I've been curious about this for a long time and i'm curious for something I want to write. I am by no means whatsoever any kind of military expert.
I've tried to do research online but it's not really getting me what I want to know, so if you can explain it like I have absolutely no idea... because I don't...
How would NATO fight a war? We're talking like, old-school Cold War World War style war.
How are the various national militaries integrated? Does each nation operate on their own, or is there actual integration of forces? I'm coming from a base zero here on how this works. Would soldiers from various nations be fighting directly with each other on an objective, or would national forces be organized and ordered to do individual missions?
I keep finding out alot about WHAT NATO does, but not HOW it actually works.
I would appreciate any enlightenment.
NATO Forces would be divided by nationality for the most part, similar to how it was with World War Two on the Western Front if you are talking about strict organization. So there were Dutch, Belgian, West German, British,
French and American sections to defend in case of Soviet Attack.
There was basically NORTHAG which would defend the North German Plain and CENTAG which would defend the Central Area including the famous Fulda Gap. Regardless CENTAG was seen as more defensible, so naturally the Americans with their far more powerful and more unified forces would've defended that area to show how good they were.
NorthAg from North to South consisted of the 1st Dutch Corps, 1 German Corps, 1st British Corps and the 1st Belgian Corps under the overall command of the British through the British Army of the Rhine. So basically four Corps from four different nations under British command.
CentAg would've consisted of the II and III German Corps and the V and VII American Corps under the command of the Americans through the US Seventh Army. Two German and two American Corps with far more combat power then the NorthAg over more defensible terrain under American Command.
Then there was the French who withdrew from NATO Military Command but likely would've come in from the Southwest ideally placed to reinforce... Central and Southern Germany along with more US forces (and others) from the Continent if the conflict lasted that long.
Plus you likely would've have Greek and Turkish Operations (working together imagine that) in the south against Bulgaria and in the Black Sea, and maybe the Italians and NATO forces in southern Europe and whatnot fiddling about in Austria (while Austria was neutral it was largely assumed Austria would be on the side of NATO since it would be the Soviets attacking).
Denmark meanwhile would be preoccupied with a potential amphibious invasion of their islands and Denmark proper by swarms of amphibous/swimming Warsaw Pact AFV's. The United States Marine Corps meanwhile would've likely been used in Scandinavia to pester the Russians up north, as well as protect Norway and Denmark and Iceland and Greenland and the like instead of fighting in the desert for forty years as per OTL.
www.globalsecurity.org
There have been wargames published on this made available on the internet, but I can't find any atm.
Back to West Germany, even though each Corps was under a different national country, it still wasn't quite that simple. For example there would've been Canadian formations operating under British or American command and when reinforcements come, you could very well see French (and Spanish) units moving into Centag or Northag and thus American or British command respectively. So at a Brigade and Division level, you'd have separate national units, but at a Corps and greater level, a unified Commander.