World War One Armies

[cts17]

For each nation, which division do you think was the strongest, and which nation had the strongest one overall?

This based on combat experience, equipment, training & leadership.

[cminke]

CANADA!

[cminke]

CANADA WIN IN ALL OF THE ABOVE

[i rock]

Agreed, eh?

[221B Baker Street]

I took the question to be asking about specific armies, not nationalities…

Sadly, I do not see any excellent armies or great leadership in all WWI.  Technology had made all tactics obsolete and the generals were unable to adapt.  As a result, it was a continental wide series of trenches where men died and suffered by the millions simply rotting in the trenches waiting for the order to outrun the machine gunners fire through the barb wire and minefields of no mans land.    :cry:

Perhaps the best of the worst was the armies under General Ludendorff in the German spring offensive of 1918.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Offensive

After being static for years, the Germans gained a whopping 60 km (40 miles) - an amazing advance at the time - and were then actually able to shell Paris.  This was the movement of any significant size in years on the Western front.

BUT-- this offensive badly stretched German supply lines, exhausted them with losses they were unable to sustain, and quite possibly resulted in the allied hundred days offensive and collapse of the central powers.  So maybe this was the worst of the worst?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Days_Offensive

That I am unable to decide if this was the best or the worst says a lot about WWI, where even the best armies and Generals were a failure…

[ABWorsham4]

@221B:

Perhaps the best of the worst was the armies under General Ludendorff in the German spring offensive of 1918.

I think Ludendorff skills were shown best at the Meuse River in 1914. This helped the Germans take Liege quicky.

Don’t look past the Russians, Aleksei Brusilov was a great leader and thinker. He gave the Germans and Austrian a great defeat in 1916. After the Brusilov Offensive Austria was forced to rely on German support to stay in the war.
The Germans copied many of Brusilov’s ideas, quick barrages with the use of specialized forces to take high prized postions and open holes, followed by the main attack force.

[Clyde85]

I can certianly see why Canada would be at the tops of this list, the Canadian assault on Vimy ridge is one that has certianly deserves mention, Epic, simply epic. Of course, their counter attack in Belgium at Ypres in the face of a German gas attack, cant go unmentioned, full credit to them.

I think the German Sturmabteillung, and their descendants the Stormtroopers, were some of the best formations not only in the German amry, but in the world. However, I would be remiss if I did not mention Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck and his determined group of east african (Tanzanian) Askari schutztruppen, who waged a very spirited and determined guerilla campagin against the Allies, and is the only German commander who was never defeated in battle.

Another very impressive allies was the American 93rd division and their black troopers, the Harlem Hellfighters of 369 regiment.

And this really only scratches the surface.