Those Germans Sure Love Their Beer

[Blackhorse]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1091559/German-soldiers-fat-fight-Taliban-drink-boys-dry.html

That's an insane amount of beer and wine!!! This equates to a per-soldier ratio of 26 ounces of beer a day, every day for a year. (source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111403512_pf.html)

German soldiers are 'too fat to fight' Taliban because they drink so much (while our boys go dry)

By Mail Foreign Service

Last updated at 1:04 PM on 03rd December 2008

They drink too much and they're too fat to fight, that's the damning conclusion of German parliamentary reports into the country's 3,500 troops stationed in Afghanistan. While British and U.S. troops in the country face a strict ban on alcohol, their German comrades are allowed two pints a day.

The stunning statistics reveal that in 2007 German forces in northern Afghanistan drank 1.7million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine. The troops also downed 896,000 pints of beer in the first six months of this year, the Times reported.

Last year Bundeswehr forces in northern Afghanistan drank 1.7million pints of beer and 90,000 bottles of wine The statistics only add to the embarrassment of the country's federal army, Bundeswehr, after a report earlier this year found troops to be too fat, smoked too much and didn't exercise enough. It showed they lived on beer and sausages while shunning fruit and vegetables.

The parliamentary report claimed that some 40 per cent of all German army personnel are overweight - a higher percentage than in the civilian population.

At the time Reinhold Robbe, the parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, stated: 'Plainly put, the soldiers are too fat, exercise too little, and take little care of their diet.'

The Times also reported the damning allegation from a senior officer that Germany is failing in its main mission to train the Afghan police. He descibed the efforts as 'a miserable failure'.

Since 2001, 28 German soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

[Affentitten]

For you, Fritz, the bar is over!

[Sergei]

In the good old medieval days the daily ration of a rank and file soldier was about two litres of beer, with officers of course getting more. But of course, in medieval towns drinking beer was healthier than drinking water.

[Sergei]

The Times also reported the damning allegation from a senior officer that Germany is failing in its main mission to train the Afghan police.

Wait, maybe that's where the beer is going - they are training the local policemen! Was there any mention of large amounts of donuts?

He descibed the efforts as 'a miserable failure'.

Yes, this supports my theory...

[Secondbrooks]

What is so bad in that? Always nicer to live with beer than without. And healthier that to drink alcohol based fuel ment for cooking sets. (well for liver atleast)

Sorry maybe i'm bit too harsh and don't appreciate war-effort (or lack of it), but news made me giggle wildly.

[John Kettler]

Blackhorse,

Per DER SPIEGEL, the Germans have 3000 men there.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,485289-2,00.html

At 2 pints/day/man x 365 (rounding down) days (for 2007), the authorized beer ration consumption should come to 2,190,000 pints, so 1.7 million (1,700,000) means some either aren't getting or aren't drinking their beer ration daily. The 90,000 bottles of wine works out to 30 per man/year, or, 1 bottle every 12.2 days (rounding up). By contrast, the authorized ration for U.S. field soldiers during the Vietnam War was one can of beer and one can of soda/per day/per man. A standard U.S. beverage can held

12 U.S. fluid ounces of liquid, or 12.5 Imperial fluid ounces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage_can

The story doesn't say which pint is being described, but since the story was picked up by a British press source, it's fair to conclude we're talking Imperial pints, which per this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint shows the Imperial pint to be = 0.83 U.S. fluid pint. thus, since the standard American beer = 12 U.S. fluid ounces, and a U.S. fluid pint = 16 U.S. fluid ounces, it follows that an American beer must be equal to ~O.62 Imperial pints. To this we must of course apply the BQMF (Beer Quality Multiplication Factor), since it's well known that Europeans consider our beer not even worthy of the title, as a general rule. Thus, not only on average are the German soldiers in Afghanistan outdrinking our authorized Vietnam era field ration by a factor of 3.23, but thanks to the Beer Purity Laws, the nutritional content is sure to be much higher than what we have here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot

Perhaps this information should be suppressed, less it make the enforced dry jealous and demoralized?

I think we need more information, to include what kind of beer and wine the German ISAF troops are drinking, as well as the equivalent data on the French, widely considered to have the best rations in all of NATO. Are their troops getting fat, or is the reservatrol in their favored red wine saving them from militarily embarrassing and possibly even fatal in combat corpulence, despite a diet heavy in rich, fatty foods?

Regards,

John Kettler

[xor+]

That's an insane amount of beer and wine!!!

Is it? They have a policy of 2 cans of 0.5 litres of beer / day. Consumption amounts to 0.77 litres / day according to the report. And you've got journalists and the ministry of foreign affairs drawing from that pool. That has got to account for something.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/412/324278/text/

[John Kettler]

xor+,

Awfully nice of them, and one way to get favorable press!

Regards,

John Kettler

[panzermartin]

At last..Germans saw the light and decided war isnt the most interesting thing in life

[Sergei]

At last..Germans saw the light and decided war isnt the most interesting thing in life

You clearly have no idea...

[ASL Veteran]

It showed they lived on beer and sausages while shunning fruit and vegetables.

German soldiers living on Beer and Sausages!!?? I find that incredibly hard to believe!!

[Secondbrooks]

I think we need more information, to include what kind of beer and wine the German ISAF troops are drinking, as well as the equivalent data on the French, widely considered to have the best rations in all of NATO. Are their troops getting fat, or is the reservatrol in their favored red wine saving them from militarily embarrassing and possibly even fatal in combat corpulence, despite a diet heavy in rich, fatty foods?

Hmm. I'm under impression that this is quite common problem while acting in peacekeeping duties (moving by vehicles and good food at garison). Not that i would have studied it, just heard about it here and there.

What troops German has in Afganistan? Are they drawed from reservist pool (like here in Finland) or taken from active duty. Basically meaning: Do they have 27 year old fatter guys or 20 year old slimmer ones.

[panzermartin]

You clearly have no idea...

Hmm..the Beer Tent Putsch??. Now that I think about it, I would clearly feel safer if they preffered some local "goods" over beer

[Blackhorse]

In my experiences, German Army consumption of beer was exponentially dwarfed by Canadian Army consumption of beer...

[Affentitten]

The standard Australian ration is:

Two cans per man per day per haps.

[Stalins Organ]

For you, Fritz, the bar is over!

Well that's no use - you need to put "there" after over, and also to point in the general direction so they know where to go....