Tag Archives: Danes in Afghanistan

Leopards in the Mist

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No, it is not early morning on the Savannah, but “Danske Leoparder et Letland,” i.e., Royal Danish Army KMW Rheinmetall Leopard 2A7DKs of I Panserbataljon, Jydske Dragonregiment (I/JDR) in Latvia on a NATO deployment getting a live fire ex underway recently.

And that Rh-120 L/55 A1 120mm main gun does growl.

Also note the SAAB Barracuda anti-IR camo system installed.

A closer look:

Of note, the “Blue Dragoons” of I/JDR, Denmark’s sole tank unit and home to 44 Leopard 2s, has a long and storied history going back to 1657, but held on to their horses until 1932. They have been operating successive versions of the Kampfpanzer Leopard since the 1970s.

They are somewhat famous in modern times for the “Mouse Ate the Cat” engagement in Bosnia in 1994, where they just went ham on some particularly dreaded and troublesome Serb positions and bagged at least one T-55 in the process.

They have also completed deployments to Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq in modern times, and have a reputation for being eager to let their tracks (and guns) run free when needed.

Black beret clad in British Armored Corps fashion, their motto is Virtute Vincitur (“He is overcome by strength”).

Danish Tanks Slug Taliban

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In war you see odd combinations.

During World War One there was a unit of the Austrian Army that was composed of Ukrainian soldiers led by Austrian officers. Neither spoke the other’s languages so operations were conducted in English as both sides had a passing knowledge of it. The officers had learned it in university and the soldiers had been studying it with an eye towards immigration. This unit fought the Russians in a war that began when a Bosnian terrorist shot an Austrian prince and his Czech wife.

Those men would be amazed by another story of an oddball combination that somehow makes sense. Recently, as part of the Global War on Terrorism, Danish forces engaged Taliban irregulars in Afghanistan. The Danes used German made Leopard tanks in the first combat by a Danish force since the Yugoslav morass of the last decade.

These hardy Danes were of course operating under the aegis of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). No one pointed out that the Atlantic Ocean (or any ocean for that matter) is no where near landlocked Afghanistan. Another irony is the fact that those Leopard tanks were designed to destroy the same Soviet tanks that the Taliban grew up fighting against a generation ago.

But then again, the truth is stranger than fiction.