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The Fulda Gap is an area between the Hesse-Thuringian border (the former intra-German border) and Frankfurt am Main that contains two corridors of lowlands
through which tanks might have driven in a surprise attack effort by the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies to gain crossing(s) of the Rhine River. Named for the
town of Fulda, the Fulda Gap was strategically important during the Cold War. The Fulda Gap is roughly the route along which Napoleon chose to withdraw his armies after defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. Napoleon succeeded in defeating a Bavarian-Austrian army under Wrede in the Battle of Hanau not far from Frankfurt;
from there he escaped home to France. The route was also used by the U.S. XII Corps during World War II to advance eastward in late March and early April 1945.
During the Cold War, the Fulda Gap was one of two obvious routes for a hypothetical Soviet tank attack on West Germany from Eastern Europe, especially East
Germany; the other route was the North German Plain (a third, less likely, route was up through the Danube River valley in Austria). The concept of a major tank
battle along the Fulda Gap was a predominant element of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) war planning during the Cold War, and weapons such as nuclear tube and missile artillery, the nuclear recoilless gun/tactical launcher Davy Crockett, Special Atomic Demolition Munitions, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, and A-10 ground attack aircraft were developed with such an eventuality in mind.
Strategic location during the Cold War
The northern route through the Gap passes south of the Knüllgebirge and then continues around the
northern flank of the Vogelsberg Mountains; the narrower southern route passes through the Fliede and
Kinzig Valleys, with the Vogelsberg to the north and the Rhön mountains and Spessart mountains to the
south. Perhaps even more importantly, on emerging from the western exit of the Gap, one encounters
gentle terrain from there to the river Rhine, which would have counted in favor of Soviet attempts to
reach and cross the Rhine before NATO could prevent this (the intervening Main River would have been
less of an obstacle).
The Fulda Gap route was less suitable for mechanized troop movement than was the North German
Plain, but offered an avenue of advance direct to the heart of the U.S. military in West Germany, Frankfurt am Main, which as indicated in its name, is on the Main River, a tributary of the Rhine River. Frankfurt am Main was not only West Germany's financial heart, but also home to a large airfield (known as
Rhein-Main Air Base and Frankfurt Airport) that was designated to receive U.S. reinforcements in the
event of war.
Strategic responses to the geographic feature

Theoretical attack routes through the Fulda Gap; the southeastern is Fulda, the northwestern is Alsfeld. The elevated
land mass in between is the massif which comprises the
Vogelsberg Mountains

Strategists on both sides of the Iron Curtain understood the Fulda Gap's importance, and accordingly allocated forces to defend and attack it. The defense of the
Fulda Gap was a mission of the U.S. V Corps. The actual Inner German border in the Fulda Gap was guarded by reconnaissance forces, the identification and structure of which evolved over the years of the Cold War.
From June 1945 until July 1946, reconnaissance and security along the border between the U.S. and Soviet zones of occupation in Germany in the area north and
south of Fulda was the mission of elements of the U.S. 3rd and 1st Infantry Divisions.[1] By July 1946, the 1st, 3rd, and 14th Constabulary Regiments (arranged from
north to south) had assumed responsibility for inter-zonal border security in an area to include that which later become famous as the Cold War Fulda Gap.[2] The
U.S. Constabulary as a headquarters was subsequently drawn down, but individual constabulary regiments were retitled armored cavalry regiments. This coincided
with the 1951 upgrade of the U.S. Army's mostly administrative and occupation responsibilities in Germany to a combat army via the arrival of four U.S. combat
divisions from CONUS. Thus, from 1951[3] until 1972, the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) patrolled the Fulda Gap.[4] After the return of the 11th Armored
Cavalry Regiment from Vietnam in 1972, the 11th ACR relieved the 14th ACR and took over the reconnaissance mission in the Fulda Gap until the end of the Cold
War.
The mission of the armored cavalry (heavy, mechanized reconnaissance units equipped with tanks and other armored vehicles) in peacetime was to watch the East
-West border for signs of pre-attack Soviet army movement. The armored cavalry's mission in war was to delay a Soviet attack until other units of the U.S. V Corps
could be mobilized and deployed to defend the Fulda Gap.
The armored cavalry would have also served as a screening force in continuous visual contact with the Warsaw Pact forces, reporting on their composition and activities, and forcing advancing Warsaw Pact forces to deplo y while the cavalry fought delaying actions. In order to defend the Fulda Gap and stop a Warsaw Pact
advance (as opposed to conducting screening and delaying actions), U.S. V Corps planned to move two divisions (one armored and one mechanized) forward from
bases in the Frankfurt and Bad Kreuznach areas.[5]