The Second Best Army of World War II

[Mans not hot]

By the way XX, would you have charged a tank on horseback? It is brave, but, unfortunately, a losing proposition.

Well, I would, depending on circumstances.

[Sarmatian]

In terms of organization and equipment Wehrmacht was far ahead of any other army of the world.

In terms of fighting capacity Red Army has proven to be better than Wehrmacht by a small margin.

Anyway should give credit to Poles, for their situation they did far better than allegedly 'more civilized' European countries.

By the way XX, would you have charged a tank on horseback? It is brave, but, unfortunately, a losing proposition.

It's not as crazy as you think. You should realize that a tank is extremely vulnerable to a single infantryman with proper equipment. That is why they always need infantry to cover their asses.

Britain fought the entire war...

Bollocks. For most of the war Britain was hiding on its island.

[Ultra]

No disrespect XX, but the American fighting force was the tops. After that, it is a toss up between the German and Soviet forces. I will lean toward the Germans, over the entire 6 year period of the war.

Best army: Germans, followed by USA, USSR, Japan, UK.

Typical American mentality. The US entered the European theatre already when the Germans were fighting a losing war. The US Army was certainly not top-notch. They were inexperienced and always fought their opponents in vastly superior numbers. On the Western front from D-Day on 6th of June 1944 to the end of the war casualty ratios were around 1 to 1 for the Nazi-Germany forces to the Allied. Now take into consideration the fact that there was literally NO air-support for the Germans. Divisions were also underequipped and severely undermanned, reinforcements were mostly in forms of completely inexperienced and ill-trained men at this stage of the war. Tank support was more of a luxury than anything while the Allied forces always had adequate and surplus tank support. Just look at some of the famous operations and battles on the Western front and compare the casualty ratio. To me it is very obvious who were the superior combatants in terms of effectiveness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_H%C3%BCrtgenwald

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden

Ask any historian who has a good insight on this and they'll agree that the West-Allied forces, especially in this case the Americans, were far from superior to the German. Rather the contrary. The Americans were probably the least experienced and effective out of those five you listed(Germans, followed by USA, USSR, Japan, UK).

lol.

Slavs cheerleading the USSR as if they did anything impressive. "Quantity has a quality of its own" - Joseph Stalin

All they had was an endless supply of free American weapons and expendable Russian men. And even that wasn't enough to beat tiny Finland. About as embarrassing as Italy needing bailing out to beat Greece.

The Winter War was in 1939. Long before the invasion of USSR and lend-lease. Besides, American weapons were inferior and rarely used. American tanks saw no action at all on the Eastern front.

In general, cavalry was phased out after the WW1, mostly being converted to tanks. This followed the experience of WW1, where cavalry didn't show much, except on the Eastern Front. Despite this, cavalry was used on a large scale during the Soviet Revolution, and during the Polish-Soviet war 1920. The Soviets amassed a huge Horse Army under Tukhatchevski, and advanced on the southern part of the front for several hundred kilometers. Poland had cavalry units as well, fast moving units gave a remarkable advantage of mobility.


The last use of cavalry on large scale was during the 1939 Polish-German war. Poles used cavalry as recon units, mounted infantry, and horse artillery. The latter was mostly equipped with the Bofors light cannon, and used against tanks, with success.

After the September campaign, the only unit of Polish Army which remained operational was cavalry, under Mjr Dobrzanski. The unit led a successful guerilla war until April 1940, when it was destroyed in an ambush. The very last use of cavalry would be in 1945, when the Polish Second Army advanced in Pomerania. Germans were defending a well fortified village, and the attempt of taking it with infantry and tanks failed. The ensuing cavalry attack broke German defenses.

Cavalry was still used on a very large scale after 1939 on the Eastern front. Mounted infantry cavalry units were handily used by the Red Army as a means of to expose breakthroughs, move through dense terrain and to be able to keep up with mobile tank divisions. German supply lines but also troop movement was also heavily dependant on horses. Noble cavalry charges were still conducted by the Red Army through desperation but also at a few occasions where the Germans suffered great confusion and was thus used to a great effect.


I think the Germans and Finns were the best fighters in WW2, followed by the USSR and Japan in that order. The British were superior in air to the Germans it seems however.

Edit: In other words Wehrmacht & Waffen-SS >= Finns > Red Army > Japanese Imperial Army > UK/Americans & The Rest.

Bollocks. For most of the war Britain was hiding on its island.

Not to mention that they only dared to declare war on one of the several aggressors in the Invasion of Poland lol.

[Minesweeper]

Wehrmacht at the first half of the war. At the second half, Red army.

[CrystalMaiden]

The silly Polacks

[Anglojew]

you dont know anything about WW2 you just keep repeating the same nonsense and lies by western media

Britain set like a pussy on its island and camped it was the USSR who did all the work, like it was in napoleon war.

You didnt watched the video, it explains how the soviet union experienced later an industrial revolution thanks to population immigration into the ural and central asia thats why russians are there today in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitogorsk#History

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnito...s#World_War_II

the city Magnitogorsk was built because of that even tody it still holds the third lagrest steal producer in russia as russia itself is today the biggest steal producer in europe


american help ?





Magnitogorsk today


every city in the ural expedienced the same like tyumien and Novosibirsk.



and america didnt fought japan alone. Japan was defeated by the soviets as they tried to conquer mongolia and the soviets invaed Manchuria and korea. This was the only time in fact a allied power managed to attack original japanese imperial land and to conquer it. Americans just fought in indonesia and other island which were conquered by japan but were not japanese land in the first place.

It was not a real war but sandbox war with gadchets and technology which were useless in real combat. Maybe japanese were strong in the sea but they were horrible in land wars. Can you name me any japanese tank, i dont know any?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%...ese_War_(1945)

The first problem you have is you're not differentiating between the army itself and the country's industrial capacity but even so Russia suffered a huge series of military defeats and Russia was so bad by 1941 that Britain had to come to her aid including sending "5,000 tanks and 7,000 aircraft were delivered to the Soviets, not to mention 15 million pairs of boots, among the four million tons of vital supplies sent to the Allies." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored...d-War-Two.html

I know some Russians personally and they learnt nothing about the British military campaign during the war. They basically learn soviet style propaganda.

[Arend]

I think the Germans and Finns were the best fighters in WW2, followed by the USSR and Japan in that order. The British were superior in air to the Germans it seems however.

Edit: In other words Wehrmacht & Waffen-SS >= Finns > Red Army > Japanese Imperial Army > UK/Americans & The Rest.

The German Army
The Soviet Army
The Japanese Army
The Finnish Army
The Polish Army
The British Army
The American Army
The French Army
The Italian Army.

Probably more or less like this, although the first three are closer together than the rest. I can’t really see how anyone could actually say that the British or the American Army was the best

[Anglojew]

The German Army
The Soviet Army
The Japanese Army
The Finnish Army
The Polish Army
The British Army
The American Army
The French Army
The Italian Army.

Probably more or less like this, although the first three are closer together than the rest. I can’t really see how anyone could actually say that the British or the American Army was the best

For a start they DEFEATED the two armies you list as the best.

[Arend]

For a start they DEFEATED the two armies you list as the best.

In terms of discipline,organization,tactics,courage and the technical advancement of the military equipment neither the Brits nor the Americans were a match for the Germans, the Japanese or the Soviets. This thread isn’t about who has won the war.

[Grenzland]

Charging tank divisions on horse back took some serious balls You can't say they lacked courage.

No. That's quite logical and the most secure way!

Polish army best army? Nice joke!

That's why they fought so long?

Same with the Greek army. Just the support of the British troops helped them to stand against the Wehrmacht so long.

Red Army was bad equipped but they were many!

Americans were cowards but well equipped.

The best armies were the Wehrmacht + Waffen SS, Brits and Japanese.