From what I remember there were many towns, villages, and cities with a civilian population that was quite impressed with the way local NATO troops behaved. It is one of the reason why B Troop/1st Squadron of 116th ACR was more or less welcome with open arms. This with the Americans leaving a couple nuclear packages as going away gift in a city in the area.
The Soviets on the other hand wouldn't fare well with the local population even if the Germans were considered the aggressors at the start of the war. They were popped off their share of Nukes to decimate the fleeing NATO units. Which would reinforce in some cases what the Polish High Command had always feared since 1979, that during the war-game in which the Soviets introduce that the Americans and NATO had started to nuke units along Vistula River that were in transit to the front. Many Poles had doubted that the Americans would be the the ones using Polish property to slow reinforcements.
Kinda like the West German government always worried who would use the nukes in their territory. There are fair amount argument that if the Soviet got close to the Rhine River that French would strike to stem the flow of the Pact forces to her borders. While others who had knowledge of the man-pack nukes that US had as well as fear that the UK would use nukes to stem the tide at various transportation hubs in West Germany.
The lucky ones were the East Germans. If NATO had used to Nukes to stem the tide of troops getting to the front, well odds were they would look at place before the Elbe River. With large Pact force surround the West Berlin, they wouldn't want to use nukes in there in V1 because their forces would be at ground zero.
As for all other pre-war Pact members it would be mix bag, with how the Soviet or NATO troops would be treated. If NATO troops behaved themselves, I can see lot of communities wanting to support them. Yet, Hungary and Czechoslovakia would look at NATO with some disdain since NATO sat and did nothing in 1956 and 1968. Rest of the Pact, I think would be more willing to turn against the Pact more quickly. Many of these countries had very weak Military.
Next one has to look at how Soviet rated many of their Pact Allies. It is ironic that many Polish units were equipped with equipment that was the latest technology in the 1960s. The one exception was the 7th Marine Division that was deemed reliable and equipped to support the Soviet push to Denmark or else where on the Baltic. Germans were general equipped the best with equipment on par with their Soviet counterpart, since they were considered the most loyal. Czech and Hungary units were only equipped since they had been shown and still remember what happens to countries who don't remain loyal to Moscow and their closeness to American troops.
Rest of the Pact, none were as loyal as the Germans, but their loyalty wasn't much of the problem since these troop only had support Soviets that would attack Turkey, Greece, and Italy. If they decide to switch sides, the Soviets would gobble them up as their second and third echelon forces move out the Ukraine to their designated fronts. Would it slow the first echelon, yeah, but they were in much better position than Hitlers forces were in 1941 diverted from their invasion of the Soviet Union by some 6 weeks to over run these countries that weren't already allies with Germany at the time.
Just some thoughts.
|