When it was suggested to Stalin that the Pope didn’t appreciate him persecuting Catholics in the Soviet Union, he scoffed: “The Pope? How many divisions does he have?”
As many as the number of tanks His Holiness has at his command: none. As this map shows, the Vatican is in a league with a small number of other European states in a similar situation.
The Zero Tank Club also includes the three Baltic states, Belgium and Luxembourg, Ireland and Iceland, Cyprus and Malta, and Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo. And of course the other ministates, such as San Marino, Monaco, Liechtenstein and Andorra. Where would they park them, anyway?
- Ten European countries have less than 100 tanks – North Macedonia and Moldova each have just 10.
- Most countries have between 100 and 500. France (406) has nearly double the number of the UK (227), but still fewer than Romania (451).
- Only two countries fall into the next category up: Belarus, with 601 tanks; and Poland, with 863.
- Just three countries have four-digit tank numbers: Greece (1,243), Ukraine (2,596) and Turkey (3,022).
- Russia on its own has slightly more tanks than the rest of Europe combined: 12,420.
It should be noted that a lot of hardware is being destroyed in the current war in Ukraine, so the current tally for both Russia and Ukraine is probably significantly below the figures cited here.
Image via Simon Kuestenmacher,
https://twitter.com/simongerman600
from MapPorn:
https://www.reddit.com/.../how_many_tanks_are_in_service...
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