Pack Animals - the 🇩🇪 German Mountain Infantry Brigade 

Well that's true, sometimes -painfully true. My Uncle served with the 🇩🇪 Gebirgsjäger and a comrade of him had a - let's say pretty tricky relation with "his" mule. One day on an excurse this guy didn't care right about that blanket under that wooden abholstery frame where they carry all the weight and carriage with and the mule showed and marked that and pleaded for a fix but this guy didn't care. In the evening in the Biwak this mule bit his leader *t h a t bad* he had a serious bruise-injury one muscle was nearly torn and he got to be flewn out. My Uncle had handover that mule and it took him nearly 1,5 month to reinstall a trustfull relation. But in the end it worked so well this mule saved some lifes. They were on a mountain path around a corner late spring and it had rained badly the days previous plus heavy snowmelt set in. So on a sunny day they came to a corner into shadow overcast steep terrain on a pretty wide new hiking path. My uncle had the leading mule, it stopped all of a sudden laid it's ears back and didn't move a single step forward, stood across the path letting *nobody* pass. My Uncle talked calmy to him petted him, tried to motivate him and tried to build trust, but this mule remained, stood back and started to sweat ears all back. So they finally decided to walk back to take another route and some 10 minutes back down that road they heard a roaring rumble and shaking behind and right on that path a few hundred meters ahead the first route a mud avalanche went off and burried the entire path over several hundred meters. That mule stopped again looked back ears all front up, *snorted* loud, shook his had and dipped the sidepocket of my Uncles Parka with his nose and lips, where he always got those green eukaklyptus-menthol Pastilles for having a treat to the mules as to say: "See?! I told You!! So give me a treat => I've done *well!!* 😊😊😊

@@wertfreund2480 Thanks for sharing this wonderful story!

Common equine sense

Thx from Germany brother!

❤❤

Got to be an amazing unit to be in.

Alpini + Gebrigsjäger = ❤️ love from Italy

Iroso passed away last spring. As a former Italian Mountain Artillery I really understand and appreciate this video.

In WW2 the mules proved theirselves for the Gbjg.

When a war goes down, Italy has it under control like they always have. Because anti air isn't a factor when trying to take a hill right? Italy is awesome but please keep mules. Too much upkeep doesn't equate someone taking your land.

Las mejores mulas tienen raíces andaluzas, aunque su numero ha disminuido bastante durante las ultimas décadas debido a su esterilidad y la modernización de los ejércitos no te sorprenda conseguirte mas de una mula en alguna unidad española.

The only do in the Bundeswehr

There are that kind of unit in Switzerland too.

.... and Austria.

Every german speaking country has Gebirgsjäger with Mules.

...and Italy

The US military has a literal pack animal training course for special forces, rangers and marine reconnaissance soldiers go through, a program that was heavily reinforced and expanded after the experiences in Afghanistan. The course is part of the Special Operations Mountain Warfare Center and is run by the US Marines.

Thanks for your comment. We have adapted the end screens.

@@NATO Thank you!

There are addons for some web browsers that block those panels. I've used them for a long time now.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Xz1NgNGo7Wc.html Here is more to see..

Funny cause most tier 1 and other special forces unit are trained in mountain warfare or have a special brigade within the unit for that kind of stuff. None the less, i respect the mountain soldiers

pure respect for the mountain units but special units go thru hell that no other human ever experienced

SEALs are mostly tier 2. Only DEVGRU (which is no longer called ST6 anyway) are Tier 1.

This is why many spezial units from all NATO states are trained by (german) mountain soldiers.

well they have mules to do the heavy lifting so in reality they are mostly hiking in relative safety while the tier one guys often get put behind enemy lines against overwhelming amounts of enemy's its not really comparable

Thanks for sharing this! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Reckless

the polish had a similar experience with a bear ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-twr38iHXYVw.html

@@flacons2110 thank you for this great share!!!

Was it harper?

1) Chinooks were bought in 2013 - after out involvement finished 2) They may be nice for carrying gear, but a heavy lift element is always helpful for medevac and rapid infil/exfil

The Gebirgsjäger troops fought in WW1,WW2,and they defended West Germany during the Cold War.

The war in Afghanistan had taught a lot of NATO countries the importance of using mule's in combat logistics. Most countries in NATO after WWII stopped using mule's because of helicopters and airdrops but since the 2000s many countries are returning to and appreciating the use of these animals once again because they can work in environments that most vehicles including helicopters can enter into. A mule can walk with about 200lbs of gear for hours without taking a break unlike almost all humans

oh sorry, I rushed to make my post, had not realized that compatriots had already mentioned the mule being retired from the Italian army back in the 90s

British did not fight in burma , british indians did

The one and only... except for the featured channels (News, History and language channels) you can find on the top right corner of the channel page.

Yeah, they are taken to shooting ranges for exactly that reason, I think there is a Video about this on the Bundeswehr YT Channel ( in German unfortunatly)

In one where we are smart enough to use the most efficient tools for a task. Sometimes that is working together with mules.

But a mule can go where an ATV cant

True, but an ATV will happily drive into the abyss if you steer it towards it. The mule won't. And also it's ironic to compare an ATV to a mule, the true ATV. :P

ATVs need a wider path than Mules though - and are considerably louder and thus easier to spot

Lessons we have learned from WW2: A mule runs without fuel and if you have to fight to the last bullet and you are out of food you can still eat it.

effective

How so? I mean, "real world war" would probably mean everything getting nuked anyway.

Perhaps not for the next one, but the one after that is a different story. ;)

The Gebirgsjäger used them in WW2 also. And they were one of the most succesful troops.

@al rode *angry finish and russian noise in the distant* But seriously,these are important skills when you are working in such a niche environment. If they are not, why would Gemanic countries still train their mountaineers to use mules and Nordic countries to have ski infantry.

You have no idea how this would go then, look at the terrain in the mountain and they wouldnt be effective? How would you handle logistics cheaper and more effective in there? Animals are alive and they have the survival insticts that your fuel driven death trap dont. When the bullets are smacking against/through your windshield, you'll wish you had a mule