Who were the best soldiers of WW2?

Question

I'm talking nationally, not about individual units.

that was WW1, barristi...

I hear you, John. Tactically, the Germans were superb. But what about the Japanese?

actually, davster, the Poles took Cassino. At the time the Canadians were taking Ortona

when NATO wanted to study how to carry out feild defences against the Soviets, they studied the Germans' defence in Normandy

Answer 1

The Germans, hands down, had the best training and the best NCOs and junior officers. In the end, they were simply overwhelmed by weight of numbers and poor decision making at the strategic (as opposed to tactical) level.

Answer 2

The Gurkhas from Nepal, although they are so small a force as to be almost a unit, so .......

I hate to sound nationalistic but I think Canadians. They fared very well in Italy and broke several stalemates that US, Polish and other allied forces could not budge (e.g. Cansino), they met their D-Day objectives, fought bravely at Dieppe and won praise in all the countries they liberated, especially Holland.

Edit: The Japanese had terrible kill ratios. A small force of Marines slaughtered many Japanese at Gaudacanal. The entire Japanese army it seems couldn't budge them off there and retake Henderson Field. Japanese attacks would routinely kill a dozen Marines at the cost of several hundred Japanese.
The Germans started out with a superb army but as attrition took its toll, they became quite weak. Look at the effectiveness of German units in Barbarosa and their defence of fortress Europe. By that time most units were conscripts, kids and prisoners. The allies captured tons and tons of prisoners on D-Day and throughout the march to Berlin.

Answer 3

Canadian soldiers were the best. They did not run under gas attack when all other nationality's did, they fought with guns that did not work, under generals who did not care, Canada sent more troops on population average than any other country. They fought in all of the biggest battles and usually won. All of this is true, but for some reason you never see Canadians in any war movies.
But it really doesn't matter who were the best every soldier that fought were the best because they fought and may died for what they believed in, and we should all remember that.

Answer 4

The Allies. They won.