As of: March 6, 2024, 4:39 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
Comments
Press
Split
The Bundeswehr is moving hundreds of soldiers from Bavaria to Norway in a spectacular maneuver.
There is great fear of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
Narvik - the land border between Norway and Russia is 197.7 kilometers long.
There is also a 23.2 kilometer long sea border in the Varangerfjord of the Barents Sea.
Bundeswehr in Norway: NATO acts as a deterrent to Vladimir Putin's Russia
Its location makes Norway a weak point in the NATO alliance, while there are fears in the West that the imperialism of the high-handed Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin could not end in Ukraine.
Deterrence should help against this.
The NATO exercise “Nordic Response” has been running here, in the far north of the Nordic countries, since Tuesday (March 5th) up to and including March 14th as part of the massive “Steadfast Defender 24” maneuver.
In the middle of it all: 1,000 soldiers from Mountain Infantry Brigade 23 “Bayern”.
They were relocated to Scandinavia at great expense from their locations between Bad Reichenhall in Berchtesgadener Land, Füssen in the Allgäu and Ingolstadt.
The German troops, which specialize in operations in mountainous, hilly and snowy terrain, openly showed Moscow their equipment.
This at least allows assessments of the otherwise secret maneuver.
In action during the major NATO maneuver: BV 206 S Hägglund tracked vehicles of the German Bundeswehr in Norway at the beginning of March.
© Screenshot X@Deutsches_Heer
Norway: Bundeswehr transfers mountain troops from Bavaria for major NATO maneuvers
According to the Bundeswehr website, the port of Sørreisa, 85 kilometers north of Narvik (around 22,000 inhabitants), was the target of the enormous troop transfer.
Narvik of all places, one might say.
The loss-making and later filmed “Battle of Narvik” between Nazi Germany, Great Britain and Norwegian defenders took place here between April 9th and June 8th, 1940.
Today, the only Norwegian army brigade, the Brigade Nord, is stationed around 80 kilometers northeast of Narvik and 20 kilometers southeast of Sørreisa in Bardufoss.
In an emergency, not far from Narvik, for example, a front line just eight kilometers wide could be set up between Ofotfjord - i.e. between the sea - and the Swedish border.
Would Norway be defended here?
While NATO directly named Russia under Putin as a possible aggressor for “Steadfast Defender 24” because of the experiences from the Ukraine war?
Mountain Infantry Brigade 23 “Bavaria” |
|
Soldiers: |
5300 |
Insinuation: |
Fast Forces Division |
Troop type: |
Mountain troops of the army (land forces) |
Staff Company (Headquarters): |
Bad Reichenhall |
Locations and barracks: |
Bischofswiesen-Strub, Mittenwald, Füssen, Ingolstadt |
Commander: |
Brigadier General Michael Bender |
My news
“Lesson from the Ukraine War”: Sweden wants to protect its fighter jets like in the Cold War
Putin propagandist wants to destroy four German counterparts for Crimean bridge
Several Russian planes shot down: Ukraine finds out about fighter jet secret
“When Putin coughs, Scholz looks for a bunker” – misunderstanding grows in France
Medvedev calls for the killing of Germans: Read Putin's game with “German Angst”.
Can Taurus decide the war?
Bavarian manufacturer has long been in exchange with Ukraine
NATO member Norway: Only one combat brigade stationed in the north
The domestic land forces are manageable: The Briagde Nord is probably the only clearly defined combat brigade in the country, which is small in terms of population (around 5.5 million), and has the majority of the main battle tanks and the almost 110 CV 90 infantry fighting vehicles.
According to the
Global Firepower Index (GFP),
of only 36 Leopard 2A4NO main battle tanks (as of March 6), just 29 are currently operational.
According to the Bundeswehr's understanding, that wouldn't even be enough for a battalion (46 tanks).
The Germans did not bring any battle tanks with them for “Nordic Response”.
According to the Bundeswehr website, “80 transport vehicles of the type BV 206 S Hägglunds, several anti-tank mortars, Wiesel weapons carriers, motor vehicles, many different trucks” were transported to Norway, most of them presumably shipped across the North Sea.
The comparatively small Hägglunds, weighing 7.3 tons, are each intended to carry up to ten men of infantry through rough terrain.
The Bundeswehr's standard MG 3 machine gun with a caliber of 7.62 millimeters can be mounted on the roof of the protected tracked vehicle.
But that was it for the armament of the 177 hp vehicle.
German mountain troops in Norway: Bundeswehr is not bringing any tanks with them
Significantly, the German mountain troops have not had tanks or artillery such as self-propelled howitzers in their ranks for years.
They are specialists on foot or on skis, as the current photos from Norway illustrate.
NATO would presumably try to stop armored Russian troops on the only major transport connection in the north of the country, on the European route E6, on which Bardufoss is located.
And which leads via Narvik to the major cities in the south, namely Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger and finally Oslo.
The German soldiers are trained for such operations in sniper missions or, as the Bundeswehr explains, in using lasers to give attack aircraft targets.
This should also be practiced at “Nordic Response”.
Because of Russia: Norway, Sweden and Finland are training air defense
The Norwegian Air Force, which will be equipped with 34 state-of-the-art F-35 stealth fighters from the USA by 2025, has been training for years now, the Swedish Air Force (a total of 71 Gripen fighter jets) and the Finnish Air Force (a total of 55 F/A-18C fighter jets) together to defend Nordic airspace against a possible Russian threat.
NATO maneuvers in the Arctic Circle: German mountain troops practice deterrence against Russia in northern Norway.
© Screenshot X@Deutsches_Heer
As the Bundeswehr also reports, most of the German soldiers in the exercise come from the 233 Mountain Infantry Battalion in Mittenwald.
They are supposed to help deter Putin, while Norway has even played out a possible invasion by Russia in the streaming series “Occupied” and the real Norwegian commander General Eirik Kristoffersen has urgently warned his compatriots against such a scenario.
(pm)