"Who Had The Best Forces In WWII" Topic

Just to get it rolling I'll start. Air Force: Bombers US/UK tie; Fighters US; Support Germans. Navy: Carriers US; Surface US; Submarines US/Germany tie. Army: Infantry Germans; Armored German/US tie; Artillery US. OK have at it! Cheers!

United States

Special forces – UK

Infantry – Australia

Snipers – Finland

Brazil all round, or maybe Switzerland.

Air Force: Australia
Navy: Canada
Army: Siam

USSR

It would be more interesting if people showed their working.

Best hot beverage is definitely the British! :-)

Cutest tank is a tie between the Italian L6 and the Japanese type 94!

Most interesting collection of roadwheels, the Germans.

Sir, sir, they're not taking this war seriously!

Germans definitely had the best uniforms and helmets

US for best chow.

The US. They were the ones that either kicked, or saved the butts of everyone else involved. Apples, apples, apples!

The allies. They won.

The United States Marine Corps.

Anything Russian … they had a lot of everything and used them to their advantage. Even if it did cost them some high losses. Which they were willing to accept, it appears.

Of course in all categories IMO, it depends on the year(s). E.g. '39-'41 the Germans overall. Even if the UK & France had "better" and more tanks/AFVs in e.g. '40. But the Germans knew how to use what they had, much better than anyone else at that time, i.e. Blitzkrieg …

USSR – "quantity has a quality all of its own"

Infantry – U S Marines, followed by Japanese who did more w/ less support.
Armor – Russians mass does have value
Artillery – US time on target, volume, control
Bombers- US steadily increased numbers & had B29 at the end
Air Superiority Fighters – US
Ground Attack fighters – Russian & Brits with dedicated types
Submarines- Germans & US

And of course the most important of all:
LOGISTICS- US and only the US

Best Atomic Bombs – US

Best navy -- Switzerland (never lost a battle or a ship)

Infantry-British
Armour-British
Artillery-British
Bombers-British
Air superiority fighters-British
Ground attack fighters-British
Submarines-British
All boats-British
Bicycles-British
Skateboards-British
Spacecraft-British

And of course the most important of all:
Alarm clocks- British, you Yanks were 2 years late. Ba-doom-tish, I thank you, I'm here all night:-)

This ridiculous question has been asked loads of times, it just ends in DHing and people ranting about how great their country was. None of it is quantifiable.

It would be useful to know the criteria for 'best'.

Dupuy calculated it a divisional level based on relative loss ratios and advance rates adjusted by terrain, weather, numbers, equipment etc. In order:

German 1.2
US/UK 1.0
USSR 0.5-0.8 depending on period.

with quite large variations around the mean.

Other criteria might be number of divisions:

USSR
Germany
China
US
UK

Or best uniforms

Germany
UK
Italy
USSR
US
Japan

Or perhaps ground gained per million dollars spent:

Japan
Germany
USSR
UK
US

or maybe size of national economy still standing in 1945

US
UK
USSR
Italy
Germany
Japan

Oh can have all sorts of fun with this one! Some examples:

Spiffy uniforms: Got to go with the Germans
Rations practical: US here, SPAM the food that keeps on giving
Rations quality: Sorry but going with the Italians here
Best use of an accordion: No contest, Russians all the way
Best mustaches: No question, the Brits all the way

Sure we can think of others :)

Army, probably the Germans until late '44
Air superiority fighter, probably the Mustang, once it had a Rolls-Royce engine.
Navy, the Japanese in 1941-2.
Submarines,and MTB's, German all the way.
Infantry, the Australians,Canadians and Poles.
Logistics, USA.
Bombers, the USA.

In finer detail:
Infantry rifle- US M1
Best SMG- MP40
Best LMG- MG42
Best hand held AT weapon- Panzerfaust.

Best shipyards: US
Best Fleetsss: US
Best foundries: US
Best arsenals: US
Best rifle: US
Best aircraft factories: US
Best Air Forces: US

OK I'll split;
Best tank factories US/USSR
Best intel: US/UK (can't separate that special relationship)
Best General: US (Marshall)
Best Field Marshall: USSR (Zhukov)

But;
Best GDP: US
Best finish: US
These two are what counts.

Good grief, some people are taking this seriously! I don't usually agree with foxweasel, but on this topic I do.

Weirdest tank of WW2 has got to be a win for New Zealand with the Bob Semple!

Stiffest upper lips?

Best looking aircraft the Brits with the Spitfire. A thing of beauty.

Best use of a T26:

Finns using them to defeat T34

Best air identification markings on ships: Italians
Best national anthem: Russians (or Italians…)
Best music: Americans
Best moustaches:I agree with Marc33594 – Brits
Best beards: Brits – RN and LRDPG
Best at standing alone when almost the whole of Europe has been overrun: Brits (and, of course, the Poles, French, Norwegians, Dutch, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis, Jamaicans (yes, really), Czechs, Indians (blooming good soldiers), etc, who were here

But it's all a bit nuanced, isn't it?

British Spitfires did go into space to take out the Dalek mothership …. and whilst Daleks can serve tea, they can't grow a moustache

Obviously Sweden and Switzerland as they never had to fight and spent the entire war making money off both sides.

'Best' corrupt establishment, costing lives and extending the conflict: USN Bureau of Ordnance, with the Mk14 and Mk15 torpedoes.

Best soundtrack – Rolls Royce Merlin

Best Nose art – US

Best improbable achievement – a biplane crippling possibly the best battleship but open to improvements on that.

Force of will?, force of reason?, force of gravity?.

Not sure so I'll go with the best farce: Chaplin with the Great Dictator. Best farce of ww2.

foxweasel … I think your evaluation is a bit biased …

Timmo uk +1

Reminds of the sketch… ‘Sir, are we the baddies?'

Yeah, agree with Timmo UK on his set.

If you haven't heard a Merlin in Full Cry, you need to find someplace to hear it (I recommend the Reno Air Races). Glorious does not *begin* to describe it!

If you haven't seen this Spitfire fly over it is worth a few seconds of your time. Warning: Some strong language.

YouTube link

I have to go to Biggin Hill airport fairly regularly at work. There is a company based there that has a Spitfire adapted into a two-seater. You can buy a twenty minute pleasure flight for a bargain £2,500.00 GBP or thereabouts!

Anyway, I've been fortunate to see it flying over several times. One time I was by the industrial units round the back of the field and the Spit was taxiing round and then took off right in front of us. The noise when he opened the throttle and gave it the beans was stunning!

I was lucky enough to have a two-seater P51D Mustang at the airport where I was getting my aircraft mechanic's training. Guy only wanted some $300 USD for a half-hour's flying (IIRC, it's been 20 years), basically just enough to cover fuel. Sadly, I never had enough spare cash for a ride.

One day, we hear the owner call the tower for takeoff clearance and requested permission for a low pass when he got back from the practice area. (Such things are normally not allowed, but the Pocatello airport is very low-traffic) Tower's reply was, "Call us on your way back."

Everyone in the shop starts keeping an ear open for when he's coming back, and when he does we all stop work and go outside.

He's high above the pattern and fast already, then he tips the wing down and does a diving 180 turn to roar down the runway at 425knots, maybe 50 feet above ground. Loud, but oh, wow, that was glorious sound!

Then he pulls up into a big climb to shed speed and comes back around for a normal landing approach. That big Merlin was popping and snapping like the world's biggest string of firecrackers when she was at idle.

That big Merlin was popping and snapping like the world's biggest string of firecrackers when she was at idle.

The Merlin was a dirty engine. The Pilot's Handbook instructed after each one hour of operating at cruising throttle to open the throttle to full power to blow out the accumulated carbon. At night this resulted in a shower of sparks.

The most hostile attack was definitely that of Croft, Garner, Holding and Roberts. Much faster than any P-51 and with greater firepower.

Lol…true ,that one will go over US heads at about 30,000 feet, and slightly less fast than the originals

Best at boiling water – New Zealand

link

NZ – best attack – Lomu, J Wilson & Cullen, circa 1996.

The Merlin was a dirty engine. The Pilot's Handbook instructed after each one hour of operating at cruising throttle to open the throttle to full power to blow out the accumulated carbon. At night this resulted in a shower of sparks.

Comes from running very rich, but you'd be terrified of blowing the heads off in detonation if you really leaned out the mixture enough to avoid that. Merlins run at 55" manifold pressure (and 61" at War Emergency Power), that's about 12psi of boost for the car guys. The crazy fools who *race* Merlins run them at over 140" manifold pressure, which means about 2.5x the horsepower of a factory Merlin.

Similar fear among the P38 pilots in the Pacific, until Rickenbacker himself came over to fly with them, throttled down to 1600rpm (normally turning ~2200), which means really pulling the prop control back (more forward travel per revolution, though) and driving internal pressures way up.