REFORGER '87 / Exercise Certain Strike 1987 Documentary

hello welcome to another in  my cold war series of videos   today we're looking at one of the largest nato  exercises of the final years of the cold war   exercise reforger 1987 otherwise known as exercise  certain strike okay full disclosure i was on this   exercise this is me in 1987 as a newly promoted  corporal in the british army my first command   was an anti-tank detachment with an fv432 armor  personnel carrier exercise certain strike was my   first major exercise and this is my detachment on  certain strike i'm on the right with a bynose well   enough about me we'll start this video off with  an introduction from the west german news in 1987. not to maneuver certain  strike in north deutschland foreign foreign since most of our viewers are too young  to remember and to give some context   to the rest of this video it's necessary to  step back in time to the early to mid 1980s   back then the world was a much simpler place and  we had what was known as the three world order the   first world or western bloc were the western  democracies headed by the superpower the usa   the second world or eastern bloc were countries  governed or controlled by international communism   dominated by the soviet union and people's  republic of china the rest of the world made   up of other line often poor countries was known  as the third world today the phrase third world   is misused out of context to meet any poor country  the forces of communism and democracy were often   in conflict on occasion this developed into  hot wars on borders between the two ideologies   in places you will have heard of such as korea and  vietnam other borders between the two summoned in   a cold war we where the ideologies squared  up to each other but never actually fought   the starkest frontier between western democracy  and eastern communism was in central europe   after world war ii in 1945 germany was  split into two by the allied powers   this eventually became two separate countries  west germany a democracy and east germany a   communist satellite state of the soviet union the  border between east and west germany known as the   german border was not just an ideological one  from 1961 onwards the soviets closed and then   heavily fortified it with over 1 000 miles of  fences armed guards watch towers and minefields   the border became known around  the world as the iron curtain as intimidating as the iron curtain was it  was what sat 10 to 50 kilometers behind it   that was a clear and present danger  to the west the vast military strength the combined strength of the warsaw pact and  soviet union in europe was almost double that   in some respects to the forces of nato  whilst it is understood that battlefield   nuclear and chemical weapons would hold  the balance of power in any conflict   despite the threat posed by the forces of  the warsaw pact in 1968 due to pressure on   the armed forces caused by the vietnam war the  u.s withdrew two divisions from west germany   to allay fears of nato that this weekend  the u.s resolved to defend europe   the u.s committed to returning those forces within  24 hours if hostilities seem likely this concept   became known as the return of forces  to germany or by its acronym reforger   the concept of reforger was the rapid movement  of troops and equipment from their galaxies in   north america by military airlift and  sea lift with combat elements arriving   in europe within 24 hours and sea lift units  and equipment arriving within seven to ten days   by the 1980s three u.s corps were  designated in the reforger role   the concept was exercised annually in varying  degrees and in varying magnitude from 1969   onwards each exercise after 1971 was known by  its year so in 1987 we had exercise reforger 87   due to the political situation in the mid-1980s  in europe exercise reforge 87 was designed to be   the biggest ever deployment and for the first  time since world war ii an entire u.s corps   would be moved from north america  due to peacetime constraints   the one to seven day time scale could not be  met so the movement would take around 20 days   and on the 21st of august 1987 the  first reforger forces began arriving   in the seaport of rotterdam and at various  airfields and airports throughout the netherlands okay as soon as u.s reforge units arrived in country  they moved through ponca's depots to equip   arm and deploy a key element of the reforged  concept was the pre-deployment of heavy equipment   if u.s forces needed to travel with their tanks  armored and wheeled vehicles and ammunition the   deployment would take weeks or months not days so  reforger units heavy equipment was pre-deployed   and waiting for them in warehouses in the  netherlands and belgium this was known as   poncas standing for pre-positioning of material  configured in unit sets thus a tank battalion   based in texas could jump onto a transport  plane and in 10 hours land in amsterdam be   bust straight to a pomcus depot pick up their  m1 battle tanks and be in combat within 24 hours by the late 1980s the western european  population was tying off the armed standoff   between east and west and arriving u.s reforger  forces did not always meet with a warm welcome   it's important to point out that  although they're used synonymously   reforge 87 and exercise certain strike were  two entirely separate exercises reforge 87   was a real world logistics exercise in moving  three u.s corps from texas to mainland europe   exercise certain strike was a northern army group  field trading exercise that utilized in country   multinational forces and incorporated with forger  forces from three u.s corps as a reinforcement as you can see from the map excise certain strike  would utilize about 1 8 of west german territory the certain strike exercise area was broken down  into three distinct zones largely due to peacetime   constraints as it would take around 20 days to  complete the move of three us call from texas   on arrival individual units would move into  a staging area which was non-tactical where   they would be held in existing barracks on  airfields and industrial areas the deployment   area was for three u.s corps to shake out to  battle formation and move up to the ftx area   all movement in this area though was on roads  usually escorted by the german civil police   and finally the ftx area allowed for  tactical movement off-road it's strange   to remember now but we really were allowed  to drive tanks across west german farmland   although in practice this was controlled by  umpires to limit unnecessary damage to german real   estate and most tank battles took place on the  dedicated tank training areas within the ftx area   before we progress onto the exercise itself  we'll take a look at both sides orders of battle   neither list is exhaustive nato forces commanded  by headquarters northern army group consisted of   the first abundance fair plans and division based  in hanover and reinforced by u.s reforger units   from the third u.s corps principally the first u.s  cavalry division and second u.s armoured division   the old four opposing forces known as orange  forces we always use the euphemism orange   when we really meant red forces it was a  multinational division playing a soviet   corps and this was provided by troops from  the uk holland belgium and france finally to   convey the sheer size of exercise certain strike  i'll just let the figures speak for themselves another indicator of changing times thanks   to the measures agreed in the  stockholm conference in 1986.   for the first time soviet and east german military  observers were invited to observe the exercise after weeks of preliminary movement and long wait   d-day of exercise certain strike was imminent  three u.s corps was given their initial scenario   and required by northag to move up and hold  in the real estate to the west of hanover   the core moved up on highways in six  columns of advance over the next 48 hours oh the opening scenario of exercise certain strike  was that hostilities have broken out between   orange forces and nato orange forces had crossed  in a german border simulated in this exercise by   the b7 highway and a core level force was pushing  rapidly west across the north german plane with   the intention of securing the river vaser from  bremerhaven to hanover within one to four days   commander north ag's concept was to engage  and block them with the in-country one   panzer division of the bundesvere in the  line spanning the allah and vasa river   and a mobile defense in the villages forward  to the east three u.s call having arrived in   the netherlands would move up to a position 30  kilometers southwest and act as army group reserve the first day of save the exercise was fairly  quiet with both nato and orange forces conducting   air and ground reconnaissance but by the  third date the air war was firmly underway   three u.s corps was subject to orange air  interdiction taking their first casualties   orange forces have moved up in  strength and we're now closing in   on one panzer division defenses to  the north east of the allen river snacks three u.s corps received orders from commander  north ag to conduct a passage of lines   through one the panzer division across the  visa and allah rivers and to secure the zone   to the east in order to launch a core level  counter-attack against the advancing orange   forces this operation necessitated using  combat and fixed bridges to cross the rivers   but as planning was underway  orange changed the situation   by launching a battalion level helicopter born  attack on the main bridge over the river allah so okay as a bridge over the alley was lost and destroyed  principally to prevent its use by the u.s forces   or to prevent one panzer division withdrawing  over it the germans found their positions to   the east under attack by armour and infantry in  the villages forcing them to withdraw westwards   back towards the river allah this was designed in  exercise play to put us three core under pressure   to crossover rivers and secure the east bank of  the allah before it was lost to orange forces on the crossroads sir watch the  cross raise just watch the crossroads oh to interdict and delay orange force progress u.s  divisional artillery in the form of the new mlrs   system was deployed in simulated fire plans whilst  the core level bridging operation got underway three years caused crossing of the razor river was  done largely out of contact despite being harassed   by orange air however the crossing of the aller  river needed the creation of secure bridgeheads   in order to do this without orange  interference the 45th u.s infantry   brigade was airlifted to the eastern mag  of the allah in four separate bridgeheads it was during this airlift  operation that certain strike   suffered its first major no-play casualty  when a uh-60 crashed during the operation uh foreign is uh with the passage of lawrence with one pound  division completed and the eastern bank of the   alice secure through us corps halted for two days  and the reason for that is a weekend the exercise   stopped so not to disrupt german civilian  life with the start of the second week of   the exercise this would see three us call  counter-attack orange forces and then advance   northeast to clear orange forces within boundaries  to a limit of exploitation just south of the   city of lunenburg this was a two divisional  advance the first u.s cavalry division left   and the second u.s army division right the diagram  you can see is a very simplified view of week two   and there were a number of engagements between  orange and three u.s corps cleverly most of these   took place on permanent tank training grounds of  bergen honer sultan lunenburg and munster north   to minimise damage to german real estate in most  cases orange forces withdrew once engaged by nato   armour except in a location just south of the  town of soltel near a village known as villingan   in what became known as the battle of villigan  designed by exercise planners so that division and   core staff could deal with a major setback orange  stood and fought with armour and dug in infantry   to inflict major damage on the advancing u.s  forces also to keep the rear echelon and various   headquarters on their toes during the night orange  launched a number of special forces infantry raids   and attacks unfortunately from this point onwards  the archival footage doesn't really do justice to   the second week of the exercise that was a lot  more kinetic than it appears from the footage so so okay by the 23rd of september three u.s corps  had reached their limit of exploitation   in reality this was the northern  edges of the nato tank trading areas   orders were given for the next phase a core  level clearance towards the inner german border   of course this was notional to  test commanders and headquarters   and as most large exercises end not in a moment  of euphoric victory and flag waving but simply   in a sense of anti-climax at around 0-800  hours on the 24th of september index was given   over every combat radio net both nato and orange ladies and gentlemen it gives me very  great pleasure to be here to talk to you   at the end of our exercise we must never forget  that we are here to prevent a war from happening   we are the true peacekeepers sadly there is still  a potential threat to our way of life therefore   it is necessary for us to train together in order  that we can keep the peace exercise certain strife   was a vital exercise in our program of training  to keep the peace in the world first of all it   enabled us the european members of northern army  group to test the capability of the in-place   forces and while we were doing this thanks to  the generosity of the united states of america   we were allowed to incorporate the third u.s corps  into japan firstly i must thank all the officers   and men of six different armies and air  forces that took part on this exercise   the exercise was a great success and achieved all  its aims in a way which i have seldom seen before   but finally i must in reality thank you the people  of this part of germany for putting up with us   so wonderfully well thank you all very much indeed as any soldier will tell you the worst  part of any exercise is the recovery phase   the job is done you're tired and  all you want to do is go home   for us orange forces we were  back in our barracks within days   but for the u.s reforger forces the process was  long and laborious to return equipment back to   pomcas depots and then to travel back to the u.s  mainland the whole process took nearly a month and that was the end of reforge 87  and exercise certain strike but not   the end of the story as none of us could have  foretold the seismic geopolitical changes   that were about to happen  right there in central europe a historic moment tonight the berlin wall  can no longer contain the east german people   thousands pouring across at the bornholmer bridge   nbc nightly news with tom  brokaw tonight from west berlin   good evening live from the berlin wall on the most  historic night in this wall's history what you   see behind me is a celebration of this new policy  announced today by the east german government that   now for the first time since the wall was erected  in 1961 people will be able to move through freely in moscow the hammer and sickle is lowered  for the last time and an era comes to an end i am ceasing my activities in  the post of president of the ussr   the tri-color banner of the russian republic  now flies over the kremlin and from the white   house president bush salutes the man who  presided over the end of the soviet union in reflection although not at the time as me  and my team sat in a cold wet rain near villigan   all of those of us who took part in certain  strike played a little part in history   the collapse of the soviet union were  supposed to make the world a safer place   it did not and many of us who practiced our  tactics in 1987 on the north german plane   would use them for real in  combat in iraq and kuwait in 1991 you

Channel: Andy Mcloone

Views: 67,796

Keywords: REFORGER, Cold War, West Germany, Grenadier Guards, Soviet, 1980s, Tanks, Bundeswehr

Id: 9jZSUwp0FsU

Length: 40min 0sec (2400 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 17 2021