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| Europe |
| German Soldiers Used Symbol Linked to Afrika-Korps |
| 2006-11-09 |
| German soldiers sent to Afghanistan in 2001 decorated a military vehicle with a symbol resembling the Nazi insignia used during World War II by members of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika-Korps. Stern magazine published a photograph of an off-road light vehicle bearing on its side a brown palm tree marked with the Iron Cross instead of the Nazi swastika used by the Afrika-Korps, an expeditionary force sent by Adolf Hitler to North Africa. The symbol "had not been authorized" and was removed before the vehicle was shipped to Afghanistan, Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said at a government press conference in Berlin today... ...The photograph in Stern shows the military vehicle belonging to the KSK special operations unit in November 2001 while it was stationed at Camp Justice on the Omani island of Masirah, Stern reported. The elite unit was the first German ground-troop force sent into Afghanistan, where Germany has 2,730 troops attached to the United Nations ISAF mission, all in the north of the country. The KSK member who revealed the photograph to Stern said some of his peers in the unit "found it particularly chic" to drive around with the palm symbol, but that he and others thought it was "simply disgusting," the magazine reported today. Last week the German parliament's Defense Committee said it would investigate allegations that the KSK in Afghanistan mistreated a German-born Turk who was released from Guantanamo Bay two months ago. Committee members including Winfried Nachtwei of the opposition Green Party said the probe should expand to examine the KSK's conduct in Afghanistan more broadly. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #17 Weird Al: The best bet is to get a free picture hosting account from somebody like photobucket.com Then, when you find a picture you like, download it to your computer, then upload it to photobucket. They even give you the html code to post here at rantburg, so just your picture will appear. This avoids all sorts of hotlinking and sizing problems. I use it so much that I must have 50 pictures stored there to plug in where I like.  |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-11-09 19:09 |
| #16 Watermelons...heh heh. Let em investigate, they'll get squat. KSK has done a good job even though they've had their hands tied. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2006-11-09 18:38 |
| #15 There it is Frank. This is all part of the plan do dig some crap up and tie the German troops to being horrible Nazi's and murderers in Bush's war in Afghanistan. All because they had a palm tree painted on the side of their truck,it was just sooo scary! Worse than the crap that someone is saying this junk, the people are believing it. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2006-11-09 18:14 |
| #14 Committee members including Winfried Nachtwei of the opposition Green Party said the probe should expand to examine the KSK's conduct in Afghanistan more broadly not a valid complaint, but a way for the watermelons to get a "withraw from Afghanistan" movement going |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-11-09 18:00 |
| #13 Bad link on the tank. Just take my word for it. Still haven't figured out how to import pics. |
| Posted by: Weird Al 2006-11-09 17:44 |
| #12 http://workstation20.archive.org/ttk/mbt/mbt/mbt.leopard2a6-big.jpg Same symbol for the leopard tank. Not as pretty as the phantom, but just as nasty. |
| Posted by: Weird Al 2006-11-09 17:37 |
| #11 Pretty bird. |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-11-09 17:20 |
| #10 http://www.militaryaircraft.de/pictures/military/aircraft/F-4F/F-4F_RIAT2005_002_800.jpg. Looked up a photo. German fighters still use the iron cross, right on the side of a Phantom. Excuse me, but BFD. |
| Posted by: Weird Al 2006-11-09 17:14 |
| #9 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was also known as the Desert Fox. Both a post WWII book and movie based upon the book were titled as such. That didn't seem to matter when the Clinton Administration and the folks at DoD launched Operation Desert Fox to cover Monicagate. |
| Posted by: Procopius2K 2006-11-09 17:05 |
| #8 Historical ignorance of the press drives me nutz, but military historicaL ignoirance from a nation like Germany is unforgiveable. |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-11-09 16:30 |
| #6 The < href='http://www.isymbolz.com/spiritual/crosses/cr034-Lorraine.jpg'>Cross of Lorraine was a tactical symbol of the German 79th Infantry Division. They gonna ban that as a tactical symbol since it was a unit at Stalingrad? Scary symbol. ain't it? |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-11-09 16:16 |
| #5 Agree with you RC. From perspective of those serving in the unit, I'm sure they wouldn't want anything to tarnish their rep. As the first German combat troups to deploy abroad, they must have a lot to pressure domestically over how they conduct themselves. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2006-11-09 16:10 |
| #4 I can understand their touchines...but Afrika Corps was Wermacht..not SS but was purely a unit of Hitler's Germany so there's definitely a strong negative connection. Doesn't the Luftwaffe still us a stylized version of the Iron Cross insignia? Couldn't find photo at link. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2006-11-09 16:06 |
| #3 So they used a symbol something like a Nazi symbol? Sorry, I'm not seeing the issue. I understand the German paranoia about Nazi symbols, but this seems to be driving it into the realm of hysteria. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2006-11-09 16:05 |
| #2 Helluva a pointy-coconut on that tree. Hate to have one plunk me in the noggin. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2006-11-09 16:04 |
| #1 Here is the original tactical symbol of the German Army (not Nazi Army unit) known as the Afrika Korps. Scary, ain't it?  |
| Posted by: badanov 2006-11-09 16:03 |
