalion, garrisoned in Frankfurt, deployed with 11ACR on the Gap, providing Electronic Warfare

Electronic warfare

Electronic warfare refers to any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults via the spectrum. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly...

assets to the 3AD Commander. The mission of 533 MI BN was to identify and target principal invasion elements for artillery and aircraft strikes and to corrupt enemy lines of communication using radio jamming

Radio jamming

Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...

and deceptive communications by Defense Language Institute

Defense Language Institute

The Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution, which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies and numerous and varied other customers...

(DLI) trained Russian and German linguists. The 3rd Armored Division was also bolstered by its own dedicated attack helicopter wing, and was the first military unit to deploy the "tank-killer" Boeing AH-64 Apache in 1987.

With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the reunification of Germany

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

in 1990, and the subsequent withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Fulda Gap lost its former strategic importance, but it remains a powerful symbol of the Cold War.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Strategic location

The Fulda Gap in the Cold War

See also

Further reading

External links