GERMANY’S army is preparing its forces to treat 1,000 injured troops a day as the prospect of a war between NATO and Russia looms ever larger.
Berlin’s war planning lays bare the scale of devastation that such a conflict would unleash upon the continent.
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The Kremlin denies that it wants a war against Russia’s Western rivals.
But recent incursions of military jets into NATO airspace has amplified fears that Putin has his sights on members of the alliance.
Since Russia‘s brutal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western countries have been forced to reckon with the prospect of a major war breaking out on European soil once again.
It has prompted military leaders to warn of the scale of casualties that could come if Moscow attacked the alliance.
Germany’s Surgeon General Ralf Hoffmann told Reuters that the exact number would depend on the intensity of fighting.
But he said: “Realistically, we are talking about a figure of around 1,000 wounded troops per day.”
Berlin is far from the only country to ramp up planning for mass casualties in the face of Russian sabre-rattling.
France has also placed its hospitals on a war-footing, with health bosses ordered to be ready for a “major engagement” by March 2026.
In anticipation of a large influx of wounded soldiers, Paris has ordered the country’s health centres to integrate the “specific needs of defence” into their planning.
They want French hospitals to be prepared to take in not only their own country’s injured troops, but also those of NATO allies.
Hoffmann added that Germany needs to look to the war in Ukraine to adapt how it approaches medical training for the battlefield.
“The Ukrainians often cannot evacuate their wounded fast enough because drones are buzzing overhead everywhere,” he warned.
Flexible transport options would be needed to get injured troops out of harm’s way, Hoffmann said, such as how Ukraine has used hospital trains.
Germany’s chief of defence General Carsten Breuer issued a stark warning this summer as to how soon a Russian attack could come.
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He told the BBC that Moscow’s increased military production represents a “a very serious threat” that could come as soon as 2029.
“This is what the analysts are assessing – in 2029. So we have to be ready by 2029,” he warned.
“If you ask me now, is this a guarantee that’s not earlier than 2029?
“I would say no, it’s not. So we must be able to fight tonight.”
In Britain, government officials are hurriedly updating decades-old contingency plans to protect the country in the event of Russian aggression.
Former NATO commander Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon previously told The Sun: “Britain is very much in the sights of Putin’s derision, and we are the ones likely to be attacked first.
“Britain really has got to dust off its contingency plans.
“Over 20 years of neglect, and we understand that’s exactly what this report is about at the moment.”
An assault on one NATO country by Russia would require all other member states to take up arms in their support.
This is because of the alliance’s Article 5 protection guarantee, which makes an attack on one an attack on all.
Fears of confrontation with Russia have spiked since Moscow’s air force launched incursions into NATO airspace in recent weeks.
Russian MiG-31 fighters entered the skies over Estonia earlier this month, prompting Western jets to be scrambled in response to shoo them away.
Moscow’s drones have also entered Polish and Romanian airspace over the past weeks.
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