What was the most famous/infamous army of world war two?

Me and my friend, who is in Canadian Army Reserve, were arguing over the most famous or infamous army in all of world war two. I said the American 1st Army because it had fought in North Africa, Sicily, France and Germany. my friend said that the 6th army was more famous because it was involved at the debacle in Stalingrad. Which army is more well known?

 

the mosst famous hard to say but the most infamous is defenetly the Italion Army
incompetent

 

Of those 2 - the German 6th, as it is the only one really named as an Army in most popular history books.

My vote is for the British 8th Army - the Desert Rats.

 

The most famous is the German 6th Army, no doubt - it is the first army you actually get a name for when you learn about World War II. Next up is probably 3rd US Army because it was commanded by Patton.

 

My votes would be the 8th army-desert rats, then the german 6th
(only because the desert rats are a icon where i live and therefor well spoken about during the war)

 

Roel wrote:

I agree. In the world as a whole probably the 6th Army. In the US no doubt it would be Patton's 3rd Army.

 

Ricky wrote:

AFAIK the 7th Armored division which was part of the 8th Army were the only ones called the Desert Rats.

 

The German 6th Army was not th first army I learned about. In Canada, the first army you learn about is the British, because they defended Egypt and helped capture North Africa, Sicily and Italy. In the States, it may be the US 3rd, in Europe it may be the German 6th, but as far as i know in Canada, the first army you learn about is the 8th.

 

In my school you dont learn about any of the armies, only how Hilter got to power, then they say D-Day, and then a week or two on the Holocust. Never anything on the battles or the armies that fought to stop it, we seriously go over the Holocust in 2-3 classes every year.

 

Yeah, I got the same thing at my High School. It was incredibly boring listening to stuff I already knew so much about. It was, however, fun to correct the teacher when he erred! "Stalingrad was the decisive battle of the war", my arse.

I'll go with the rest of you guys and say the 6th Army. Everyone who knows anything about WWII can tell what happened to the 6th Army.

Break it down into divisions, and it will be a whole different story.

 

101st AB, because of Band of Brothers. No doubt about it. And a shame too because the 82nd saw more action (two more combat jumps) and performed at least as heroically as the 101st in every battle.

 

I was thinking the Waffen SS Feldkochteilung.

Joking, the 82nd and 101st are by far the most popular and well-known.

 

famoused army (oke, it was not an army but it looked like they had the same strength) was the Afrikacorps. almost impossible to destroy exept when you serious outnumber them and then attack them in the back. (damm opertation torch :angry: :angry: , i would like to know how long it would take before monty was trown back to El Alemein)


for the normal army. sixth german army. no doubt about that.


And yep, we also talked about the holocoust in high school (three lessons of history and three year on a row in religion classes and that for a catholic school. one year is more then enough). but we spended at least seven to eight lessons about the war and i had a field day (sort of speaking). always correcting the teacher, hell in the end it was almost me who gave the lessons

we even made a viset to normandy (oke, we made a couple stops at Paris, Versaille and spended a whole morning in cean to look at paintings :evil: ) and the last half day we toured near the invasion beaches. (damm, screw versaille and those paintings, we could have gone to Saint Lo, Saint marie Eglise, Carentan, vierville, the pegassus bridge, the canadian invasion beaches => we only saw omaha where that american graveyard lies (dog one green i believe)and Arromanches, point d'hoc and some german coast batteries)

 

i would think it was a close call between the british 8th army and the german 6th army.

i dont know how many people know that it was the german 6th army that entered paris in june 1940 as well as suffering its destruction in stalingrad.

 

hey, i didn't know that

 

Technically, yes. They still use the Jerboa as their divisional sign.
However, read any popular history book (or at least, the ones that I have read!), and you will see 'Monty's 8th Army, the Desert Rats'.

Which is how they are now popularly known.

 

Oh, a nice example of Hollywood influence in the knowledge of innocent bystanders.

The assault sectors of Operation Overlord were "numbered" by letters running from Tare on western Utah Beach to Roger on eastern Sword Beach. These assault sectors were each divided into two or three assault beaches, codenamed (letter) Green, Red and White. Thus, troops landing on Omaha Beach were really landing on Easy Red and Easy Green for example. There was in fact a Dog Green assault beach on Omaha, but strangely in Saving Private Ryan this is referred to as Dog One, probably indicating a very specific piece of the German defences. I have never heard of any unit that was supposed to land or capture any sector with a number, only letters and colours.

 

Another difference in the US; the most famous division in the US would be a tossup between the 101st an the 1st Marine division. Before Band of Brothers the 1st Marine divsion would probably have been beter known.

 

mayby i look at too much movies. so it was Dog green, thanks for correcting that

Ah, the marines if there's one thing that can discribe them, it's Tarawa.

(it would take one million men a hundred years to take tarawa. the marines did it in 75 hours and 42 minutes. almost no jap survivors were to be found)

 

It took the Marines 75 hours to take Tarawa, a group of thousands of microscopic islands, but it took them a MONTH AND A HALF for one Marine CORPS (three divisions) to beat a Japanese DIVISION on an EIGHT SQUARE MILE ISLAND!!! :bang: