German combat troops return to France

For the first time since the Second World War, German combat troops are being stationed in France, part of an effort to show the two powers have buried former hatreds.

The two countries' defence ministers attended a ceremony yesterday as the German 291st Fighter Squadron was installed at a base near Strasbourg.

The battalion is part of the 6,000-strong French-German brigade, which was created in 1989. But until this year German combat troops had never been stationed in France, though French ones had been posted in Germany.