This sort of stuff has been an issue in the German military for years, maybe even a generation. They have a bunch of ships but only a handful are in working order. Their helicopters fall apart. Their troops are quite nazi-adjacent. The €100B special fund appropriated to the Bundeswehr this year isn’t even enough to get them back into fighting shape, let alone modernize or expand.
Semi-related, but why tf does Bundeswehr still use that black-and-white cross emblem? Isn’t it from German Empire?
Yup, but it’s actually much older and cringier. In 1813 the Prussian military adopted it as a military symbol and award and it was supposed to be a variant of the symbol of the Teutonic Order, a German order of crusaders formed in 1190. The German Empire then kept carrying it on, both as a symbol for its military and as military decoration it would award.
The Teutonic Order itself based their symbol on the Knights Templar. So basically today there is like an onion of lowkey larping as a Catholic military order going on.
…I wonder why the Bundeswehr has a nazi problem
I’ve wondered about that as well actually.
So the message I’m getting here is, never trust a German tank named after a wild jungle feline.
Good tank Puma. Sees his operators are getting cold, bursts into flames to warm them. Well prepared for the russian winter.
🤣
