Denmark surrendered to Germany in 3 hours on Apr 9th 1940. If you are interested in a little insight in the complicated relationship between Germany and Denmark, watch this video https://youtu.be/z1yoBCqjTIc
Apr 9th 1940 would go on to haunt the danish people, and as a compensation we would send peace keeping forces to Cypres, Bosnia, Kosovo and Libanon. We would go on and fight in libya, Iraq, Syria, Africa and we would fight the Taleban in Helmand province in Afghanistan with Leopard tanks we flew down. We had the same casualty rate as US, but the public support was always high. And this offensive approach all started in 1940.
I watched the video but I still don’t understand why you feel haunted by losing to Germany. You either fought and died or you acquiesced. In a cruel world many times weaker foes face this choice. Not shame but pride in preserving your national identity.
We have something similar in the Netherlands and Belgium/(Austrian Netherlands) which feared Prussian annexation. At the time of the American Revolution, the Dutch did have the Patriot Revolution in the Dutch Republic which wasn’t very well organized and was put down by the Prussians who later were defeated when doing the same thing in France at Valmy.
One of the reasons the Dutch Government was against the German reunification is that a lot of historians saw the rabidly antisemitic Hohenzollern/Militaristic Prussia was a major cause for the World Wars. “We like Germany so much we want to have 2 of them” (as in keep them divided).
Also both Denmark AND the Netherlands have a very impressive naval history and unlike some Germans we don’t put tents next to the water at low tide. In the old days no one bothered to tell the Germans who were used to lakes . Call it 3rd generation resistance fighters, so that kind of rivalry.
It was also because there was a cooperation policy until august 1943, where the Army and Navy was not disarmed, and life just went un as normal, an we were eager to sell all our farming products to the Germany, now the British was closed.
When the coperation policy broke down in 1943 our navy scuttled itselves. Denmark was not recognized as a part of the allies until late 1943.
This meant there was a strong “Never another Apr 9th” movement after the war, and it has lasted until this day. The danish army, Navy and Air Force are designed for international deployment. The Navy also for taking care of the North Atlantic waters around Greenland and the Faroe Island.
The turning point came at Tulza in Bosnia Apr 29th 1994 where Danish leopard tanks had a firefight with the Serbs to protect a Swedish UN control post killling many Serbs. A famous battle (in Denmark) known as Operation “Bøllebank” (Beat the bullies) That gave a new global respect for Dansh forces and a new national pride and identity.
Cool, I didn’t know this. Our Yugoslavia time is more traumatic with Srebrenica. The Dutch Government ignored the objections of the military that they were not supplied with the right weaponry and completely lacked a rapid reaction force.
When Srebrenica fell the “higher-ups” were unavailable and literally stood by and did nothing, leaving the bullies full power.
The Cabinet responsible basically resigned just before the “responsibility debate”. So this confirmed the impression that the Netherlands has a “Paper Tiger” to say it like the Indonesians would say it.
Nothing against the service people themselves they did the best they could with very little (like in 1940). When the going gets tough the “Ostriches in Charge” get going.
Not sure if Yugoslavia is far enough in the past. (I think so but don’t want to start a flame war.
The “leadership” involved were promoted to other high paying jobs sadly.
Yes, that was tragic. The danish experince has been:
Secure solid political and public back up
Bring the heavy guns
Convince all, that we will not hesitate to use them.
Then you can keep peace - The problem in Yugoslavia though, was that there was no
peace to keep, but a war still going on. That conflict resulted in the worst PTSD cases among the soldiers involved, compared to other conflicts.
I never doubted the courage and abilities of your soldier’s. You can have small but extremely well trained and equipped units. You should be proud of what you accomplished. I would never say America has any advantage per se. our logistics and mobility is probably the best because it has to be.
I didn’t know about your battle in Yugoslavia, Thanks for the information.
. Call it 3rd generation resistance fighters, so that kind of rivalry.