Seven days to the River Rhine (1979)

Scenario
Seven Days to the River Rhine was a top-secret limited military simulation exercise developed in 1979 by the Warsaw Pact.

It was NATO and Warsaw Pact forces after a surprise NATO first strike nuclear attack on Warsaw and the Vistula Valley in Poland. This would thus the prevent Soviet Union from sending reinforcements to East Germany to prevent a NATO invasion of that country. Such a western atrocity would have killed ~2,000,000 Poles immediately and destroyed most of the country.

With options limited, a Soviet counter-strike against West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark would take place in an effort to slow down a NATO invasion. Armed combat would hit the North German Plain. Germany's Fulda Gap and the The southern Danube route at the same time. The Warsaw pact's Operation Northern Norway would probably be activated to.

Soviet nuclear response
France and the United Kingdom were missed off the attack list, prehapes because nuclear weapons states, and as such retain nuclear arsenals that could be employed in retaliation for nuclear strikes against their nations or because of memories of the 1939-45 war time coalition with them. France was at the time not a member of NATO's integrated command structure.

France's Force de frappe employed a nuclear strategy known as dissuasion du faible au fort (weak-to-strong deterrence); which was a "counter-value" strategy, which thus implied that a nuclear attack on France's cities and/or bases would be responded to by a strike on Russian cities and/or bases. Pluton rockets would be launched in to the Soviet front lines as they burst in to southern and central Germany.

Known Soviet targets

 * Vienna was to be hit by 2 500-kiloton bombs
 * Vicenza, Verona and several bases in Italy were to be hit by single 500-kiloton bombs.
 * Hungary was to capture Vienna and part of northern Italy after this had happened.
 * Stuttgart, Munich and Nuremberg were to be destroyed by nuclear weapons
 * They were to be captured by the Czechoslovakians and Hungarians after being nuked.
 * The Soviets planned to use about 7.5 megatons of atomic weaponry in all during such a conflict.

Also see

 * Operation Square Leg (1980) and Exercise Hard Rock (1982)
 * Germany's Fulda Gap
 * Swedish pseudo-neutrality
 * The Swiss National Redoubt (1880-2010)
 * French nuclear plans and the Force de Dissuasion
 * North German Plain
 * Finnish pseudo-neutrality
 * Operation Northern Norway
 * The southern Danube route
 * Soviet/NATO invasion of Finland
 * The week of war policy
 * Operation Gladio
 * Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie
 * Greece, Turkey and southern Italy
 * Cold War secret police organisations
 * How Governments become Authoritarian
 * Nations in 1988
 * Nations in 1991
 * O.T.L. history notes
 * Today's OTL types of economies, societies and regimes
 * Why the USSR broke up in reality

Online links

 * 1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/nov/26/russia.poland#article_continue.
 * 2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/nov/26/russia.poland#article_continue.html
 * 3) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/1504008/World-War-Three-seen-through-Soviet-eyes.html
 * 4) http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1063249.html
 * 5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Days_to_the_River_Rhine
 * 6) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/1504008/World-War-Three-seen-through-Soviet-eyes.html
 * 7) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563692/Soviet-plan-for-WW3-nuclear-attack-unearthed.html
 * 8) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/1364037/Vienna-was-top-of-Soviet-nuclear-targets-list.html
 * 9) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/1504006/Moscows-blueprint-resembles-thrillers-plot.html
 * 10) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563692/Soviet-plan-for-WW3-nuclear-attack-unearthed.html
 * 11) http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/nov/26/russia.poland
 * 12) http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1651315,00.html