Forging the Shield: The U.S. Army in the Cold War, 1951-1962

U.S. Army in the Cold War

Forging the Shield

The U.S. Army in Europe, 1951?1962

by

Donald A. Carter

Center of Military History United States Army

Washington, D.C., 2015

Cover: (second row, right) A tanker pauses to hand out candy to German children during Operation Sabre Knot. All other cover images are featured within the book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carter, Donald A., 1955Forging the shield : the U.S. Army in Europe, 1951-1962 / by Donald A. Carter.

pages cm. -- (Army historical series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. United States--Armed Forces--Europe--History--20th century. 2. United States. Army, Europe and Seventh Army--History--20th century. 3. Europe--Military relations--United States. 4. United States--Military relations--Europe. I. Title.

UA26.E9C37 2015 355.0094'09045--dc23

2014047210

CMH Pub 45?3?1

ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES

Richard W. Stewart, General Editor

Advisory Committee

(As of November 2014)

Dr. Robert M. Citino North Texas University

Mr. Mark F. Averill Deputy Administrative

Assistant to the Secretary of the Army

Dr. Wayne E. Lee University of North Carolina

Lt. Gen. Kevin W. Mangum U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command

Dr. John A. Nagl The Haverford School

Col. David Funk U.S. Army War College

Brig. Gen. Christopher P. Hughes U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

Brig. Gen. Timothy Trainor U.S. Military Academy

Dr. Geoffrey P. Megargee United States Holocaust

Memorial Museum

Dr. Richard W. Stewart U.S. Army Center of Military History

U.S. Army Center of Military History Richard W. Stewart, Acting Director

Chief Historian Chief, Histories Division Chief, Historical Products Branch

Richard W. Stewart David W. Hogan Jr. Beth F. MacKenzie

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Contents

Page Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii The Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Chapter

1. Setting the Stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Germany in 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Emerging Threat and the Move Toward

Collective Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The European Command in 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Perceptions of a Rising Threat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2. The New Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Building the Seventh Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Growing Pains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Reorganization and Realignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Identifying the Threat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Firepower and Mobility: The Seventh Army's

Conventional Doctrine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Early Thoughts on an Atomic Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Development of the Communications Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Logistical Support for the New Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Berlin, 1951?1952: Standing Fast and Showing the Flag . . . . 74 The End of the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

3. Growing Into the Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 1953: The Cold War Takes a New Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Keeping a Watchful Eye to the East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Changes in Command and Combat Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 The Seventh Army Goes Nuclear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Manning the Force: USAREUR's Personnel Pipeline . . . . . . 106 Additions and Subtractions: Organizational Changes in

USAREUR and the Seventh Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

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Chapter

Page

Hardening the Support Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Settling in for the Long Haul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Noncombatant Evacuation Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 A Steadying Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

4. Strengthening the Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Building NATO's Military Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Integrating USAREUR into the NATO

Command Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Army Support for Military Assistance Programs

in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 The Military Liaison Missions and the USAREUR

Soviet Relations Advisory Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Moving the Alliance Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

5. Rearming the Germans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Working Toward a German Contribution to Western

European Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Designing a Structure for German Integration--

The European Defense Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 USAREUR Planning for German Army Assistance . . . . . . . 182 Final Plans for Training the New German Army . . . . . . . . . . 185 Building a New German Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Completing the German Army Assistance Program . . . . . . . 193

6. 1955: A Year of Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 The New Look Comes to USAREUR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Striving for Combat Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Operation Gyroscope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 The End of the Occupation in Austria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 The Effect of German Sovereignty on U.S. Forces

in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Reaching an Uneasy Equilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

7. Achieving Atomic Mindedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 The "Spirit of Geneva" Evaporates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Eisenhower Versus the Generals: The Army Struggles

to Find a Role Within the New Look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 New Leadership in USAREUR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 The Effect of Funding Cuts on USAREUR . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Training for Atomic Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Pentomic Reorganization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Adapting the Logistical Support Structure to Atomic

Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Complications of Alliance Defense Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

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