Until the end of the East-West conflict, the main task of the German Bundeswehr consisted of countering, side by side with NATO allies, any probable attack that might come from the Warsaw Pact members. Their structure and equipment corresponded exactly to this task, and also the number of soldiers depended on it. This number amounted to about 500,000 personnel since the Bundeswehr’s foundation in the mid-1950s, with around half of them being recruited from conscripts.