In March 1962 NATO delevoped plans for the relief of Berlin in case of a new soviet blockade. These plans were called "Bercon" (Berlin Contigency), there were 3 variants.
Page 1 of the Bercon plans. *
- Alpha: Aerial operations over the territory of the GDR, liberating the agreed air corridors by fighters and massive air raids with conventional bombs on military targets such as airfields and flak positions in the GDR and other Warsaw Pact states.
- Bravo: The nuclear option; it would have been the use of tactical atomic bombs against "strictly military targets" such as airfields or troop concentrations away from civilly inhabited areas.
- Charlie: A total of four different stages of breakthroughs by armored forces into West Berlin
Stage C1 and C3 were aimed at the area around Magdeburg, because today's A2 motorway was the shortest connection between West Germany and West Berlin.
-- Stage C1: Advance of a reinforced NATO division along the autobahn A2 initially to Rottmersleben 15 kilometers west of Magdeburg, closely covered by NATO air forces.
-- Stage C3: A corps of up to four divisions should advance around 50 kilometers to the Mittelland Canal north of Magdeburg.
Plans C2 and C4 were diversionary tactics in Thuringia in order to bind Warsaw pact forces in Thuringia.
"Charlie 2" provided for two divisions of the Bundeswehr from northern Hesse to the village of Leinefelde-Worbis
in Eichsfeld to enter the GDR. "Charlie 4" farther south targeted the Thuringian Forest.
All of these plans would have escalated into a third world war and thermonuclear warfare. Thank God they never had to be executed.
* Source of pictures and original article (in german language): https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article2 ... etten.html
Best regards
Helmut
Bercon - Allied plans for the relief of Berlin
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