#natoforces

What is your first association with the Cold War in Europe? Probably the border between East and West Germany, which was the main "frontline" during the Cold War. It was here, where NATO and Warsaw Pact/Soviet Forces stood face to face against each other. If the Cold War would had been ever escalated, it would have been here where the first major combat actions would had happened. But there were two other "frontlines" in Europe which were also a kind of "achilles heel" of NATO. Its Northern Flank, where Norway shared a direct border with the USSR and the Southern Flank, with Greece and Turkey. Greece shared a direct border with the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria, a Warsaw Pact member state and Turkey a direct one with the USSR.

Since the 1970s the Mediterranian became to another hot spot region of the Cold War. It was during this decade that the Soviet Navy truly evolved to a major and threatening force for NATO. Away from a small coastal defense force, to a large and powerful Navy with blue water capabilities. Since the early 1970s the USSR was able to use the Syrian port of Tartus for it`s Navy. The whole decade saw a major increase of Soviet Naval activities in the region. It became quickly to a fact, that if hostilities would break out in Central Europe, also the Mediterranean region would become a major battlefield of the Cold War.

The whole defense of the region based mainly on three of it`s member states. Italy, Greece and Turkey (Spain had just a minor role in defense activities). The problem was that Greece and Turkey were far away from being stable nations. Both experienced military coups between the 1960s and 1980s, which led to short periods of military dictatorships or gouverments heavily influenced by military elements. In 1974 both nations were even on the brink of war, with Cyprus as a major reason. It remained a pretty difficult and complex relationship between the two countries.

So the US decided to strenghten the Southern Flank of NATO with US forces but also launched several initatives to improve the capabilities of Italian, Greek and Turkish forces. US Forces would had been not able to take over all the responsibilties in the region and especially the Turkish Armed Forces were not only large, but had also the potential for being one of the most capable in the region.

This photos were made during the NATO exercise "Display Determination 87`" in late 1987. This exercise saw the participation of several NATO member states, including all of Southern Europe. Led mainly by US forces, the exercise had the major goal to improve and strenghten the cooperation between the NATO member states in the region. Trained were not only Amphibious landings, but also combined force tactics, effective use of air and naval support and ground attacks with large mechanized forces. The latter one is visible on the photos. They show M1A1 "Abrams" of the US 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) during advances at Saros Bay in the North West of Turkey.

At that time the 24th Infantry Division was part of the so called Rapid Deployment Force of the US Army. This force was created as a kind of "answer" on the increasement of crisis and conflicts in the Middle Eastern region, which became especially during the 1980s to a hot spot region of the Cold War. This Rapid Deployment Force should be able to move within a short time to the region and included mainly Airborne and Mechanized assets.

Military exercises in Arctic regions were and still are a major challenge for humans and equipment. This photo series shows that in a very impressive way. Made in March 1992 in a Fjord near the Norwegian city of Trondheim, it shows US sailors which not fights a particular enemy, but the weather. Heavy snowfall led to difficult conditions on the flightdeck of the Amphibious landing ship USS "Guadalcanal" (LPH-7). At the time these photos were made, the vessel was part of "Teamwork 92`", a major NATO exercise in and around Norway, which trained the cooperation and capabilties of different NATO member states in a simulated scenario of an Soviet attack against Norway.

For many years the far north of Norway with its border to the USSR was one of the weaknesses of NATOs defense plannings in a case of war in Central and Northern Europe. Exercises like "Teamwork", first held in 1982, were created to strenghten NATO´s Northern flank and to improve the defense capabilties of the US and its European allies to defend Northen Europe against any Soviet aggression. This included also plannings and trainings of rapid movements of US naval and USMC assets within 24 hours to Norway. This kind of "Rapid Reaction Force" should support Norwegian defense capabilties, until more NATO troops arrived in the area. Amphibious Landing Ships like the USS "Guadalcanal" played among such plannings a crucial role, especially cause of the pretty unique terrain in Norway, with its thousands of fjords and waterways.

A major challenge in this region was of course the weather, extremely low temperatures, snow and ice made any Naval and flight operations pretty challenging and difficult. Also this aspect was intensively trained during such exercises. It improved and strenghtened NATO`s capabilties for Arctic warfare and led to new tactics and improved equipment.

The USS "Guadalcanal" was part of the "Iwo Jima" class of Amphibious Landing Ships of the US Navy, which were the first vessels particulary designed and developed for that role. Visible on the photos were also serveral CH-46E, CH-53E, AH-1W "Super Cobra" ( A highly improved second generation version of the "Cobra", capable of operating a large variety of missile armament), UH-1N and SH-2F "Seasprite" helicopters.