Warriors of WWII

MightyMacbeth

MightyMacbeth

I am Honor
Ok. Who do you think had the best warriors in ww2?

It could be about their spirit, honor, valor, tech, weaponry, superior air power, etc... any!!
 
Patton was definitely one of the greatest warriors in WWII.The man had a tough attitude,with an audacity to match,but behind all that was a military genius.

Another great warrior of WWII would be Eric Hartmann.A legendary German ace who had a total of 356 victories.The highest record in the war.
 
There were a lot of very brave men from all the Armies during this conflict, and it must be a job to pick out the bravest man or the luckiest man, for with out that luck he would not have survived to tell the story as many of them did.
 
Field Marshal Zhukov,he defended the eastern Russia from the Japanese and lead Soviet forces against the Germans in the west.
 
Now what about Guy Gibbson who won the VC on the Dam Buster Raids. He was killed flying his 183 mission, he had completed 6 full tours of duty before the odds caught up with him, and that was in a time when a flyer was lucky to last ten missions and to complete a tour 30 was a rare thing.
When Guy Gibson started his career in Bomber Command the aircraft he was fling at first were little more than flying coffins they were that out of date.
 
John Frost:
was a British Airborne Officer who commanded the 2nd Parachute Battalion during operation market garden and was responsible for holding on to the North side of the bridge over the Rhine river for 4 days when relief was unable to reach them.
the bridge they held on to was named after him, in honor of his achievements
 
I served with a chap in the Parachute Regiment who was awarded the MM, at Arnhem. His friend was blown apart by a tank that was sitting out in front of their lines, he grabbed a Sten gun and charged the tank he climbed up on it and stuck the barrel of the the Sten gun through an observation slit and emptied the magazine into the tank killing all on board, two other tanks came on the scene so he charged them and did the same thing to each. The whole time he was doing this a Company of German Infantry were blazing away at with all they had including machine guns. After this he ran back to his own lines with out a scratch, it was said if this action had been witnessed by an officer then he would have been recommended for the VC, but it was not so he got the Military Medal instead.
 
Captain Charles Hazlet Upham
Victoria Cross and Bar. (one of only two double winners in history)
Courage and Resource
He was renowned for combining controlled courage with quick-thinking resourcefulness. While most medals for bravery are awarded for a single act, Upham’s first citation was for nine days of skill, leadership and evident heroism. In March 1941, he was a Second Lieutenant in the 20th NZ Battalion in Crete. His display of courage included destroying numerous enemy posts, rescuing a wounded man under fire and penetrating deep behind German lines, killing twenty-two German soldiers on the way to leading out an isolated platoon – all after being blown over by a mortar shell, painfully wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and with a bullet in his foot.

The incident that typified Upham’s deeds was when two German soldiers trapped him alone on the fringes of an olive grove. Upham (on his way to warning other troops that they were being cut off) was watched by his platoon, a helpless distance away on the other side of the clearing, as he was fired on by the German soldiers. With any movement potentially fatal, he feigned dead and with calculated coolness waited for the enemy soldiers to approach. With one arm lame in a sling, he used the crook of a tree to support his rifle and shoot the first assailant, reload with one hand, and shoot the second who was so close as to fall against the barrel of Upham’s rifle.

Gallantry and Determination
Captain Upham's second citation was for his part in the July 1942 attack on Ruweisat Ridge, Egypt, where the New Zealand Division was stranded when promised armoured support never came through. As the Allied forces struggled to hold the line, Upham led his company on what was described as a savage attack on German and Italian strongpoints. Upham himself was responsible for destroying a German tank and several guns and vehicles with hand grenades and, though he was shot through the elbow with a machine gun bullet and had his arm shattered, he went on again to a forward position and brought back some of his men who had become isolated.

copied from http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/upham.html
 
Blixs said:
Field Marshal Zhukov,he defended the eastern Russia from the Japanese and lead Soviet forces against the Germans in the west.
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He was also arrogant, egoistic and cared little for the men he lead. To him they were just pawns to be sacrificed for the greater good of Mother Russia.

I guess you've never heard of Marshals Konev, Vatutin, Chuikov etc? These men were just as equally responsible as Zhukov for leading the massive operations that drove the Germans westward towards Berlin but no-one mentions them.

In my eyes Zhukov and Rommel are the same in one important sense - both have over-inflated reputations and legacies that neither fully deserved.
 
I reckon it is open to discussion and not entirely politically correct, but I think the soldiers of the Waffen SS fit the profile MightyMacbeth drew out. If you look at these men on their mere military achievements in the early stages of the war... that was quite impressive. I have seen footage of an attack on a dug in French tank in '40. The first soldier practically got shot in two pieces and immediatly after that the second got up to attack. He made it a few feet further untill he too got mowed down. The third stormed over the two bodies and blew the tank to pieces with a bundle of grenades.

Their reputation of fierce and fearless fighters was earned in those days, but we all know how the story ends.....
 
LeEnfield said:
I served with a chap in the Parachute Regiment who was awarded the MM, at Arnhem. His friend was blown apart by a tank that was sitting out in front of their lines, he grabbed a Sten gun and charged the tank he climbed up on it and stuck the barrel of the the Sten gun through an observation slit and emptied the magazine into the tank killing all on board, two other tanks came on the scene so he charged them and did the same thing to each. The whole time he was doing this a Company of German Infantry were blazing away at with all they had including machine guns. After this he ran back to his own lines with out a scratch, it was said if this action had been witnessed by an officer then he would have been recommended for the VC, but it was not so he got the Military Medal instead.
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That's amazing. :rambo: Too bad no one witnessed it. :?
 
Ted said:
I reckon it is open to discussion and not entirely politically correct, but I think the soldiers of the Waffen SS fit the profile MightyMacbeth drew out. If you look at these men on their mere military achievements in the early stages of the war... that was quite impressive. I have seen footage of an attack on a dug in French tank in '40. The first soldier practically got shot in two pieces and immediatly after that the second got up to attack. He made it a few feet further untill he too got mowed down. The third stormed over the two bodies and blew the tank to pieces with a bundle of grenades.

Their reputation of fierce and fearless fighters was earned in those days, but we all know how the story ends.....
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If you're talking about the soldiers of the original Waffen SS formations then yes. In 1940 there was only one Waffen SS division, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, in actual operational combat.

Don't get too hung up on the Waffen SS as an elite fighting force. There were regular Heer (Army) divisions that were every bit as good.
 
You're right about that Doppelganger. I do mean to original fighting force who's fighting quality is beyond discussion. Although some of the volunteer brigades weren't so bad either, it was the tenacious, fanatical hord that I had in mind.
 
Any man who landed at Normandy
Any man who Jumped into Normandy.
Any man who fought in Burma.
Any man who landed at Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, New Guinea, Philippines, Okinawa.
Any man who secured Bastogne.
Any man who froze at the Bulge.
Any man at Dieppe.
ETC. ETC. ETC.
 
03USMC said:
Any man who landed at Normandy
Any man who Jumped into Normandy.
Any man who fought in Burma.
Any man who landed at Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, New Guinea, Philippines, Okinawa.
Any man who secured Bastogne.
Any man who froze at the Bulge.
Any man at Dieppe.
ETC. ETC. ETC.
Click to expand...
and add to that list Any man who landed at Tarawa, Anzio, Saipan, Tinian.
 
Blixs said:
Patton was definitely one of the greatest warriors in WWII.The man had a tough attitude,with an audacity to match,but behind all that was a military genius.

Another great warrior of WWII would be Eric Hartmann.A legendary German ace who had a total of 356 victories.The highest record in the war.
Click to expand...

I agree. Gen. Patton is my one of favorite general of WW2.
 
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