Loyalty of non-Soviet Warsaw Pact forces

[dude_uk]

I think has cropped up before. But perhaps worth discussing again. How loyal are those countries who remain in the pact with the Soviets?

Budapest in '56, Prague in '68. Such things do not fade into the background.

Surrender to Tommy and Joe when they come by? Or does the abandonment by the west to Stalin still hurt. Is the Bundeswehr the old Wehrmacht?

Is it a simple case of some stay and some go?

The numbers:

Bulgaria: Regular 117,500 Reserves 472,500
Czechoslovakia: Regular 199,700 Reserves 295,000
GDR: Regular 173,100 Reserves 323,500 (Goes over to NATO 1996)
Hungary: Regular 91,000 Reserves 168,000
Poland: Regular 412,000 Reserves 505,000
Romania:171,000 Reserves:203,000 (Goes over to NATO 1997)

[pmulcahy11b]

Well, the Soviet OPLAN was do deploy eastern Europe and Western Republics's forces to China and the Middle East, and Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, and Poles to Europe and any attack on Alaska. Kind of tells you something there.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

I know it wouldn't happen "like that" but God it'd be funny - Early 1999, 20,000 Poles sealift to Alaska, march on Anchorage...and immediately declare for the United States and ask to be transported to Norfolk to be shipped to the European Front to fight alongside NATO troops

[Adm.Lee]

In '96 and '97, I suspect the propaganda-fueled specter of reunited Germany might keep Poland, Czechoslovakia, and maybe Hungary in line, along with brutal crackdowns. After that, I have my doubts. NATO getting run out of Poland in the summer of '97 would put some kind of damper on Polish/Czechoslovak side-switching, too. If the West can't win, you may not want to join them.

When I run, I have a trickle, growing into a stream, of defectors from the East European armies and people. Not as many as outright deserters, but some. For story reasons, I like the idea of an active Polish resistance with a shadow government behind NATO lines. Of course, it's got some problems with double agents and KGB infiltration, but it tries.

[Olefin]

Bulgaria: Regular 117,500 Reserves 472,500

Most likely the Turkish invasion of Bulgaria made any chance of defections to NATO a moot point

However there was a very large Turkish minority population in Bulgaria, many of whom were in the Kardzhali Province that Turkey would have invaded for sure. Almost ten percent of the population were Turks.

So you could have seen defections from Turks serving in the Bulgarian Army to the NATO Turkish units during the war.

Hungary: Regular 91,000 Reserves 168,000

Actually surprised at how little info there is on them in the game. The 1956 invasion and its after effects made them the least trusted of any of the Warsaw Pact units - and them going lockstep along with the Warsaw Pact really doesn't make sense - especially after the Soviets were on the ropes in early 1997. You would have figured that when it looked like the West was going to win in walk in early and mid 1997 before the nukes started to fly that some units at the very least would have gone turncoat and taken on any Soviet units still on their soil.


Poland: Regular 412,000 Reserves 505,000

The fact that the Germans invaded and the devastation of the Polish heartland by the NATO invasion probably kept most Poles on the side of the Warsaw Pact but the game does say there were defections (Polish National Congress and the two units mentioned in Going Home for instance).

My campaign in college had one character played as a Polish Army defector who was attached to the 5th Division.

[mpipes]

And you gotta admit a LOT of Poles would be less than happy about Soviet tactical nukes detonating on Polish territory.