ABSTRACT
After 1945 the power of conventional field artillery was overshadowed by that of the atomic warhead, but the USSR’s accommodation to this new factor differed from that of the West. The USSR’s aim was to secure the territories it had gained in the Second World War against a background of American atomic superiority; but Soviet military strategy remained largely unchanged. Soviet forces deployed and trained in the style of the Second World War. Their forces were echeloned and practised fire and manoeuvre with the emphasis on fire. This was preponderantly pre-planned massed artillery fire, and the C3 of all arms was highly centralized, with the division as the lowest level of decision-making.
