The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated Japanese American unit, is remembered today for its brave actions in World War II. Despite the odds, the 442nd's actions distinguished them as the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the history of the US military.
The Panzergrenadier Division "Großdeutschland", also commonly referred to simply as Großdeutschland or Großdeutschland Division, was an elite combat unit of the German Army (Heer) that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II.
The 32nd logged a total of 654 days of combat during World War II, more than any other United States Army division. The unit was inactivated in 1946 after occupation duty in Japan.
In September 1939 the Allies, namely Great Britain, France, and Poland, were together superior in industrial resources, population, and military manpower, but the German Army, or Wehrmacht, because of its armament, training, doctrine, discipline, and fighting spirit, was the most efficient and effective fighting force ...
For the entire period of World War Two German infantry was the best trained. Gernan small unit tactics were simply a class above anyone else. German infantry invented things like the use of a squad machine gun.
The Commando context
After the fall of France in June 1940, the British established a small, but well-trained and highly mobile, raiding and reconnaissance force known as the Commandos. The first recruits were volunteers selected from existing regiments in Britain.
In WWII, American soldiers commonly called Germans and Japanese as krauts and Japs.
John William Vessey Jr. Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. North Oaks, Minnesota, U.S. A native of Minneapolis, Vessey began his 46-year military career in 1939 when he joined the Minnesota Army National Guard's 59th Field Artillery Brigade, a unit of the 34th Infantry Division.
The Germans. Their infantry was world class and arguably one of the best in history. Trained from youth for military service through Hitler's 1922 program, Hitler Youth, the results were demonstrated on the battlefield when the soldiers, led by superior leadership, consistently defeated army after army.
If you mean by 'elite unit' a small group of soldiers with special training and mission, then the 'Meereskämpfer' or 'Seafighters' were the most elite. This was a top secret group of navy divers, specially trained for sabotage missions behind enemy lines. German 'Meereskämpfer' frogmen.
The Panzer Elite, also known as Kampfgruppe Lehr in the single-player campaign, is one of two factions featured in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts. One of the members of the Axis, it is essentially a counterpart to the Wehrmacht, and fights alongside it in defending Nazi-Occupied Europe from the Allied invasion.
German soldiers also called themselves Schweissfussindianer – 'Indians with sweaty feet' – which had an interesting counterpart in a term for British soldiers: 1000 Worte Front-Deutsch (1925) states that after 'Tommy' the main German epithet for British soldiers was Fussballindianer – 'football Indians'.
Ami. Ami is derived from Amerikaner, but it specifically refers to people from the United States, including US soldiers in Germany.
At least initially, Germans regarded British and American soldiers (especially Americans) as somewhat amateurish, although their opinion of American, British, and Empire troops grew as the war progressed. German certainly saw shortcomings in the ways the Allied used infantry.
Japanese language ドイツ (doitsu) is an approximation of the word Deutsch meaning 'German'. It was earlier written with the Sino-Japanese character compound 獨逸 (whose 獨 has since been simplified to 独), but has been largely superseded by the aforementioned katakana spelling ドイツ.
Properly designated as the 1st Special Service Force, the Devil's Brigade was a joint World War II American-Canadian commando unit trained at Fort Harrison near Helena, Montana in the United States. Many modern American and Canadian Special Forces units trace their heritage to this unit.
The first Special Forces unit was formed in 1952, under the U.S. Army Psychological Warfare Division. The initial 10th Special Forces Group was led by COL Aaron Bank, who was involved in several sensitive operations during World War II, including an operation to capture or assassinate Adolf Hitler.
SEAL Team 6, officially known as United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), and Delta Force, officially known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), are the most highly trained elite forces in the US military.
The Allies won air supremacy in the Pacific in 1943, and in Europe in 1944. That meant that Allied supplies and reinforcements would get through to the battlefront, but not the enemy's.
1. The United States Army Air Force.