What was the purpose and doctrine of the Czechoslovak Peoples Army during 1980-1991?

by thatboywthatgun

I am wondering what the czech army was supposed to do during the cold war years 1980-1991, wich NATO units it was supposed to face and where they would face. Also the doctrine I can barely find anything on, if any czech person can help me I'd be greatful.

Oliver47

Hello, Czech here, there were several major plans for ČSLA until revolution in 1989. Most of them were created in early 60´s.

Operační plán Orel (Operational plan Eagle) (February 1951)

In this scenario, war would start by NATO attack against Soviet and DDR forces in eastern germany and against Soviet occupation forces in Austria, after defeat of WP there, (Warsaw pact was created in 1955, but i will use it as name for Eastern forces), NATO would continue in attack against Hungary and finaly Czechoslovakia. Attack would be in in ´´cross´´ Plzeň-Prague-Vroclav and Viena-Brno-Katovice. Our goal was inspired by pre-2WW scenario to hold invaders until allies will arrive to help us, Soviet Union in this case.

Another plan attached to this one is Operační plán Pěst (Operational plan Fist) (March 1951)

After defeat of invading forces and arrival of Soviet forces, WP forces would push throught the line Plzeň-Munich, plan was to reach Danube in 4-5 days, after it, our forces would create bridgehead near Regensburg.

After 1955-1956, we knew that nuclear weapons would be used in massive scale, before that, it was expected that war would be fought conventional way. (USA had only 30 nukes that could be used Europe in 1950)

According to Soviet instruction from May 1955, goals of ČSLA were: 1) Dont let invading forces break to the our territory (destroy them on the borders) 2) Stabilise situation so main WP forces could counterattack in 10 days to 3 weeks from the start of the war.

Example of new war planning is Operační plán Zástava (Operation plan ´´Flag´´) (Zástava is not typical word for flag-vlajka and its used mostly as official name for battleflag or regimental flag and things like that) that was made in 1956, Soviets upgraded it one year later. According to this plan, NATO would attack Czechoslovakia first. Attack was expected in 2 lines, Norimberg-Plzeň-Prague and Viena-Brno-Katovice. (it was expected that NATO would violate neutrality of Switzerland)

(now there are long texts about post-war fortresses, most of them were built in 50´s)

Our counterattack was planed that way that we woud enter Western Germany territory into the depth of 10 kilometers. After that, according to Soviet plans our soldiers would stop here and would continue in defending only to maximalise enemy casualities. Our defense would be supported by 5 Soviet ´´plane/air divisions´´ (i dont know if there is english term for that), we had 13 airfields for them.

In 50-60´s, army doctrine was modernised in that way that much smaller units would operate autonomicaly, not fronts or armies, but divisions and brigades, (this was caused by expected nuclear war, no 2WW-style conventional warfare. Border units also had highest active manpower in peace times. ČSLA was supposed to attack at speed of 60-100km per day. It was expected that first 30 days would be the most important, becose most nukes would be used in 1st month.

Logistic: it was expected that long-term logistic would be probably impossible to reach, so units had to fight with their own equipment without logistic support (3-5 days) After the main nuclear strikes, it would be possible to create long-term logistic lines.

It was still expected that NATO would be agressor, we improved our plans to be more offensive in 60´s and 70´s

Accroding to plan from October 1964, it was calculated that ČSLA would cross Rhine and reach Langeres-Besancon line in France (more than 500km) in 8 days. (60km´s a day) This sounds totaly insane and it would be most likely possible only if would NATO lost all its fighting power at the start of war. (by nukes most likely) Main ČSLA goal was to destroy NATO forces in Bavaria, capture Norimberg industry, cross Rhine and continue with attack on French territory. Accodring to WP plans, our armies would reach Spanish borders in 30-35 days. All those things were too fast, so it was expected that ČSLA would do it alone without Soviet support. All those things were probably possible, becose ČSLA was strongest and best equiped army in WP after USSR.

Nukes: In the case of war, ČSLA would operate with 44 operationaly-tactical nukes and 50 tactical nukes. Accroding to plans, it had to be 30kilotones nukes, but its not true and we would use 100 kilotones nukes, so ČSLA woudld march throught the nuclear wasteland in Bavaria.

AA defense: 7th army of AA defense had those goals: Repulse massive NATO airstrikes against Karsluhe, Prague and Ostrava

Repulse NATO recon planes and attacks against military+logistic targets.

Defend advancing units in Germany and France against enemy airforce

Paratroopers: 22. paratrooper brigade had to paradrop 4th day in the Northern Stuttgart area. or 5th day: into the Rastatt area. or 6th day: into the eastern area of Mulhouse to capture and keep crossing of Neckar or Rhein until land forces would arrive.

Tanks: our forces had 1120 T-34/85 tanks and 2120 modern tanks, they would face 800 NATO tanks in Bavaria and later 2250 French tanks (this is total amount of French tanks in 1964, so that number woudl be much smaller thanks to DDR, Polish and Soviet attack in the northern France.

Logictic 2.0: It was expected that we would use 45 000 tons of ammunition, 93 000 tons of fuel and oils (out of that 40 000 tons are air fuel. Into the rockets: 220t of oxygen and 70t of rocket fuel.

So, this is all, you could think that i did not answered your question about 90´s, but those plans from 70´s were same, only with different numbers.

If you have any question, i could probably answer them, here is link to source: http://www.csla.cz/armada/taktika/plany001.htm There is also nice map of attack, D1,D2,D3 atc are days when would our troops reach those places. Sorry for my bad english.