Top Military/Armies of history

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The Vietnamese were impressive fighters for one reason, they outworked everyone else.

Spend all night digging tunnels, setting booby traps, and laying ambushes, then spend all day working rice paddies. Try this for a while, all on a poor diet and with poor sanitation. See how long you last.

Physically, they were no match for Americans. Most of them were near-sighted with poor night vision (believe it or not) due to poor nutrition. They had stamina, but were just not big and strong enough to stand up to a typical American, Australian, or Korean hand-to-hand. Their casualties were consistently high relative to Americans, by body count they lost the war.

But they had the one thing that America lost in the conflict. The most important part of any army. The will to win.
 
But they had the one thing that America lost in the conflict. The most important part of any army. The will to win.
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The way I see it, their success in war came primarily from their success in recruiting others to their cause. Jane Fonda and Lyndon Baines Johnson, just to name two.
 
Whence cometh "greatness" ?

"In the 30's and early 40's the Japanese were on a tear across the Pacific, until they awoke the sleeping giant."

Easy to conquer in the near-utter absence of opposition. Hardly the stuff of legend; i.e., ANV, Roman Legions or the DAK.

What organized resistance did the woefully unprepared Chinese and Korean forces offer the Japanese version of blitzkrieg? The Nationalist Chinese spent as much time fighting Mao's Communists as they did the Japanese invaders.

As for our forces in the Pacific, with NO reconnaissance, our planes still lined up in nice, neat, tight rows; ammo locked up so the natives could not get it, and forces still using gear from WWI - well, we know how that worked out........ :banghead:

The IJA and IJN were great on DEFENSE, but faired poorly in head-to-head attacks against an equal force. Battle of the Phillipine Sea, anyone? Midway? Marianas Turkey Shoot? :D
 
5. The British. Since the middle ages the British military tradition has consistently fielded a world-class army, with too many brilliant leaders to name.
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I always thought the Germans pretty much put their finger on the British with the description, "Lions led by donkeys."
 
The US Strategic Air Command from 1948 to 1988. Bar none, the most powerful and effective military force in the history of the world. It had the power to utterly destroy, down to atomic particles, any other military force.
 
I'd say the US military of the 20th-21st centuries... Military tech and strategy is cumulative, not epochal (as in the best old army would likely have its ass handed to it by a mediocre modern force) and the US military has been THE dominant force of the modern era.

The Wehrmacht gets an honorable mention... Faced with overwhelming force, they consistently gave better than they got.


Many of the "great armies" listed here have gotten reputations not for their effectiveness at their particular method of warfare, but for their opponents' inability to cope with a new strategy, such as the Europeans' inability to deal with mounted archers, or the Persians' (and Greeks') inability to deal with Alexander's variations on the phalanx "theme".
 
I know that a lot of people don't like to say it or recognize thier strenth, but I would have to say that Nazi Germany was one of the most powerful, well orginized, and inventive armys ever. When you look at the amount of fronts they faught at one time and considering they gave all the so called superpowers (USA, Russia, Great Brittan....so on) a run for their money at the same time. I mean it took a combined effort from all the superpowers to take them down. Like it or not the truth is that without a combined effort we (USA) or any other single country would not have been able to take them down.

So even though I believe it was horrific what Nazi Germany did and what they stood for, I have to give props where they are due and say that IMHO Nazi Germany was the greatest force to come to power.
 
The Mongols. Mobility combined with terror and deception gave them most of the civilised world. As the "scourge of God," they even kicked butt on the Moslems armies.

Greek Phalanx of Alexander the Great's. Whupped the Spartans when they tried to rebel against Macedonian rule. One of the great early empires.

Late Roman Republic. Good enough to whup everyone including Hannibal. OK, three Legions got whupped by Herman the German but hey, by then it wasn't the Republic but the Empire.

French Army under Napoleon. Terrific until Napoleon's ego got them overstretched in time to be overwhelmed by opponents who finally adapted to modern warfare. By 1813, everyone had modernized their army and the French lost their advantage (that and Napoleon didn't fight geriatric generals anymore).

British Army of 1800-1900s. Yep, they got whupped by the Afghanis, by the Zulus, Boers and even the Dervishers. But like the Romans they came back and even built an empire for Victoria.

US Army. Almost undefeated. Got whupped plenty of times though by their fellow Americans (the Corn-feds). Whupped the Kaiser, Hitler, Japanese.

Israel - modern Sparta. Innovative which gives her an edge but can be defeated. Look at the War of Atonement and how close that was.
 
Recently read the book "Battle". The author points out that Napolean's tactics were not at all revolutionary compared to Alexander's. That the artillery of the time had only a marginal superiority to ancient seige engines (primarily mobility) and that the lethality of the musket was at very short range and Alexander's combined arms tactics would not necessarily have done poorly at closing the firepower gap and causing havoc in shock action.

So, as far as the ancient world?

Alexander's (Philip's) Macedonian combined arms army. Took the shock capability of the West and melded it with the combined arms of Darius' East.

The Romans adapted from him and the now doctrinal concept of "hammer and anvil" envelopment and "center of gravity" strikes can pretty much be laid at his doorstep. Weapons have modified but even today we aren't covering ground at an average pace faster than Alex, than Rome, than Napolean, Patton or Stormin' Norman.
 
Strictly pointing to results, the Mongols.

Napoleon's campaigns, and the armies of Alexander that brought him down the first time (though certain strokes of luck were in play there, they have been for most successfull military forces).

American Revolutionaries. Did very well given what they had vs. what they were up against.

Vietnamese.

20th century US armed forces.
 
Another nomination for the US Military-WWII. As vaunted as the Axis powers were, America took on all 3 at once, and had to sail the oceans to do it. The only continent we did not occupy was the South Pole, and only because the enemy was not there.

Even if the Axis powers had truly united, they had neither the production nor the facilities to do what America did.

In Europe, the 3rd Army gets a lot of well deserved accolades, but in truth, the 1st Army under Courtney Hodges seized more ground, and killed/wounded/captured more enemy.

The Army launched the largest amphibious operation ever seen-D day. The Pacific was no less bold with the Marines/Navy/Army taking islands one after another. Some folks got crap duty in China, Alaska, Greenland-you name it, and Kilroy was there.

It's much easier to name the places America wasn't in that war than where it was, not only in troops and materiel, but in supplying our allies in the process.

No single nation has ever done all of that in the history of the world, and is even more striking by the fact that we were a late commer in the battle-I think our air forces were like #16 in strength at the start of the war. America not only spent a billion dollars to develop the first atomic bombs, but spent 3 billion on the airplane to deliver it. All this and more after coming out of a depression.

Think about training the millions of Americans in the short time in which this happened. Germany, Italy and Japan were all modernizing their forces and training hard while the US forces drove cargo trucks with a sign on the side saying "Tank", and wooden machine guns. The enemy developed a lot of truly impressive battlefield machines, but the one thing they could not build in a factory......Will.

And after all of that, America funded the rebuilding of the world, asking only a small piece of their ground to bury our dead. Who can top that?
 
The mongols. Training, technology (the stirrup anyone) mounted cavalry using the compsite bow, terror tactics, still "the boogyman" evoked across central Asia and southern Russia.

The US Military... from rag-tag citizen soldiers playing guerilla until they could be trained in European tactics, to the most technologically advanced butt kicking machine on earth. The blood of our heroes has kept the tree of liberty well watered.

The British Royal Navy... while the sun nver set on the empire, colonial soldiers were FAR outnumbered by the navy boys keeping the trade routes to the colonies. The Army and its comomnwealth allies, get second billing. No disrespect meant to and Tommy, Anzac, Canadian or Ghurka that served. guts and baynets are in NO short supply in the Army.

The French... while we chide them in the post WW2 era, the French pretty much held their own against every european power until Napolean finally met his waterloo. Wasn't it the French at Dien Bien Phu who left the message... "go tell the Spartans, today we shall do them honor?" And let's NOT forget Cornwallis surrendered to Washington AND the French fleet.

The Romans arguably were the best trained troops ever prior to modern times. The thing is most of them in the end weren't Roman at all.

I'd like to give a shout out to the Vikings, who figured out with their secret miltary texh (longboats) that ANYTHING in Europe was plumb ripe for the taking. They don't call it Normandy after a character in Cheers. hardly 'organized' enough but historically significant.

Wasn't it von Kaluswitz who said something like "I'd like to have 2 armies, one in shiny brass buttons and marching with great pomp, and another in the shadows wearing camoflauge and packing serious firepower and intent."
 
Top military/army in history

First I have to take issue with MrMurphy.

During the Great Boer War of 1899 to 1902, although viewed by the British as a mere rebellious colony, the Boers formed an organized army with leadership and a command structure. Commando was simply a term used in lieu of regiment etc, and although they lacked the manufacture and supply of standardized weapons, equipment and uniforms, they were certainly well organized with cohesion. They employed every modern weapon of the time, from the bayonet and sword to the most powerful artillery.

Their command structure was simple, but it is evident that the actual control and discipline was on average more than adequate - often superb. It was their leadership, organization, strategies, tactics and discipline that made them so successful against the British army of the time. It was eventually largely a matter of sheer numbers and logistic capability that gave the victory to the British - who were taught some very severe lessons during the first half and even later stages of the war.

Incidently, a excellent overall work on this conflict is by Arthur Conan Doyle - a writer more commonly associated with fiction. For those who can not track down the book in hardcopy, there are various online editions such as ...

http://www.online-literature.com/doyle/boer_war/

In addition to the Boer army of 1899 through 1902 others that come to mind are;

The Finns during the war with, and invasion by, the Russians from 1939 to 1940.

The Rhodesians during the 1970s.

The Germans at the outset of WW2, at which time there was probably not a military in the world that could match them. Although this was to change, they did still demonstrate at various times that their ultimate defeat was probably more due to their political leadership than anything else.
 
Not commenting others, there is an angle to what the Finnish Army did during WWII. The Winter War of 1939-40 is without doubt a major tour de force in military history - and the politics of the 1930's that led us to it an invaluable lesson to any country on how not to deal with a superpower...

Towards the end of the war, though, it was only the race to get to Berlin that forced Stalin to pull out significant muscle from the Finnish front. That timing saved our hide.

As to the Lapland War in the fall of 1944, there was not so much of a spirit of "throwing out the Germans" there... it was the Allied (Soviet) in-country Commission that forced our last reserves to even take contact with the retreating Wehrmacht. It all started as a mutually understood game of "you go first, we'll follow at a distance, so long and thanks for the help" but, mostly due to the Soviet threat, escalated into a bitter falling out with a scorched, mine-infested Lapland as the result. That was the price we paid for using the Nazis to our purpose.

A healthy reminder, though: there were only three capital cities of war-going countries in Europe that weren't occupied during WWII. They were London, Moscow and Helsinki.
 
um, where are all the canucks!

Greetings,

well, people may laugh at me for saying this, but the Canadian Army during WWII in Europe pretty much thrashed anyone they came across. Some of the best pilots too. Nothing should be said about the Canadian millitary now, its pretty embarassing.



In Service,
Llywelyn
 
It amazes me what Americans think about the German Wehrmacht. If I, as a German, would make similar claims among Germans, they'd call me a neo-nazi or revisionist.
 
It amazes me what Americans think about the German Wehrmacht. If I, as a German, would make similar claims among Germans, they'd call me a neo-nazi or revisionist.
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Are you disputing the fact that the Wehrmacht was one of the greatest (1:1) fighting forces in history, or are you commenting on your fellow Germans?


I'm not sure based on your post
 
If I can get trounced for saying the Japs, than I can trounce against the Canadians, with one word: Dieppe

Seriously the Canucks have been a big help to us (USA) in many conflicts.

And don't be so quck to put down the Japanese. Lets not forget- the Wehrmacht didn't exactly go through the toughest armies in the world to control Europe, did they? Poland? The Low Countries? France?? France actually possessed a modern, capable army at the time, but didn't have the will. That and they put way too much faith in the stupid Maginot line.
 
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