"The egyptians were LIGHT cavalry. Seing one of their chariots from a pharaohs grave illustrates the point. No other has been preserved as it is so flimsy" true, but changes nothing - the egyptian chariots en mass were the most feard force of the time and place. mostly due to training - the egyptians, unlike other countries at the time maintained a profesional army. their chariots worked as a single fighting force, not a collection of individual heroes. BTW, I'm not norwegian. nowhere near there.

Egyptians: Until they met the hitttites, that really knew something about heavy cavalry at the battle at Kadash. Sorry You are not Norwegean; we do miss them so in our Navy. As any Norwegean will understand - they pity the rest of the world for not being of that privileged nationality.

Don't count the mighty El Salvadorians out: http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040503-115511-7092r.htm

One consideration here is to distinguish between armies and non-coms. Who can forget the image of 1956 – Romanian’s fighting Soviet tanks with rocks. While bravado may have taken over there, did anyone see the Romanian armed forces throwing their cards into the frey? I think that while a sufficiently charged non-com may take on a truly fierce enemy, the pros may not. Another thought is that of the potential enemy. Does it make any sense to talk about how much the US fears the Israeli forces? If there is no chance that they will ever fight, what’s the point? With that in mind, here’s my list: 1) Israel – motivated by an enemy that wants not to win but utterly destroy, backed by the legend that was made in ’67 and ’73. Is there a middle-eastern country that wouldn’t shake with fear at the prospect of open engagement with the Star of David? 2) United States – Sure, Iraq isn’t going well. But how long did Saddam last? There isn’t an army in existence that can stand toe-to-toe with them. Guerilla warfare is another story, but it always has been – always will be. Any troop told that he’s to face a standard-issue US troop in the morning would spend the night praying. 3) Soviet Union – back in the day, fresh off a self-inflicted scorched Earth policy and a turn-around that had German forces dreaming of surrendering to the US, who could help but fear an army that would stop at nothing. Think of bomb shelters hastily made during the Cuban missile crisis; McCarthy; “Red Dawn”; and others… 4) I don’t know about the Canadians, but in a thread long ago about the potential invasion of Canada by a hostile force made me think I wouldn’t want a part of it. They took a beach on D-Day. Others in this thread have spoken highly of them. In short, I don’t have a good reason why, but I wouldn’t want a motivated Canadian Military after my ass.

on DDay of all the troops who stormed ashore only two companies managed to reach their objectives. only one of those managed to keep the objective. both were canadian companies. the tankers lost their infantry and had to yield the objective to german infantry. the infantry company managed to hang onto theirs in the face of stiff german counterattacks. One company of canadians lost every officer and 85% of the men yet continued to attack the germans trying to reach their objective.

Like I said, I don't have the knowledge on Canadian military history to put them on my list. But unless your offerings are disputed, they are the exact type of comment that I referred too as being the basis for putting them on my list. It’s way too easy to ignore Canada as a force to be reckoned with, but everything I have heard of them when the hits the fan is that it is better to be on their side than the other. Harsh terrain makes for hardy warriors, add to that the pull of heart and technical ability and you have all the makings of a world-class infantryman. I guess I could say the same about New Zealand, easy to overlook till you meat the sharp end of the stick. Easy to forget them in light of their neighbors, but you may not want to stir them up. referred too

Historically it has been bad news of the first order to discover canucks, anzacs or south africans have moved into the lines in across from you. not as bad as hearing ghurkas moved in probably hehe.

I presume people who say the Wermacht are talking WWII, right? I would agree with that, but then I would prefer an exact definition of "modern". The 2004 Wermacht is not considered formidable, is it?

Wermacht was not considered formidable at 1932. Not even as formidable as Polish Army.

To me it most be the Waffen-SS, they have to rank as the most feared army. The level of training and level of indoctrination. What they could do with limited ressources it's amazing. Heavy cavalry, I'ld go for the Knights Templars or any of the Christian orders in the Holy land. Saladin was so afraid of them that he would execute the lot of them if he had the opportunity. In recent modern terms i would opt for the US Air Force.