[buwaya]

A bit of a deep dive into a European Army.

[grey_whiskers]

[ansel12]

I was fortunate enough to get to spend lengths of time with French Special Forces a couple of times in France and had a very good shot at attending French Commando school until some political issues arose, those guys sure liked fighting in Africa and were always trying to rotate back.

[spokeshave]

The French Foreign Legion are tough kookies..renounce their original nationality

The slow march:

[gnarledmaw]

Ohhh! That kind of structure.

Here I was getting all geared up for a discussion covering towers, pill boxes, and blockhouses.

Maybe next time.

[Psalm 73]

From crunching info from multiple sites, it looks like the European military strength breaks down like this (depending on how one weights different components):

France (by a lot)
Britain (just ahead of)
Italy
Germany (way back)
Poland
Sweden
Spain
Denmark

[BenLurkin]

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

Q: Why did the French plant trees along the Champs De Elysee?
A: So that victorious German troops can march in the shade.

Q: Why are the red & blue sections of French flags attached on with velcro?
A: So they can be quickly converted into all-white flags of surrender.

.... And other ones I can't remember, that were posted on FR some decades back.

Which reminds me of a joke shared by members of German Panzer units in the WWII N Africa campaign:
"Did you know that Italian tanks have 6 speeds? One forward, and 5 in reverse."

This joke caused a German Minister of Defense to almost lose his job in the 70s, when he was reviewing a NATO forces parade as the tanks rolled by, and he turned to someone sitting next to him to say, "The tanks remind me of a joke we used to tell in the Panzers...." A nearby journalist overheard the joke, published it, and the Italian Govt called for this guy's head: "How *DARE* a high official of one of our allies disparage our military?!?"

What seemed to be lost on the Italian Govt was that this joke referred to an alliance long preceding NATO. One known as The Axis.