Which German unit did the Soviets fear/respect the most?

I bet they didn't my friend, as such in 1945 the Soviets steam-rolled over everything in their path to conceive victory and at terrible cost, as I stated you can go on with your belief about W-SS, HG, the Fallschirm and other so called Elite German units but both sides did not fear each other, they fought it out with some of the worst case scenarios in Ost Preußia never to be read in text as so few survived ~ from both sides.

 

I'm going to say circumstances probably played a role in the failure to properly equip this particular unit.[/QUOTE]


Yes. They weren't fully equipped, they weren't ready for action, they told Armee Gruppe they weren't and were still deployed against the Soviet Army. I'm sure there circumstances that Red Army units went to the front with no weapons perhaps you can explain the difference.

 

Erich, you´re right, but i think that deep inside you will have respect and fear your enemy if you know he´s a hard fighting one! That is what makes you carefully and helps you to survive most things and the guess who is at the other side makes you much more raw and ruthless than if you have to deal with weaker units. So there is a closing circuit in brutality and that explaines the type of war at east prussia to me.

 

I think you are confusing the fact that there is really no difference between Einsatzgruppe and the Waffen SS (25% of some Einsatzgruppe were Waffen SS troops) add this to the fact that atrocities in the East were carried out by SS, Waffen SS and ordinary Infantry and Panzer Divisions. Don't forget Sonderkommando Dirlewanger a unit which slaughtered 000's and was a de facto Waffen SS unit commanded by a convicted Paedophile, phsycopathic Knights Cross holder.

 

I'm not taking away from the Soviet victory. The Soviets should have won. They had the USA, Britian, and others on their side. The Germans held out for a long time which says alot for the skill of their soldiers and quality of their equipment. The Germans made the Allies earn their victory. We can all talk about how great the 101st, 82nd, Brits, and 5th Guards were. The point is they should have won due to the sheer weight of numbers alone. I say this as the grandson of two American WW2 vets.

 

Ok I shall leave this one open for a while (for Cbiwv) , even though I think the point was made and Erich and others made a fair statement when they said respect had little room on this theatre. I may actually add there might have been some respect on particular cases, but I'm not convinced this was for entire units on large scales, whatever the side was.

 

Maybe I should have asked which were the most formidable German units? I think there was alot of confusion in this thread.

 

Ah, I see now: you are unsure what you wanted to hear.

Could you please suggest your favorite candidates and let's change this into a poll!

 

Good question, some confusion but some good information as well. I would say FJ's. View attachment 15349 I know, it is the post - war logo.

 

Cbiwv, don't feel offended and I'm sorry your thread went off topic and was spoiled. You started an interesting topic and you have done nothing wrong , so don't blame yourself. These things happen from time to time.

To the others: Some nice things have been said here, but some silly ones also and I don't think continuing at this point would be very useful. This thread is now closed.