Greatest Military of All Time?

[Higgins86]

I actually think that the British army in the Empire days and the US military since WW2 are very similar.

- Both have a huge global reach and use its military to put pressure on opponents, British called it “ gun boat diplomacy”.
- Rely on the best technology of the time and superior firepower to keep order and maintain top spot.
- Both struggle with COIN and seem to struggle tactically against insurgency and gorilla tactics. US war of independence obviously highlighted that for the British as did Vietnam and Afghanistan for the US.
- Highly skilled soldiers, Sailors etc. preferred over conscripts. Highly disciplined and feared globally.

 

[Fledermaus]

IMO military of all time. Ghengis Kahn and the Mongols.

In terms of US,the Revolutionary war era.

1. The Mongols.
2. The Golden Horde

 

[Fledermaus]

In terms of the most powerful during the time they existed, world wide.

The Roman empire would be countered by the various Chinese empires of the time

So in terms of being the most powerful during their best period

Mongols. Able to sweep across Northern, Central Asia, China and eastern Europe. Only failing in the woods of central and western Europe. Most dominate military in their time.

The US military in the time between the early 90s and perhaps 8 years ago. Outside of nuclear weapons the US military in that time frame was by a massive amount more powerful than any other military in that time frame. Just the US navy would have had more air power than probably the next 3 military's combined. It is still dominate, but not quite as much, and no not due to Obama, but wasteful spending on the WOT.

Honorable mention

British Empire in the 1800's. Quite a bit stronger than peer competitors, but not as dominate as the Mongols or the US military

Most others had peer competitors that could be nearly as strong in different parts of the world or in the same region.

Each time the stretched to Europe a Khan died requiring them to return to Mongolia to select a new Khan.

 

[PleasantValley]

Who in your opinion had the greatest military of all time, commensurate to what they had to work with at the time ?

I found this topic interesting yesterday while listening to Dan Carlin discuss on his podcast who he thought had the better military, WW1 Germany or WW2 Germany, so I'd thought I'd expand it to all of history. You can use any metrics you want including technology, number of troops, leadership, patriotic will to win, etc... .

And bonus question, which period of American history had the best military? I would assume WW2, but hard to argue with the Revolutionary War with what we were up against....

I would have to say it was Castro's Guerilla army.
They improvised and overcame against great odds against them.
Had great morale, and support from the people.

Please understand, I am only talking pure military here, not anything else.

I can't say anything about the greatest American army.
We always seem to have to relearn lessons we should have learned long ago,
we seem to train to fight the last war instead of the one coming,
and we always seem totally unprepared when it comes.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

Each time the stretched to Europe a Khan died requiring them to return to Mongolia to select a new Khan.

I expect if they had the time, they would have burned the forests to the ground, in order to create pasture land for their horses, and open fields for their style of warfare to be used successfully

 

[Fledermaus]

I expect if they had the time, they would have burned the forests to the ground, in order to create pasture land for their horses, and open fields for their style of warfare to be used successfully

Possibly.

A great book:

The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe

Though its title states 'Mongol Invasion of Europe' it covers so much more of the Mongol rise to power, its greatest power, dissolution, the Golden Horde, etc.

 

[Rexedgar]

Two examples by prior posters included Napolean’s Grand Armee and the Third Reich’s Wehrmacht. Although not a “military,” the Russian winter and hubris defeated these forces. Germany’s error compounded by history only a little over a century earlier.

 

[TurtleDude]

another probably forgotten army of Southern Africa-though much more recent than Shaka's legendary tribal warriors was the Rhodesian Light Infantry. Reviled in many circles since it propped up the Racist UDI government of Ian Smith in the 60s and 70s, their successful defense of that regime led to a casualty ratio that was unbelievable. So while they weren't the Greatest military of all time, given their numbers-one of the most effective ever.

 

[Tom Horn]

What made them better than the rest?

The use of long range archery and it’s evolution on the field of battle using loose formations of verying degrees of offensive thrusts at consentrated military formations.

 

[Abbazorkzog]

Probably the Royal Navy due to shutting down sealanes which led to the British Empire controlling much of the known world. In terms of raw power though, I give it to the industrial megalith of Nazi Germany on the eve of the Invasion of Poland.

 

[Tom Horn]

Probably the Royal Navy due to shutting down sealanes which led to the British Empire controlling much of the known world. In terms of raw power though, I give it to the industrial megalith of Nazi Germany on the eve of the Invasion of Poland.

the Russians laughed at the Germans thinking they were joking when the MKIVD was shown to them as their best production MBT. And I would’ve too.

 

[markjs]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the Blitzkrieg? Had Hitler had any patience, not gone insane, maybe listened to some of his brilliant generals (Rommel comes to mind, Goering, others), and had he not had the auidacity to think they could take on both the vast size of the Russian army and the logistics of Russian winters, not to mention all the resources wasted on the so called "final solution", really scary formiddable power and tactics. To say the Germans bit off more than they could chew would be an understatment, but take us or the Russians out of that equation and who knows how far it could have gone? Even just take out the Russian winter factor. Hitler and his insanity lost them that war as much as the Allies did.

Another rarely mentione Era is cold war America. Had the politcal Will been there in the 50s, McCarthur could have invaded China, wanted to in fact. What a different world that would be huh? McCarthur was a brilliant tactician, and since the big war we've always had the biggest and best tech stuff. We didn't know it (the general public) but the Russians were always way behind, much farther behind than was publicly known. Kruschev though, a very formiddable man. Clearly someone mr Putin has studied and admired.

 

[Cordelier]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the Blitzkrieg? Had Hitler had any patience, not gone insane, maybe listened to some of his brilliant generals (Rommel comes to mind, Goering, others), and had he not had the auidacity to think they could take on both the vast size of the Russian army and the logistics of Russian winters, not to mention all the resources wasted on the so called "final solution", really scary formiddable power and tactics. To say the Germans bit off more than they could chew would be an understatment, but take us or the Russians out of that equation and who knows how far it could have gone? Even just take out the Russian winter factor. Hitler and his insanity lost them that war as much as the Allies did.

Another rarely mentione Era is cold war America. Had the politcal Will been there in the 50s, McCarthur could have invaded China, wanted to in fact. What a different world that would be huh? McCarthur was a brilliant tactician, and since the big war we've always had the biggest and best tech stuff. We didn't know it (the general public) but the Russians were always way behind, much farther behind than was publicly known. Kruschev though, a very formiddable man. Clearly someone mr Putin has studied and admired.

Let me get this straight... you think the Germans bit off more than they could by invading Russia, but you don't think MacArthur's desire to invade China would have been more then he could chew? I would have figured that the whole Chosin Reservoir fiasco would have taken some of the shine away from MacArthur's "tactical brilliance".

 

[OldFatGuy]

Without a doubt, the world's and history's greatest fighting force has been the never defeated trouncers of good King Ozymandias, immortalized in poetry of the day. Hear! Hear!

 

[Sweden]

WWII

Armies: German, British (including Australian Canadian and other Commonwealth), Russian, US, Japanese, French, italian. In that order-

Navies: US, British, Japanese, German, Italian.

Air: US, British, Russian, German-

 

[markjs]

Let me get this straight... you think the Germans bit off more than they could by invading Russia, but you don't think MacArthur's desire to invade China would have been more then he could chew? I would have figured that the whole Chosin Reservoir fiasco would have taken some of the shine away from MacArthur's "tactical brilliance".

OH IDK if he could have done it, but yeah I'm just saying it would have been epic.

 

[Abbazorkzog]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the Blitzkrieg? Had Hitler had any patience, not gone insane, maybe listened to some of his brilliant generals (Rommel comes to mind, Goering, others), and had he not had the auidacity to think they could take on both the vast size of the Russian army and the logistics of Russian winters, not to mention all the resources wasted on the so called "final solution", really scary formiddable power and tactics. To say the Germans bit off more than they could chew would be an understatment, but take us or the Russians out of that equation and who knows how far it could have gone? Even just take out the Russian winter factor. Hitler and his insanity lost them that war as much as the Allies did.

Indeed. People really forget how ineffectual of a leader Hitler was. Not to mention the Russian winter, lack of proper preparations, Hitler's madness and the sheer size of the Red Amy.

Also, just looked and the OP doesn't specify whether s/he means "best well-rounded," "best in technology," "most powerful," or "largest" military, and whether or not the latter of those four or five means "largest in proportion to their total population/landmass and that in proportion to the populaiton of the planet," or "largest in proportion to concurrent or historical" military...

 

[markjs]

Indeed. People really forget how ineffectual of a leader Hitler was. Not to mention the Russian winter, lack of proper preparations, Hitler's madness and the sheer size of the Red Amy.

Also, just looked and the OP doesn't specify whether s/he means "best well-rounded," "best in technology," "most powerful," or "largest" military, and whether or not the latter of those four or five means "largest in proportion to their total population/landmass and that in proportion to the populaiton of the planet," or "largest in proportion to concurrent or historical" military...

Had it not been for hitlers madness and all that final solution stuff, with a bit of patience, they'd have taken all of Europe, and, it's arguable, if Hitler was a better politician, he could have won our backing under some possible scenarios. It's a fascinating idea for a time travel gone wrong book or script.

 

[joko104]

Who in your opinion had the greatest military of all time, commensurate to what they had to work with at the time ?

I found this topic interesting yesterday while listening to Dan Carlin discuss on his podcast who he thought had the better military, WW1 Germany or WW2 Germany, so I'd thought I'd expand it to all of history. You can use any metrics you want including technology, number of troops, leadership, patriotic will to win, etc... .

And bonus question, which period of American history had the best military? I would assume WW2, but hard to argue with the Revolutionary War with what we were up against....

Probably the Mongols by your terms.

 

[joko104]

For the USA it is a toss up between the Revolutionary war and War of 1812.

 

[Jack Hays]

When Confederate General Joe Johnston learned W.T. Sherman's army was making twelve miles per day corduroying their own roads through the Carolina swamps, he declared there had been no such army since Caesar's legions in Gaul.

 

[apdst]

The United States armed forces.

 

[uptower]

There's not really a greatest army of all time, only a greatest of its time.

Those have been as many have pointed out, ancient Macedonians, Persians, Romans, Hittites, Assyrians, Mongols, Normans, Ottomans, the British, Nazi Germany, and now the United States. Many smaller forces have had great success as well (the various Afghan groups for example).

There's little disputing the 'greatest' of our time is the US military, but trying to determine if Caesar's legions were better is comparing apples to oranges, because they're of different times.

 

[Abbazorkzog]

As for the U.S., I'd say it was during the Cold War, before we got rid of our battleships.

 

[Oozlefinch]

Although not likely who many will select, but I am going with the mujahideen and the successors, the Taliban, in Afghanistan. This rag tag (and largely unpaid, volunteer) force has defeated (or at least was not defeated by) the military forces of superpower nations for (4?) decades with some using assistance from NATO allied forces as well.

Honestly, I would not say the Taliban are the "successors" of the Mujahedeen. That title rightfully fell to the Islamic State of Afghanistan, which militarily was led by Ahmad Shah Massoud. He was the leading Mujahedeen commander against the Soviets, and was known as the "Lion of Panjshir". A former commander in the Afghan Army, he joined in the attempted coup against the Soviet puppet Mohammed Khan, and was the main force against the occupation.

He also led the National forces against the Taliban when they first tried to usurp the country. It was his Northern Alliance (composed of over a dozen various factions and organizations) that was the main force opposing them. But the Taliban had the active assistance of Pakistan, while the Northern Alliance only had marginal support from India, and limited assistance ( mostly intelligence) from the United States.

The Lion was the key to holding them together, and his assassination on 9 September 2001 (the day before the attack on the US because of the International Date Line) by Al-Queda operatives for the Taliban led to the US giving them active support and ultimately driving the Taliban out of power and into hiding.

And among the strong supporters of the Northern Alliance was future President Hamid Karzai, and past King Mohammed Zahir Shah.