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Originally Posted by natehale1971
I think I had read somewhere that the East Germans had the smallest military forces in the Warsaw Pact, but where seen as the most professional military personnel... And they had seemed to be the most loyal to the Socialist / Communist ideals and where the strongest allies behind the Iron Curtain that the Soviets had. Or did i get that mixed up?
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The East Germans were considered to have the best trained troops in the Pact, and one of the best equipped.
The Bulgarians take the cake for being the most loyal. When things started to fall apart in the late 80s Bulgaria was the one that the USSR had to pressure to liberalize. Their KGB was also even more out of control - its widely beelieved that they were behind the plot to assasinate the Pope. (I'm also aware of some attempted assasinations they tried to pull in the US).
Fully mobilized strength of Pact armies:
East Germany: 11 divisions
Bulgaria: 12 divisions + 5 tank brigades
Hungary: 3 corps, each slightly larger than a division (5 combat brigades each)
Czechoslovakia: 15 divisions
Poland: 20 divisions
So Hungary by far had the smallest army.