The point was to look at the nation's entire military history, rather than look at a few bad years or a few good years.*snip*
The point was to look at the nation's entire military history, rather than look at a few bad years or a few good years.*snip*
The last time a war was fought on British soil was the 1745 Jacobite rebellion. Since that time we have always thought it was polite to go and fight on our opponents territory. Saves them the bother of travelling
My local County regiment can trace its history back to 1689 through various different names and amalgamations. It gained its 1st battle honour in 1704 going on to claim 204 battle honours.
http://www.qlrmuseum.co.uk/
Welcome to AH.com, if you haven't been welcomed yet.Hi, Commander Spangler!
Your poll is interesting, but it´s wording is not so well, exemplified by the Brit- and USwank here. (I have nothing against both nations, but some declarations here make my eyeteeth grow)
It would be better if the question is separated on branches: army, airforce and navy.
My choices would be:
Army: das Heer (Germany, Austria and their antecessors) wins hands down, followed by France, GB, Turkey, USA, Russia, Sweden, Japan
Air Force: Luftwaffe and RAF tied (Germany / GB have the oldest air forces), followed by USAF, Armee d´Air, Russia
Navy: Royal Navy (Honor where it has to be given), followed by USN, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Japan
Not to start a flame war or belittle anyone, but the choices seem rather flawed IMO.
Take America....It only won its war of independence due to foreign support (freedom fries indeed). Then it faced bow and arrow wielding "savages" (wow, what an opponent. Every indigenous people lost out to gun wielding westerners so little glory there). Subsequently, they mucked about for 4 years against each other, came very late into WWI and WWII and picked fights with 3rd world nations such as Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. With rather patchy records regarding actual success, I might add. They're still in those last 2 countries and will be for a long time.
A powerhouse of military excellence and tradition??? I think not.
The Israeli's??? Just whom have they beaten??? The Egyptians? The Jordanians? The Syrians? Unarmed Palestinian civilians? I am sure the Israeli army is a well trained, well equipped, professional force but beating their rather lacklustre neighbours hardly qualifies them for greatness in my book.
England? They had an excellent army under Wellington and a joke under Raglan. So which tradition do you want to honour? During WWI, they were consistently inferior to the Germans and repeated that performance during WWII. If not for copious amounts of Commonwealth assistance, let alone American aid, they would still be stuck on their island glaring at Nazi-dominated Europe.
Simply put, for all these super duper warrior nations, one can find a very different view on their supposed superiority.
I too am kind of suprised China only has 2 votes. They didn't do half bad in the last poll...Come on...we wrote The Art of War, and we've only got two votes?![]()