Analysis of Soviet Military Capabilities

Well, that's the Soviet lineup. In the next few days,

we'll be looking in more

detail at how and if the West can match up to it in

four particular fields. First, attack by land in

Central Europe. Second, attack by mines and missiles at

sea.

Third, attack by submarines, and fourth, attack by air.

Russian tanks practicing a mass river crossing.

What if this were the Elbe that divides Germany, and this

was a Communist invasion

of the West?

With their present weight of armor, they could, if they wanted to,

throw across

three times the number of tanks we would have to defend with.

What's more, they could concentrate their armored

thrusts in such a way that

at the point of attack, they would have a superiority of seven

or eight to one.

Lined up against them would be the West's Allied forces in Central Europe under

NATO command, over half a million men, one-tenth of them the

British Rhine Army, defending a portion of the line just here.

Britain's forces, like the other national forces,

would be divided up into battle

groups like this one that we got to form up in a square for us

just

to show off their size.

Multiply this by about 20, and you've got the size of Britain's Rhine

Army.

Multiply it by 200, and you've got, very roughly, the size of the

West's ground forces in Central

Europe.

This battle group is an all-arms fighting unit, around 50 tanks plus

mechanized infantry and artillery, designed to fight fully mobile

battles to try and hold up the Soviet advance.

This is the Iron Curtain, the start point of any Communist thrust.

From here, the highly mobile forces of the Warsaw

Pact could push forward the

120 miles to the River Rhine in less than a day.