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The Second World War was the most destructive conflict in human history

Over 60 million people died in the span of only 6 years, but at the end of it,

it only seemed to sow the seeds for another and even greater Third World War between the victors

The United States and The Soviet Union

The difference was that if this war ever kicked off

the same number of people who died during 6 years in World War 2

would probably die during the first week of World War 3

Both sides would eventually posses thousands of nuclear warheads

Capable of obliterating each others entire countries

But in 1979, the Soviets developed a secret conventional plan to win the upcomming Third World War against the west

And they would do it in under 2 weeks.

To understand how the plan would work

it's important to understand the political and geographic realities of Europe at the time

The continent was starkly divided between the two major superpower alliances

The Warsaw Pact in the east, consisting of The Soviet Union itself,

Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria

And NATO in the west, consisting of The United States itself,

Canada, Portugal, Iceland, The United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, West Germany,

Denmark, Norway, Italy, Greece and Turkey

Since both Austria and Yugoslavia were remaining neutral,

this created an invasion funnel for both sides acreos the east-west German border

and this is where Germany's geography becomes important

There are two major things to see here

first is the North German Plain, part of the larger North European Plain

that's a large, flat, and open plain, perfect for the mechanised units of The Warsaw Pact to blitz accros

This, would be the prefeered route of invasion

but an advance through here would leave out the most major US Airforce base in Germany at Frankfurt

which if not destroyed, would allow the US to pour in reinforcements

In the way of the Warsaw Pact advance towards Frankfurt are mountains to the east and the west

but a valley in between, known at the time as, Fulda Gap

Both sides recognised the importance of this vally as an invasion route into West Germany

so both has large military forces in the area