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Subject: Most feared modern army
smudge    4/18/2004 10:46:27 AM
What army would be the most feared not in terms of size and equipment but in terms of tactics,history, and over all profesionalism? the mongol army israel defence force
 
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Hasan ibn Sabbah       11/13/2007 11:51:29 AM
NVA/Vietcong
Spartans
MACV-SOG(not an army but pound for pound the best fighting unit in the Vietnam war)

 
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BasinBictory       11/16/2007 12:59:08 PM
Feared in what way?
 
A highly professional army like the current US Army and British Army are certainly capable of inflicting a thorough defeat on another modern-day army, like we saw in 1991 and again in 2003, but Americans and British soldiers are not known for committing widespread atrocities, which I think is far more fearsome than simply winning on the battlefield. An army which is known not just for winning battles, but for massacring everyone in sight after the battle is an unholy force of nature which instills a fear like no other. In that regard, ancient armies have this over any modern day (post Napoleon) army. The Mongols, Assyrians, Huns all had no compunction at killing every man, woman, child, dog, horse and cat in their path.
 
As far as modern armies go, The Wehrmacht of 1939-1942 would be up there, and the Red Army of 1944-45 as well. I think the Japanese Army in WW2 was like that as well, but they had only limited success against the US forces from Guadalcanal on.
 
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jrdodge       11/9/2010 1:20:23 PM
I would have to say the Canadians during the first world war. The Germans were frightfully scared of being on the same lines as the canadian troops. "THE CANADIANS WERE MARKED OUT AS STORM TROOPS; FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WAR THEY WERE BROUGHT IN TO HEAD THE ASSAULT IN ONE GREAT BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. WHENEVER THE GERMANS FOUND THE CANADIAN CORPS COMING INTO THE LINE THEY PREPARED FOR THE WORST."
--BRITISH PRIME MINISTER LLOYD GEORGE, AFTER THE CAPTURE OF VIMY RIDGE


 
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jrdodge       11/9/2010 1:23:29 PM

"THE CANADIANS WERE MARKED OUT AS STORM TROOPS; FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WAR THEY WERE BROUGHT IN TO HEAD THE ASSAULT IN ONE GREAT BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. WHENEVER THE GERMANS FOUND THE CANADIAN CORPS COMING INTO THE LINE THEY PREPARED FOR THE WORST."

--BRITISH PRIME MINISTER LLOYD GEORGE, AFTER THE CAPTURE OF VIMY RIDGE


 
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Patton       11/22/2010 12:19:05 PM

What army would be the most feared not in terms of size and equipment but in terms of tactics,history, and over all profesionalism?

the mongol army
israel defence force


When you say MODERN, I'm going to assume that you mean in the current time frame of 2010. The PLA of Commie China is feared due to its numerical superiority, but you said in terms of TACTICS and PROFESSIONALISM.  That would no doubt have to be the U.S. Army.  Why ???  Because we have taken Sun Tzu and Clauswitz and done with those writings what the Chinese and Germans have not been able to do.  For example... in his book Vom Krieg, Clauswitz writes of the "institutionalization of military excellence."  The U.S. Army INSTITUTIONALIZED this EXCELLENCE with a school  system that is second-to-none in the world.  We have the smartest and the most intelligent warriors on the battlefield.  The tactics of Netcentric and Effects based Warfare are still evolving and no other army can match them. This is why even North Korea, if they made the mistake of fighting us, would not last conventionally.  They would degenerate the conflict to a state of guerrilla warfare.  This is the only way anyone can fight the U. S. effectively anymore outside of nuclear warfare.
 
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Machiavelli       11/29/2010 8:39:48 AM
Hello guys,
 
I am new here, nice to meet all of you. This was a really long tread, with a high risk of repeating some one now.
 my interpretation of the word "modern army" I view it as WWII, post-WWII, the cold war, post-the cold war.
 
During the WWII, I would say the German or perhaps the Finns, in the early stage of the war. The US forces in the Pacific were really good with a hard enemy. Post WWII, IDF, they were in deep S**t sometimes and solved it. post cold war and I include the event after 9/11 here. The US Armed Forces. Other countries might have good parts, but the US has it all over the surface.
 
ps English is not my native language
 
take care
 
M
 
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HeavyD       11/29/2010 2:25:37 PM

Clearly North Korea, because they are so damned unpredictable.  They can't win a war but they can kill alot of civilians.

 

 
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GeorgeSPatton    Most FEARED Modern Army   12/11/2010 6:55:50 PM
As far as the most feared army in modern times goes, I would have to go with the Red Army. No other military force in history has been the cause of as much military spending for their opponents. The sheer amount of destructive capability that NATO was able to muster from 1948 to 1989 as a safeguard against the Soviets is unmatched by anything seen before in history. The fact that the West devoted so much of their time and resources to developing new and better ways to kill the enemy is the best hard evidence you can find as to how much one faction was feared by another.

Even during World War 2, the Germans devoted a massive amount of their resources and manpower to try and stop the Soviets. Massive swarms of T-34s were the direct reason for the development of Germany's famed (and enormously expensive) heavy tanks such as the Tiger. In addition, as has been pointed out by others here, they did prefer not to surrender to the Soviets at the end of the war and instead attempted to flee West to American and British lines.
 
The reason I do not believe that "armies" like the NVA or VC make this list is that they were not feared so much as they were effective at what they did (same for the Chechens or Mujahideen). The Coalition (US, ROK, ARVN, etc.) forces in Vietnam routinely defeated them in direct combat, yet they took advantage of situations such as the anti-war political climate in the US to eventually achieve a strategic victory. Tatically, however, their victories were few and far between. Ironically, their biggest tactical losses (Khe Sahn, Tet Offensive) were some of their biggest strategic victories. While their victories vs France, the US, and China do make them an effective big-picture force, they do not make them a feared one as far as modern armies are concerned, at least not on the scale of the Soviets or the US, both of whom had (and have) the capability to destroy all life on the planet within 33 minutes.
As an example, individual Chinese soldiers may have feared them while fighting them in their territory, but during ths conflict the Chinese people were never afraid of a Vietnamese invasion. On the other hand, in 1969 they could genuinely be afraid of Soviet nuclear strikes destroying their country.
 
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