So if 150 Soviet/Warsaw Mad Cow heffers square off against 35 radioactive rowdy NATO Wild Boars, which one will make the best out door BBQ?
What are the ideal side dishes and adult refreshments for each?
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I had a very unique job, for a 10 years out of 24, in the army.
Most infantry units in the British army have a yearly parade, to celebrate the formation of the Regiment, (no2 dress or no3(whites) in hot conditions) and regimental days, colours presentations (Flags) old for new, depending on unit commitments
At the time. usually 2 weeks major preparation with small company run ups before hand.these usely have a guest of lower, royal family/ major generals / division commanders,
with small ones for, queens/kings birthday (none London),marching on square, pep talk by dignitaries, march off to messes, these usely have a maybe guest of lower, royal family division/ brigade commanders, depending on location and commitments
unless on London duties( no1 dress, infantry line units and ceremonial dress guards units) someone else can explain these duties,
only did a horse guards, divisional parade of massbands and drums once in London, and earls court tattoo.
When I went to the training depot, I did normal infantry training on all the platoons weapon systems, and was voluntary told, I have been selected to do Corps of Drums training as well.
Within the unit, I had a duel role,
1, normal rifle company commitments, as a platoon.
2, entertainment of the Officers and Wo’s and Sargent messes, some evenings and weekends,
with recruitment drives around the UK, with KAPE tours( Keeping the Army in the Public Eye ), school visiting, meeting and entertaining dignitaries local and when we were abroad.
Thats only some of it.
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Well, since we’re talking Cold War here - in Berlin there was a Kneipe called Klo, which is slang for toilet. They had a drink there called a “Russian Willy” that consisted of a test tube full of vodka that had had extremely hot peppers soaking in it.
And you had the “Russian Roullette” which was a wooden holder designed to look like the cyilnder on a revolver. It held six test tubes. Five were regular shots of vodka, the sixth was a Russian Willy. So you had to spln it, everyone took a tube, and you had to, without hesitation, down the whole thing. Seems fitting.
Edit: Well, apparently my hearing was going out even back then. It’s a Rostiger Willy, not a “Russische” Willy as I remember. But after all these years it’s still on the menu!
Warning! The Willy is spicy and hot!
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The real problem with nuclear weapons is the side that possesses them will use them if they are losing a conflict. There is no penalty politically, they were losing anyway. It will be punishing the winning side. The last act of defiance if you will.
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Those commie-cows are probably malnourished, skinny and tough so I’d go with the boars
German beer and French, Spanish or Italian red wine for those who don’t like beer.
Lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeños, maybe some lemon or lime to balance the fat with some light acids for the beer drinkers, depends on which wine is chosen by the winos.
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Another place in Berlin used to constantly have a boar on a spit. All you could eat for about DM 15 I think. No sides, no sauce. Just meat dripping with fat. Of course I visited often.
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Must have been in your area, didn’t see one around spandau.
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I just love the way these topics “wander” 
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as if it was a mad cow… 
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I didn’t really have an area. After I got out of the Army the first time, I lived in Wedding, in the French sector. I still frequented Charlottenburg, Zehlendorf, Neukoelln, Kreuzberg, Steglitz and all of the other Bezirks. The Ku’damm is where the biker cafes were. Steglitz seemed to have the most hobby shops, although I bought most of my electric trains in the East.
Spandau - other than taking forbidden photos in the prison, I think there may have been a place called Eierschale. There were two back then. I know one was in Dahlem.
By subway or motorcycle I knew that city and its locations better than any place I’ve ever lived.
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You see this is the thing. You have tradition, pride. The WP parades were about intimidation of own citizens. Traditions were non existant, since everything that smelled of history was off limits. There was no pride in anything, only heavy equipment destroying roads on the 9th of May, smelling of gas (used to “refresh” the paint) each year. And if You dared to take a picture, Your in for a lot of trouble (not a huge problem since most cameras wer nearly impossible to buy). And Yes, parades were more important than real training.
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Now we know the truth of marching.
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The Monty Python sketch reminds me of my time in the Irish army reserve the FCA. We were on annual camp in a base near the Northern Irish border. One day we were brought out to the square where we were taught to display march to the Monty Python theme tune. We became very good at it but were never offered any explanation as to why. It was fun though.
We weren’t too worried about the Warsaw pact. We patrolled our border not against the British but against a certain well known terrorist organisation .
Mention was made of buying uniforms. We were issued with boots and a single No 1 uniform. If we wanted combat uniforms or web equipment we had to buy it ourselves. So we wore a motley collection of British, US, Italian surplus kit. Anything but Irish army issue. In fact anyone wearing Irish issue uniforms could be charged with stealing them. Yes, a serving member of the military could be arrested for wearing the official uniform… The reason given for this bizarre situation was that the people in charge were worried that reservists would pass on their kit to subversives.
It was a joke., laughable.
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That theme is actually a pice by an American composer, John Phillips Sousa, titled “The Liberty Bell”. He is also the composer of such tunes as “Stars and Stripes Forever”, “Semper Fidelis”, and “Washington Post”, amongst many other marching tunes.
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A small correction. The “plan” that the russians decided to share with the WP in 1964 was only something like 14 pages long. And YES, russia planned to attack all along, there was no deffensive plan. Courtesy to the Czech we know that they planned to nuke Bavaria with 130 tactical nukes and then send in the WP with a “plan” to reach Rhine on day 7. They even wanted the Czechs to do a combat jump somwhere in Mulhouse area. Russian troops were supposed to be the “second wave”. They didnt even bother to do a proper estimate of casulties. They estimated 10k wounded.
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Sorry, I’m a bit late to this topic, I’m still a newbie here, but I enjoyed reading this thread and thought I’d contribute -at least to the original 3 yr old post.
Back when I was a young Marine during the mid 80s, my answer to you would have been maybe but not likely. After all the “Soviets” had hundreds of thousands of tanks and NATO could not muster the sheer numbers to blunt an all out assault.
However my opinion has changed over the years as certain truths over the years were revealed. And my current opinion is based a bit differently than those of the previous posters. I believe now that the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact could not defeat NATO, even in it’s prime because the Soviet Union never had the economy necessary to defeat the economies of free market societies. The Soviet Union had a lot of money in their beginning, but they were never able to generate wealth, whereas this wasn’t the case with free market capitalism. As such they eventually spent their way into oblivion, unable to generate the wealth necessary to build a world class military capable of rivaling that of world class NATO countries. And BTW they knew this. Unlike the western economies where money was no object, and these countries had the ability of generating more wealth, the Soviets had to economize wherever necessary, often preferring quantity over quality. When comparing weapons on a one to one basis, the Soviets would take technological short cuts to save money. NATO countries with their economic advantage could afford to spend on technology to give them the military edge.
Sure, on paper the Russians could have charged into West Germany with hundreds of thousand tanks in a massive armored assault. But NATO wouldn’t have been a walk thru the park either. Sure NATO wouldn’t be able to mass the same numbers of tanks, but the tanks NATO had were some of the best for their time. And they wouldn’t just be facing tanks, but some of the world’s best attack helicopters, the world’s best fighter aircraft, including aircraft, like the Warthog. -And the world’s best anti tank missiles.
I have to wonder if the Soviets take on quantity over quality would have applied to their nuclear arsenal, because if we look at their tanks of the era, those tanks were certainly not at the level of superiority that NATO tanks of the era were. And if that were the case, then we could assume that if the Soviets resorted to the use of nuclear weapons, those weapons may not be as distructive as NATO nukes. Or the Russian nukes could be less likely to strike their targets. This alone may have dissuade the Soviets from initiating a first strike.
In any event. I think NATO could have beaten the Soviets, with or without nukes and the large armored thrust thru the Fulda gap was more Russian hype than a meaningful military plan.
In the end it really didn’t matter, the Soviet Union couldn’t sustain the economic drain and collapsed under its own weight.
Edro
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But the writing on the wall (bad pun, sorry!) for DDR forces not shooting their own had already happened before 9 Nov when protest marches in Dresden and other locations were left alone
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You might wish to scroll back and review some of the earlier comments; throughout the 70s and 80s there were some serious qualitative improvements to the Soviet arsenal. Their tactical doctrine was also updated and constantly evolving, not least the with the formation of OMGs.
Don’t think that GSFG was equipped with merely T-55s and T-62s in this time-span; by the mid to late 70s and the 80s, T-64 was their main tank, with T-72 replacing the T-55s, and T-80 coming on-line. All were armed with a 125mm gun; they were fast (T-80 with a gas turbine), and well armoured with a composite armour.
NATO had every right to be concerned at the time, and they were.
I think you’ll generally find that Soviet nuclear warheads (at both the tactical and theatre-level) were likely to be considerably larger as they may not have been as accurate as NATO versions.
In the exercises I attended throughout the Cold War, SACEUR reasoned that he could only hold for around 4-5 days before he had no option but to use tactical nuclear weapons. It used to chill me to the bone when I heard over the radio/speakers “SACEUR has authorised nuclear release”
This is not to lock horns for the sake of it, and I certainly appreciate your interest,
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Is that the same doctrine they are still using right now?
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