German Forces Launch Offensive in Northern Afghanistan

The Weekly Standard ^

[MinorityRepublican]

Several hundred Bundeswehr soldiers, backed by heavy “Marder” tanks and fighter jets, are currently helping about 1,200 Afghan National Army forces conduct major anti-terrorist operations near the Taliban stronghold of Chahar Dara, southwest of the city of Kunduz, where the bulk of Germany’s roughly 4,000 troops are stationed.

The fighting--which started on Sunday and involves looking for Taliban / Al Qaeda fighters “village by village and house by house”--is expected to go on until at least next week.

The Bundeswehr soldiers are part of the German-led NATO Quick Reaction Force (QRF), which provides force protection and serves as emergency back-up for Alliance troops.

Finally, as German media have pointed out, the current Afghanistan offensive marks the first time since the end of WW II that Germany’s soldiers are again involved in major ground combat operations.

[MinorityRepublican]

bttt

[Jonny foreigner]

Ok, we need a picture of a Marder tank. How do they differ from the Leopard? Just an old tanker asking’

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a marder is a “relative” old german SPZ (don´t know the american therm for this) it´s not a true APC it´s more like a Bradley. you call a bradley how? i don´t know how you can insert pictures here so i can only give you a link about a german marder. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz05hchI4cQ&feature=related

[Locomotive Breath]

Germans are the smartest people in the world. Period. This is not even up for debate.

Maybe but they're too rigid and follow orders too closely. I once read an interview with a WWII German General. He said the Germans, with their professionalism, smarts, training and discipline, couldn't imagine being beaten by the chaotic rabble of the amateur insubordinate Americans.

Then he finally figured out that war IS chaos and that when the command structure breaks down, as it always does, the German troops didn't know what to do on their own and waited for orders, while the American troops, used to thinking on their own, just kept going.

How many actions were salvaged by an American non-com or even enlisted taking the intuitive after all his officers had been killed? Lots!

[dfwgator]

Hope this time it turns out better for the Germans than their last offensive, The Battle of the Bulge.

[MindBender26]

Ach, Ja! Ze Happy Times again!

Tell me, Mein Kommeraden, Do they sing ze old songs?

[MinorityRepublican]

That makes sense. But weren’t our military disciplined and rigid in Iraq? And yet we were able to pacify the country?

[brityank]

Brit Troops in contact - Sangin, Helmand Province, Afghanistan http://www.michaelyon-online.com/ Read them all.

A question — Whose ROE will the Germans follow? Hope for their lives it’s not ours!

[GOP_Party_Animal]

“DER TAG” is coming.

Got my deer tag last week. Buck mule deer. Can't wait for November!

[Jonny foreigner]

A question — Whose ROE will the Germans follow? Hope for their lives it’s not ours!

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i don´t know where you come from but believe me “your” rules of engagement can not be more worst like “ours”. (this would be really impossible). i was on duty with german troops (we had far the same rules of engagement). believe me “official” all but giving a little kid a hug was prevented.
greetings

[robertwalker62]

I’d put the Swiss a bit above them....

[Tribune7]

Thank you

[Locomotive Breath]

Disciplined yes, but I don't agree that our military was rigid. Not at the tactical level anyway.

With respect to the Germans

The MLF Lullaby

No, no, not MILF but Multilateral Force

[spoken]A considerable amount of commotion was stirred up during the past year over the prospect of a multi-lateral force, known to the headline writers as MLF. much of this discussion took place during baseball season so the [San Francisco] Chronicle may not have covered it but it did get a certain amount of publicity, and the basic idea was that a bunch of us nations, the good guys, would get together on a nuclear deterrent force including our current friends, like France, and our traditional friends, like Germany. here’s a song about that called the mlf lullaby.

[sung]
Sleep, baby, sleep, in peace may you slumber,
No danger lurks, your sleep to encumber,
We’ve got the missiles, peace to determine,
And one of the fingers on the button will be German.

Why shouldn’t they have nuclear warheads?
England says no, but they are all soreheads.
I say a bygone should be a bygone,
Let’s make peace the way we did in Stanleyville and Saigon.

Once all the Germans were warlike and mean,
But that couldn’t happen again.
We taught them a lesson in nineteen eighteen,
And they’ve hardly bothered us since then.
So sleep well, my darling, the sandman can linger,
We know our buddies won’t give us the finger.
Heil--hail--the wehrmacht, I mean the bundeswehr,
Hail to our loyal ally!
MLF
Will scare brezhnev,
I hope he is half as scared as I.

Lehrer was Jewish. For some reason unknown to me I don't think he much liked Germans.

[Jonny foreigner]

btw. i hope for the german troops that they now changed the ROE. but when i was in afghanistan (some years ago) our ROE have been pretty the same like the germans. this means. You are allowed to return fire if some shoots at you (well at least our politicians didn´t send us in with blanks :-). you are not allowed to shoot someone if he is “only” armed or points a weapon into your dirrection as long as he doesn´t start to fire on you (but you are allowed to warn them). you are not allowed to shoot someone who is running away to fight again on an other day “don´t confuse this with someone who is willing to surrender because this would be illegal in all western armies” (even if he fired on you before)... but then again this are “official” rules politicians tell the press and the public... reality looks different

[brooklin]

In reply to your post... I know what a ‘current’ marder is. I even know what they look like. There is a picture of one in post number 3.

Thank you for the link of the maders. it is always neat to see some new photos of them.

[AdamBomb]

re: average IQ by country..

you can prepare anyone to pass an IQ test.

The fact of the matter is that Germany (both natives and Jewish Germans) can lay claim to more meaningful inventions than any other country. This is fact.

Notice all of the Asian countries high atop the IQ list. Yes, they can learn anything. But when it comes to engineering innovation, I’ll put my money on Germans...period.

[4woodenboats]

Interesting....I wonder how their press will protray them and their mission - did Merkel tell 'em "Good luck, don't worry about winning, try offering to buy the Taliban a beer, and if that doesn't work, tell them you're a friend of TOTUS"?

Thanks for the pings, guys.

[Yorlik803]

Those marders were Tank Hunters. Panzerjagers I believe is the German for it. They would lay in wait for a unsupecting Sherman or T34 and ambush them. They were lightly armored, so they couldnt go toe to toe, relying more on hitting them from the side from cover.
Now, if you want to talk about killer tanks, lets talk Panther.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Good points, SW!

[PAR35]

No, the original Marders were Tank Destroyers, not tanks, built on French, Czech, or German tank bodies with the turret removed and a large gun affixed.

See http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1125118/posts

[PAR35]

Are you asking about the current Marder, or the World War II version? The current version is a tracked armored personnel carrier with a 20mm gun for local defense. The Leopard is a top notch main battle tank with a 120 mm smoothbore (the same German cannon as is used on the US M1 tanks.

The historic Marder was a tank destroyer, built on the hull of outdated tanks (French, Czech, and German tanks were used) with a large bore gun attached (75 or 76 mm).