Quite rightly we have said a lot on this forum about the sacrifices and courage of British troops in Afghanistan. It is well known that an even larger contingent of US Troops are there, with more to follow, in the front line with our chaps. The Dutch and Canadians are also known to be in the front line with the Canucks taking a higher percentage of casualties than anyone.
Hard words have also rightly been said about the German and French contributions where they are generally kept out of the main front line and in the safer areas of the 'Ghan and are resistant to sending in more troops to help ours. That said their lads and lasses have taken losses and are individually no less worthy despite what we think of their Governments.
But there are two nations who proportional to their populations are making the biggest contribution to the operations in Helmsland alongside British and US troops.
Denmark has around 750 troops there, mostly infantry but also providing vital medical support and have taken around 30 casualties.
Estonia has about 160 troops there under British command, again infantry doing a superb job.
At Christmas time lets salute these so far unsung heroes fighting alongside our boys and girls.
What is more lets all make sure we give a thought to all the allied troops deployed to Afghanistan and their families at this Christmas time.
Lord Astor of Hever has written about our unsung allies and you can go to this link to see more information about what these allies are doing.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2009/12/lord-astor-of-hever-our-brave-and-insipring-danish-and-estonian-allies-are-the-unsung-heroes-of-helm.html