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Image:Germany topo Fulda Gap.jpg The Fulda Gap is a section of territory between the former East German border and Frankfurt, (West) Germany. Named for the nearby town of Fulda, the Fulda Gap was of immense strategic importance during the Cold War. It was one of two obvious routes for a hypothesized Soviet attack on West Germany from its bases in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. (The other obvious route was via the North German Plain; a third, less likely route, involved an attack through Austria up the Danube River valley.)

Contents 1 Strategic location 2 See also 3 Further reading 4 External links 4.1 The 14th Cavalry Association 4.2 1st Battalion 33rd Armor

[edit] Strategic location

Frankfurt, relatively close to the Gap, was at the heart of West German industrial and financial power, and its loss would have been a serious blow for West Germany and NATO. It was also a civil and military air hub that was important to the defence of West Germany.

Perhaps more importantly, the terrain between the Gap and the river Rhine was less rugged than adjacent districts, offering the best pathway for an invading force from Warsaw Pact territory to reach and cross the formidable Rhine before NATO was in a position to prevent it. Interestingly it is roughly the same route, Napoleon had chosen to withdraw his hard pressed armies after his defeat at Leipzig. Napoleon succeeded in beating a Bavarian-Austrian army under Wrede in the battle of Hanau close to Frankfurt and he thus made his way safely home to France.

Strategic planners on both sides of the Iron Curtain understood its importance and forces were allocated accordingly. Defence of the Fulda Gap was tasked primarily to the US V Corps. More specifically, the actual East/West border (between Bad Hersfeld and the Hohe Rhoen) in the Fulda Gap was protected by some of the squadrons of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment from 1972 to 1994. Its principal adversary was the Soviet 8th Guards Army. Both formations were lavishly equipped and generally received a high priority on new equipment.

The Soviet 8th Guards Army was to be followed by a number of additional armies and has been positively identified as the key Soviet axis of advance in any (hypothetical) major military confrontation in Cold War Europe.

[edit] See also

• Observation Post Alpha - a Cold war observation post that overlooked the Fulda Gap, now the site of a cold war memorial.

[edit] Further reading

• Faringdon, Hugh. Strategic Geography: NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and the Superpowers. Routledge (1989). ISBN 0-415-00980-4.

[edit] External links

• US Army Border Operations 1948-83
• Example of 14th ARMD CAV photos at the Fulda Gap
• Another example - there are several more at page bottom

[edit] The 14th Cavalry Association

• Fulda Gap unofficial definition
• 14th ARMD CAV 1948-1972 History overview
• 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment based in part at Fulda and Bad Hersfeld

[edit] 1st Battalion 33rd Armor

• Concerns in 1985
• Site by Bob Decker, assigned to 3rd AD at Gelnhausen in mid-1960s
• Central Front and the Fulda Gap (from Decker site)
• Southern Avenue of Fulda Gap (from Decker site)
• One Soviet Plan (from Decker site)
• Oct 1962, S. Ave Fulda Gapde:Fulda Gap