West Germany (BRD)

Dossier

Designation: Bundeswehr (Heer), with the Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS) on the border
Allegiance: NATO
Standard rifle: Heckler & Koch G3
Uniform: Plain olive moleskin field uniform

Background

The Bundeswehr was founded in 1955 with one job: to hold the line in Germany until the Allies arrived. Thirty years on it is the largest army in Western Europe, built around conscripts who serve fifteen months, and the most heavily armoured: Leopard tanks, Marder infantry fighting vehicles and Gepard flak tanks fill the depots from Schleswig-Holstein to Bavaria.

Its soldiers are "citizens in uniform", Staatsbürger in Uniform, and its doctrine is forward defence. There is no room to trade space for time. Every kilometre given up is a German town.

The war so far

The first West German blood of the war was spilled on 15 October at Marienborn, where three officers of the Bundesgrenzschutz were killed and eight wounded in a firefight with the East German Grenztruppen. The funerals were broadcast live. A week later the Bundeswehr crossed the Inner German Border with its allies as part of Operation Statant, and German soldiers are now fighting Germans on the road to the Elbe.

In the field

The Bundeswehr soldier is grey-green and plain: no camouflage, a heavy G3, an American-pattern steel helmet and a mountain of webbing. His engineers, the Pioniere, are among the busiest men on the front, bridging rivers for the advance and blowing them behind the retreating enemy.

Radio log

HIER ADLER EINS-ZWO. BRÜCKE BEI KILOMETER ACHT GESPRENGT. FEIND ZIEHT NACH OSTEN AB. KOMMEN.
ADLER EINS-ZWO, VERSTANDEN. HALTEN SIE DIE STELLUNG. ENDE.