Thanks, Mike. Some great material there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
Woud Soviet commerce raiders (subs, primarily) begin attacking convoys carrying supplies to Europe before U.S. and other NATO forces began military operations against PACT forces in East Germany?
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Only if they were ready to go to war with NATO as a whole at that point. The boys in the Kremlin would know that the Americans would consider this an act of war. CINC GSFG would point out that the addition of the remaining forces of NATO to the fighting in Germany would exacerbate the balance of forces problem. There was no point in sinking a few or a couple dozen supply ships in the Atlantic if the prompt entrance of NATO into the equation ended up costing the Pact their hold on East Germany.
On the other hand, the Soviets would have known that the US was resupplying West Germany. They might have tried claiming that shipments of arms and ammunition constituted active support for West Germany. Therefore, Soviet naval forces should have been free to intercept shipping bound for West Germany. The US could have gotten around this by landing arms and ammunition elsewhere in Western Europe. And again, torpedoing American vessels in international waters would give the US its casus belli—something best avoided, since the Soviets were not prepared to bring a conventional war in Germany to a successful conclusion until the end of November.