Greatest military units of all time

Maybe a current US serviceman can answer this for me. Is it unusual for US soldiers to be trained in calling in artillery and air support?

Because it is a core competency in Australia, everyone needs to know the all corps call for fire process.

Interesting question, Anyone stepping up to answer?

As for what I have experienced the use of FAC,s (Forward Air Controllers) are the norm but I may be off?

In smaller units the standard is that there is ONE expert (read FAC or similar) but everyone have the basics.
 
It wasn't one of the tasks I learned back in the late 80's early 90's. I do know how to call in a medevac and land the bird.
 
no, i havent looked at the vietnam trivia thread, will do when i get a chance
as for the AACFF (All Arms Call For Fire), every person in the Australian Army should have been taught this
When i was a Radio Op, this was one of our more practiced drills
 
Yeah mate, all arms call for fire is still a mandatory part of training.... although it could be covered in a bit more detail. It's a lot easier now with the IFOT system, which is basically WTSS for arty.
 
WTSS, yeah pronounced wets. The weapons training simulation system. And the IFOT stands for Individual forward observer training.... I think.
 
As a e-4 grunt I do know how to call it in and find the coords on a map. Now it being there is an entirely different matter. We are supposed to be getting laser designators so that will make it that much easier. I will go out on a limb here and say that pretty much everyone in combat arms should know this skill.
 
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Some of them at least. The 3 original SS divisions, Leibstandarte SS 'Adolf Hitler', Das Reich and Totenkopf were excellent formations. The later SS divisions formed in 1944 and 1945 were not nearly of the same quality. The best German formation of WW2 however, if going by kill efficiency, is not a Waffen SS formation but a Heer formation. 13. Kompanie, Großdeutschland, had the highest kill ratio of any Tiger battallion of WW2, namely 16.67:1. This compares to the best SS formation kill ratio of 12.82:1. In reality though, the 3 aforementioned Waffen SS Divisions, along with Großdeutschland, had the best German successes at Kursk, and were probably the best fighting formations of any nation in WW2.


When people think of the Waffen SS they think of the great formations not the crappy ones. The classic divisions are something I would class as elite formations but the ones that came out later on where average at best.
 
Maybe a current US serviceman can answer this for me. Is it unusual for US soldiers to be trained in calling in artillery and air support?

Because it is a core competency in Australia, everyone needs to know the all corps call for fire process.

Infantrymen/Cav Scouts are trained in the basics of it, but 13F Fire Support Specialists (assigned at the infantry platoon level) are now becoming Joint Fires Observers trained by the USAF for close air support and is already trained for rotary wing aviation and call for fire arty and mortars...
 
In the two World Wars the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and to date it has won 26 Victoria Crosses – 13 by Gurkhas and 13 by British Officers. This short chronicle is of necessity brief and factual. It cannot adequately portray the spirit and the character of the Gurkha soldier, nor can it reflect the ‘esprit de corps’ and the bond of comradeship and mutual respect which bind together the British and Gurkha officers and men of the Brigade. But perhaps these words written by the late Sir Ralph Turner MC (Professor of Sanskrit at the University of London, Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and some time Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles) in 1931, give a hint of the true feelings of both sides:
"As I write these words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your camp fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you".

In the two World Wars the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and to date it has won 26 Victoria Crosses – 13 by Gurkhas and 13 by British Officers. This short chronicle is of necessity brief and factual. It cannot adequately portray the spirit and the character of the Gurkha soldier, nor can it reflect the ‘esprit de corps’ and the bond of comradeship and mutual respect which bind together the British and Gurkha officers and men of the Brigade. But perhaps these words written by the late Sir Ralph Turner MC (Professor of Sanskrit at the University of London, Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and some time Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles) in 1931, give a hint of the true feelings of both sides:
"As I write these words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your camp fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you".

In the two World Wars the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and to date it has won 26 Victoria Crosses – 13 by Gurkhas and 13 by British Officers. This short chronicle is of necessity brief and factual. It cannot adequately portray the spirit and the character of the Gurkha soldier, nor can it reflect the ‘esprit de corps’ and the bond of comradeship and mutual respect which bind together the British and Gurkha officers and men of the Brigade. But perhaps these words written by the late Sir Ralph Turner MC (Professor of Sanskrit at the University of London, Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and some time Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles) in 1931, give a hint of the true feelings of both sides:
"As I write these words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your camp fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you".
In the two World Wars the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and to date it has won 26 Victoria Crosses – 13 by Gurkhas and 13 by British Officers. This short chronicle is of necessity brief and factual. It cannot adequately portray the spirit and the character of the Gurkha soldier, nor can it reflect the ‘esprit de corps’ and the bond of comradeship and mutual respect which bind together the British and Gurkha officers and men of the Brigade. But perhaps these words written by the late Sir Ralph Turner MC (Professor of Sanskrit at the University of London, Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and some time Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles) in 1931, give a hint of the true feelings of both sides:
"As I write these words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your camp fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you".
AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE BRIGADE OF GURKHAS ...
www.army.mod.uk/brigade_of_gurkhas/history/index.htm
 
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I couldn't agree more.

I reiterate my nomination of The Gurkha Brigade as the greatest fighting unit.
 
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I don't think that either the British or American Bomber crews get the respect that deserve. They went out day and night knowing the chances of completing a tour of duty was very slim. they took out factories, the rail networks, bridges, barracks tanks and ships and with out them would we have seen a victory in 1945
 
I don't think that either the British or American Bomber crews get the respect that deserve. They went out day and night knowing the chances of completing a tour of duty was very slim. they took out factories, the rail networks, bridges, barracks tanks and ships and with out them would we have seen a victory in 1945

the idea might have been to knock out factories, etc., but they just ended up killing kids. No respect is deserved.
 
Ollie we have been there before, of course the Germans always avoided Killing children during the Blitz, and of Course the German army did not Conscript children into it, and course there were never ever any German women acting as SS Guards in the Holocaust Camps
 
Ollie we have been there before, of course the Germans always avoided Killing children during the Blitz, and of Course the German army did not Conscript children into it, and course there were never ever any German women acting as SS Guards in the Holocaust Camps

And the list could go indefinitely.
 
And we would still be only scratching the surface.

An example below of Olliegarchy's high moral ground!

It is a recently published factual eye-witness account of Lutwaffe people bombing early in WW11. It was meant to break the spirit of London - it had the opposite effect.As it happens, it did get me and my home, and seperated me from my family and mum and dad for 5 years, from the age of 5.

Saturday September 7, 1940, 4.14 pm.

Black with death. Black with Bombers, Heinkels, Dorniers and Junkers, - Three hundred and forty-eight.
- Messerschmitt fighters, - Six hundred and seventeen.


Black with a canopy block twenty miles wide. A black block of death covering eight hundred square miles of sky.
.
Bombs fell on London for twelve hours. Bombs fell on London for SEVENTY-SIX nights in a row. Bombs fell on FORTY-THREE THOUSAND CIVILIANSand KILLED them......Bombs fell on more than a MILLION homes and destroyed them. Unremitting slaughter. Incessant attack on lives and property, designed to crush the spirit of the English people. High explosive compression pulling and pushing, sucking out eye-balls, ripping off clothes, tearing out breath .




Command the future, conquer the past.
 
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