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The Second World War was the most destructive conflict in human history
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Over 60 million people died in the span of only 6 years, but at the end of it,
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it only seemed to sow the seeds for another and even greater Third World War between the victors
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The United States and The Soviet Union
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The difference was that if this war ever kicked off
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the same number of people who died during 6 years in World War 2
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would probably die during the first week of World War 3
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Both sides would eventually posses thousands of nuclear warheads
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Capable of obliterating each others entire countries
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But in 1979, the Soviets developed a secret conventional plan to win the upcomming Third World War against the west
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And they would do it in under 2 weeks.
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To understand how the plan would work
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it's important to understand the political and geographic realities of Europe at the time
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The continent was starkly divided between the two major superpower alliances
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The Warsaw Pact in the east, consisting of The Soviet Union itself,
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Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria
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And NATO in the west, consisting of The United States itself,
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Canada, Portugal, Iceland, The United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, West Germany,
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Denmark, Norway, Italy, Greece and Turkey
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Since both Austria and Yugoslavia were remaining neutral,
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this created an invasion funnel for both sides acreos the east-west German border
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and this is where Germany's geography becomes important
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There are two major things to see here
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first is the North German Plain, part of the larger North European Plain
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that's a large, flat, and open plain, perfect for the mechanised units of The Warsaw Pact to blitz accros
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This, would be the prefeered route of invasion
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but an advance through here would leave out the most major US Airforce base in Germany at Frankfurt
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which if not destroyed, would allow the US to pour in reinforcements
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In the way of the Warsaw Pact advance towards Frankfurt are mountains to the east and the west
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but a valley in between, known at the time as, Fulda Gap
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Both sides recognised the importance of this vally as an invasion route into West Germany
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so both has large military forces in the area
