Greatest Army....

Discussion in 'History' started by autophobe2e, Aug 20, 2015.

  1. WOLF ANGEL

    WOLF ANGEL Senior Member - A Fool on the Hill Lifetime Supporter

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    There is of course a case for an Army without, conventional weapons - one which can manipulate peoples ideology, control the press/media and all forms of communication, instigate troubles afield which allows strategic gain though influence and not direct action which makes their country/state or a.n. other body of shadow order - near always victorious - but never seen
    (not that I'm too much of a conspiracy theorist) :)
     
  2. Emanresu

    Emanresu Member

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    The question is difficult to answer because military history is a complicated subject and the question is vague. For example in common parlance the word "army" very often means "the entire armed forces of a nation" whereas in military parlance a single army is typically a subset of the entire armed forces. The complexity of this greatly increases when talking about different cultures over large time spans. In a modern system you might have an army group comprising 2 or more armies, each comprising 2 or more corps, each comprising 2 or more divisions etc. Compare this to the American Civil war where a group of 10 - 20 thousand troops was sometimes called an army.

    Then of course there is the issue of whether the skill of the commander should be taken into account. There are of course many cases throughout history where an amazing army performed abysmally due to poor leadership, and other cases where poorly trained and equipped armies defeated much stronger armies.

    That being said, 2nd SS Panzer Corps (or Korps) is rightly considered one of the most effective killing machines in the history of the world. There are well documented cases of a single regiment from 2nd SS Panzer Corps stopping an entire Russian army (and this was late 1943 by which time the Russians were worlds above their 1941 counterparts). It is too bad that all of their bravery was spent in the name of some of the worst evil the world has ever known.

    The French armies around the time of Napoleon Bonaparte are also rightly heralded as some of the best fighting forces the world has known, and not just because Napoleon won some impressive victories with those armies. The French army of that time was highly innovative. They were the first to extensively utilize dedicated light infantry units, they beat the Germans to the Blitzkrieg punch by about 140 years, and they were much more professionally organized than their counterparts. For example the French had a well defined military structure which incorporated regiments into dedicated divisions. Other armies at the time would form adhoc formations from various regiments but these lacked the dedicated staff and close-knit training that the French units enjoyed. (Side note: Napoleon Bonaparte is often heralded as a great commander for all the wrong reasons. Read any reasonably detailed account of his military command and you will see that he made dire mistakes constantly. The reason that he was able to win so often is that he had the audacity to issue decisive orders when his opponents were paralyzed with fear that they would make the wrong decision. And let's not forget his astoundingly talented subordinates such as Nicholas Davout (or Davoust), the so called Iron Marshal.)
     
  3. themnax

    themnax Senior Member

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    the salvation army (lol)
    the 'bonus' army (veterans protest)
    the hoovervills (occupy of a former era)
    every peaceful union movement.
    mother jones
    the wobblies (i.w.w.)
    ghandi's salt march
     
  4. autophobe2e

    autophobe2e Senior Member

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    The origins of the salvation army were actually kinda badass, they used to have pitched battles with the skeleton armies of London:

    The earliest reference to an organised opposition to The Salvation Army was in August 1880 in Whitechapel, when 'The Unconverted Salvation Army' was founded with its flag and motto of "Be just and fear not."
    In 1881 Skeleton Armies were raised in Whitechapel, Exeter and Weston-super-Mare, and the name was quickly taken up elsewhere as other groups were formed in the south of England; there are no records of Skeleton Armies north of London. Membership was predominantly lower to middle working-class.[1]
    The "Skeletons" recognised each other by various insignia used to distinguish themselves.[2] Skeletons used banners with skulls and crossbones; sometimes there were two coffins and a statement like, "Blood and Thunder" (mocking the Salvation Army's war cry "Blood and Fire") or the three Bs: “Beef”, “Beer” and “Bacca” – again mocking the Salvation Army's three S's – "Soup", "Soap" and "Salvation". Banners also had pictures of monkeys, rats and the devil. Skeletons further published so-called "gazettes" considered libellous as well as obscene and blasphemous.[2][3]
    Several techniques were employed by the "Skeletons" to disrupt Salvation Army meetings and marches; these included throwing rocks and dead rats, marching while loudly playing musical instruments or shouting, and physically assaulting Salvation Army members at their meetings.
     

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