Foreign News: THE NEXT WEHRMACHT

THE directory of the West German government lists no Defense Ministry. But for four years, the equivalent of a small Defense Ministry has been working in Bonn, hidden discreetly behind the dirty red brick walls of an obscure building and an even obscurer and Teutonically confusing name: Office of the Federal Chancellor’s Appointee for Questions Arising Out of the Increase in Allied Troops. For short, it is called Bureau Blank, after its boss, a deliberate, round-faced ex-union official named Theodor Blank.

Under Civilian Blank, a group of former German generals and colonels have carefully worked out plans, strategy, even some of the tactics for the German armed forces, which, Western Parliaments willing, West Germany will contribute to the Atlantic alliance. Details of Bureau Blank’s blueprint:

Size: 500,000 men, 400,000 in the army, 80,000 in the air force, 20,000 in a “coastal defense” navy. There will be about 20,000 commissioned officers; only 2,000 in the air force will be pilots.

Composition: An army of twelve divisions—four armored, each with 1,200 tanks; two mechanized divisions with almost as many tanks but more mobile artillery; six motorized infantry divisions, each with 60 to 80 tanks. Peacetime division strength will be about 13,000; behind the divisions will be some 180,000 men in army, corps and service organizations. (The U.S. has 17 divisions, only three of them armored.) An air force of about 1,500 tactical planes in 20 wings, half of them fighter bombers, half mainly interceptors. No long-range bombers. A navy limited to 180 ships, all under 3,000 tons.

Strategic Conception: Emphasis on compact, hard-hitting mobility; well-balanced for defense but, in the German tradition, built for offense. Each armored division will have twice as many tanks as the German Panzer division of World War II, and immensely more firepower. Set up to operate efficiently as a single force, yet scatter quickly into small units and thus present a poor target for atomic attack. Arms: The U.S. has already stockpiled, mostly in the U.S., the bulk of Germany’s first needs, $500 million worth of guns, ammunition, tanks and planes. By 1956, Germans hope to be making their own light arms, by 1959 their own tanks and jet fighters (under the London agreement, they can not make atomic weapons, big bombers, guided missiles, bacteriological and chemical weapons). The Bonn government is budgeting $2.7 billion for the first year of rearmament.

Manpower: Some 150,000 men, mostly World War II veterans who have already volunteered, will be sifted to provide training cadres. Soldiers will also be conscripted by local draft boards—an innovation for Germany —and serve for 18 months.

Discipline: Troops will wear olive drab, U.S.-style uniforms, with Eisenhower jackets, helmets similar to the U.S.’s, and pants tucked into laced boots. No more goose-step. Salutes only for generals, and for the commanding officer and top sergeant on day’s first encounter. Off duty, civilian clothes allowed. “This will be a citizens’ army,” promises World War II Draftee Blank.

Command: President of the West German Republic (currently 70-year-old Theodor Heuss) will presumably be commander-in-chief, delegating authority to a civilian-defense minister (probably Blank). Number of generals: 35 to 40 (there were 1,400 in 1945). If and when German forces come under NATO, British Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery will supervise their training. In the field they will serve under NATO’s Supreme Commander in Europe, General Alfred M. Gruenther of the U.S., and his European ground-forces commander, Marshal Alphonse Juin of France. Timetable: If the go-ahead comes soon, the first West German soldiers can be in uniform by next spring.