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The Reference Desk => Organizations, Vehicles, Equipment => Topic started by: bayonetbrant on February 20, 2019, 09:07:16 AM

Title: Tank Battalion 414, German-Dutch integrated unit
Post by: bayonetbrant on February 20, 2019, 09:07:16 AM

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/world/europe/germany-defense-spending-european-army.html

Quote

The battalion is German, but one in four of its soldiers are Dutch. The tanks are German, the radio system is Dutch and the language of command increasingly English. Often Germans and Dutch ride in the same tank.

“We already work much more closely together than the politicians had envisaged,” said Colonel Niemeyer, the German commander.

“We no longer think in national terms,” he said.

“The values we’re defending are European,” he continued. “The border we’re defending is not between the Netherlands and Germany. It’s NATO’s eastern border.”

Would he die for Europe?

“Yes,” he said.

Title: Re: Tank Battalion 414, German-Dutch integrated unit
Post by: BanzaiCat on February 20, 2019, 10:46:16 AM

Sounds like Wiking is making a comeback.