The German army is facing a half billion euro bill for its role in the migrant crisis due to its missions rescuing migrants off the coast, housing them and watching the borders. The German army or Bundeswehr has spent 428 million euros on its various missions relating to migrants over the past year. The close to half a billion euro sum marks the largest and most costly mission within German borders the force has ever undertaken. Much of the money has been spent on providing shelter and food for the over 1.2 million migrants who have come to Germany over the past year and the costs show no signs of slowing down reports Zeit Online. According to the German ministry of Defence almost half the cost was incurred during the final four to five months of 2015 when the migrant crisis numbers were at their highest. The report, which was given at the request of German paper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, showed that at the peak of the crisis more than 9,000 soldiers were allocated directly toward helping migrants, though the number had dropped down to 900 along with civilian employees. Many of the soldiers were used as extensions of the overburdened Federal Migration