It may be political but Rommel had different opinions about Italian tankers. He said several times that Italian tankers are very good but their tanks were worthless.

Hi everyone. Im new to the board. Anyways, I belive that the Afrika Korps or the Waffen-SS are the most feared fighting force in modern warfare. The Waffen-SS for the obvious, genocidal acts and the elite fighting force that it was. The Afrika Korps and Rommel arguably is the greatest fighting force of all time. Rommel heavly influence, along with other World War II generals, modern Western tactics. Not to mention the genius of Rommel's military mind which is in the league of Hannibal and Alexander the Great. His ability in war is was only superceded by his compassion and mercy to the enemy and friend alike.

The most feared modern army has to be the Indians or the Chines- Vietnam maybe, If you put in air force etc then it has to be the US, but on the ground face to face ????

Mongols definatly are not modern. Modern Warfare's began in World War II. Rommel is, as everyone knows, WWI/WWII. I took from the previous messages, that we are talking about the era of Modern Mechanized Warfare. Veitnam indeed defeat the US (with help from politicians) and the French army (wow, theres a huge oxymoran). However, as we saw in Laos, the 200 some odd CIA agents(with a couple thousand Mong) held up tens of thousands NVC. I personally belive that Veitnam cannot fight anymore, not even a geurrila (sorry for the spelling) war on the scale of Veitnam War was. Their economy and support has been shrinking. I did a report on Veitnam for French class and I found the 1,756 Dong (currency)equals 1 American Dollar. They still are using Veitnam War weapons. Also being afraid of an army doesnt always equate to skill in combat. I would fear a Turk or Indian Soldier, but it doesnt mean they would be able to win. I dont fear a Canadian soldier, but they could defeat most other soldiers.

I would have to go with Tzahal. It's kind of hard to ignore a force that single handedly, and without any foreign aid, defeated five Arab armies in less than a year (1948-49). Then they launched a campaign in the Sinai in '56 and achieved their objective in 100 hours, this time with foreign, and particularly American hinderance. They did recieve reluctant support from the British and French though. Then in 1967 they launched a pre-emptive strike on the air forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, destroying 90% of their air force and winning the war in six days, once again with no foreign aid. And once again, war broke out in 1973, this time with Egypt, Jordan, and Syria attacking first. Dispite faulty intelligence (the CIA heard the news and didn't tell them) and belated American airlifts of fuel and ammunition, and being vastly outnumbered, Tzahal still came out on top in one month. And most recently is the Lebanese conflict (1980-2000) with the Iranian-funded Hizbollah, a conflict comparable to the French and American wars in Vietnam. Although they pulled out, Israeli forces did achieve an excellent kill ratio, which as i recall was significantly better than the 2:1 kill rate American forces achieved in Vietnam. Tzahal was born in war, grew up in war, yet will not die. AM YIZHROEL KHAI!

Agreed. The IDF is a well feared and awsome military. However, it really lacks the numbers and sphere of infulence to make the top 5 most feared. Also they primarly fight on their soil or turff like so. Indeed they did do a strike on Uganda, but they lack the mobility and numbers to make a impact as the Red Army or the Waffen-SS has. Also to their benefit, they havent really comitted any war crimes that would add to the image.

Smudge was asking about the most feared pound-for-pound, he said the size didn't matter. And although they haven't really committed any "war crimes", they are known for their brutal interrogations of captured terrorists. But I suppose that since their main enemies actually WANT to be tortured and killed that this wouldn't put them very high on the fear factor, and the only potential enemies of theirs who fear them are the Europeans and Saudis.

I would say Germans in WWII up to the end they were still fighting after all hope. History Channel I forgot the show cover this.

I've seen that show too, very good. However once the Reds started smashing town after town and the Anglo-American forces crossed the Rhine, many German units ran away to the West. Actually, a teacher of mine, his father was a POW in a Stalag just east of Berlin. His guards and fellow POWs went running to the Anglo-American forces. Along the way, then ran into other German units looking to surrender to us. Mostly it was the Waffen-SS and Hitler's other brownshirts that stood their ground because they knew they would be killed no matter what. Also they needed to slow down the enemy to save their commanders, if you look at that, it was kinda noble, dispite they all needed a round in the back of their skull.

The Russians were outnumbered at Moscow and they won. At Leningrad troops would line up at the SMG factories, equipping themselves with guns that were still hot from machining, and they still won. At Stalingrad (my great aunt was there) the Nazis completely dominated the skies, and the Russians still won, with many Russian soldiers having no weapons. I've even heard tales of Russian units holding off Nazi offensives with no ammo, just knives, table legs, and sometimes molotov tails. However I don't think he meant the most feared army of 60 years ago, let's get more contemporary here please.