What are the top badass countries of WW2?

[Okawoa]

1. Finland: lmao the territorial enlargement plans they drew up speaks volumes for their ballsiness. The Soviets got a Tsarist rerun why you should not fight near lakes.
2. Communist China: ... After finishing the longest march in history ... gets Cominterm excommunication. The leadership out bears the bear by living in caves. 2nd in command Premier Zhou Enlai joins the Nationalist Chinese war council and in months becomes the biggest drug dealer in KMT China. Only contact with outside world is one radio, yet in 1949 wins the civil war. All signs point to badasses.
3. Yugoslavia: Wrote the revolutionary handbook and ticked off Stalin, who was too pussy to invade.
4. Britain: Britain ignored logic and kept fighting. Made it 100% clear that Europe was going to be freed. Never lost confidence and started acting like a 2nd rate power. Loses points for causing famine in India but nonetheless quite the hero.
5. Siberians: If one nationality in the USSR deserves this award they do. Their track record was crazy, first they defeat the Japanese in Mongolia to the point they don't want fight no mo'. Their next point of distinction is winning the Battle of Moscow after moving 4500KM away from their deployment point. Then the Buryats turn around and occupy all Japanese possessions in 3 weeks.

 

[rommel2]

japanese!!!

 

[steve213]

Have you compared the war reparations Germany payed to USA and the total value of the Marshall Plan ?

what reparations?

 

[keynes2.0]

Have you compared the war reparations Germany payed to USA and the total value of the Marshall Plan ?

The word "reparations" is tricky with regards to Germany because the etymology is different. In English, French, Italian, etc., a reparation is something that an offending party pays to a wronged party. The etymology comes from the latin "reparare" meaning "to prepare again".

In German "die reparations" takes it's etymology from the latin word "ratio", meaning account. The German meaning is "money we borrowed from the Americans". This word was needed after the first and second world wars where Germany agreed to pay money to other nations. Instead they created "die reparations" where they borrowed a bunch of money from the US and then never paid it back. Rather then paying money out, like France after 1871 wars or Prussia after 1806, Germany after 1919 and 1946 got the americans to give them "die reparations" which covered their treaty obligations and quite a bit more as well.

(In case it's not clear to anyone, I'm joking about the etymology thing)

 

[DazKaz]

I think calling american involvement too little is so incorrect is hilarious.
but don't trust me trust the russians.

I don't agree that the US involvement was too little. It was obviously enough to get the job done as history has proven.
Without them we would not have won against the Axis powers.

They were not too late either, but they were late and certainly don't deserve "badass" status (whatever that means) because of that.

Their isolationism along with the other neutral countries inaction, not only prolonged the war against tyranny but almost lost it.

I have a lot of respect for the USA, for what they have done since the war along with the other UN countries they help to support
We have learnt our lessons from the second world war, and are doing a good job of sticking together to combat aggression, amd tyrannical regimes, although I agree we have made a fair few mistakes along the way.

 

[Count Drew]

Good you mention Great Britain. I know having family in the War they didn't have to suffer and they did. Strafing runs, seeing their friends done in and all they had to do is likely accept a white peace of some sort. The USSR and USA remained neutral in the face of that? Makes me wonder if Pearl Harbor and Shock Barbarossa weren't in a way bad Karma easily avoided if both had thrown in their lot to begin with...

Wow. 1/5 at best.

1. Germany, the most powerful country in Europe, completely wasted its tactical acumen through poor strategy and even worse industrial mobilization.
2. The Soviet Union, the second most populous country in the world and owner of by far the largest pre-war arsenal. Played the opposite game as the Germans: fighting well on a strategic and industrial level, but costing millions of lives due to poor tactical command.
3. I'll give you this one. No one could have done Marshal Mannerheim did for his country.
4. I suppose if you consider holding out against the Italians a badass feat, then you might as well put France on this list too. They did even better.
5. Yeah, the country that thought it could win a land war against China and a naval war against the United States. Quite possibly the worst leadership of any country in the war; worse than the Soviet Union by far.


Most badass country HAS to be the United Kingdom. There was no finer hour, perhaps in all of history. The British could easily have kept their empire in a negotiated peace with the Germans, but chose to sacrifice their future for the sake of mankind. They did a thankless job (as this thread clearly attests to), but in my mind, they were the greatest heroes.


Please, get your heads out of the "heroics" of Michael Wittmann, K/D ratios, Enemy at the Gates penal battalions, and kamikazes. Thank God we won the war.

 

[Nuklearius]

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[keynes2.0]

-was the most advanced country in technology (infrared, rocket engines, assault rifles,mgs) and actually used it

What did you say?

 

[scroggin]

Good you mention Great Britain. I know having family in the War they didn't have to suffer and they did. Strafing runs, seeing their friends done in and all they had to do is likely accept a white peace of some sort. The USSR and USA remained neutral in the face of that? Makes me wonder if Pearl Harbor and Shock Barbarossa weren't in a way bad Karma easily avoided if both had thrown in their lot to begin with...

Britain was a bit of a mixture. What could compare with the raid on st Nazaire, the battle of britain, operation compass or the SAS raids in the desert. But then there were examples of incompetence like the fall of Singapore and the defence of Norway.

The country I most admire in WWII was Finland they were just like Israel. Loose one major fight and they will be wiped off the face of the earth. But they did very well against enemies that outnumbered them.

 

[Jongmaster]

-was the most advanced country in technology (infrared, rocket engines, assault rifles,mgs) and actually used it

Developed in parallel to the Germans by the US, deployed for combat in 45 at Okinawa with the US Army

 

[Nuklearius]

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[Nuklearius]

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[keynes2.0]

All designs and technology that were far ahead of its time. Thats what I said

No, you said that Germany was ahead of everyone else. Which is pretty silly. Germany was ahead in some fields (rocketry, small automatic firearms and um... making their tanks too heavy). Germany was behind in others (radar, computers, process engineering). But the ultimate tech showoff was the atomic bomb. That was the super ahead of it's time idea that was perfected and deployed. And not only did Germany miss it but Germany was embarrassingly far behind and delusional to boot.

 

[MagnusStultus]

1. The United States

The reason should be obvious; it was the breadbasket of the allies allowing Russians to work overtime in the factories and place an unprecedented number of young men into the army; while also providing such important things as liberty ships, jeeps, oil ammunition and other indespensible war material to all of the allied nations. For direct fighting it sank the Imperial Japanese Navy including the Kido Butai, it defeated Japan in extremely costly battles from Guadalcanal to Luzon to Okinawa, it furthermore provided extremely important elements such as all of the Sherman Tanks Britain converted into other tanks by replacing the tank gun; and I haven't even started to mention the direct involvement of the US Military in Europe.

2. Russia

Had it been able to do it without American logistical support it would be number one. However Warfare is logistics so I decided that the number 1 list belonged to the breadbasket of the allies. Nobody should ever underestimate the cost Russia gave to stop Germany or to later on take the war into Europe and destroy Nazi Germany.

3. China

The Chinese Army could have very easily fallen apart; actually considering how it was treated (including being starved) it is hard to imagine any other force not ceasing to exist; yet so much of China never saw Japanese occupation. The sheer price China paid should never be forgotten and is underestimated by way too much of the western world. The sheer sacrifice by China would have likely collapsed most nations.

3. Depends on what element of the war I am thinking of. Most nations did extraordinary things, all of those things need to be acknowledged with a minimum (although some nobody is unbiased about an event with still living veterans) of bias. However the sheer amount of resources in men and material China and Russia took up from the Axis and the importance of the United States I think entitle them to 1, 2, and 3 on the list of "badass".

 

[MagnusStultus]

I don't agree that the US involvement was too little. It was obviously enough to get the job done as history has proven.
Without them we would not have won against the Axis powers.

They were not too late either, but they were late and certainly don't deserve "badass" status (whatever that means) because of that.

Their isolationism along with the other neutral countries inaction, not only prolonged the war against tyranny but almost lost it.

I have a lot of respect for the USA, for what they have done since the war along with the other UN countries they help to support
We have learnt our lessons from the second world war, and are doing a good job of sticking together to combat aggression, amd tyrannical regimes, although I agree we have made a fair few mistakes along the way.

What does badass mean?

It isn't well defined in OP; and the way I define it is in impact once it was in the war.

 

[battlemac007]

Canada

Raised a 1,000,000 armed forces during the war on a population of 16 million

Had the 4th largest navy at the end of the war, a large air force and deployed 5 divisions, 2 Corps HQ and a Army HQ overseas

Turned out a large amount of ordnance, from rifles to heavy bombers to ships, and almost as many soft skinned vehicles as the major Axis countries combined (and the only country that beat its output of soft skinned vehicles was the US)

 

[Shatterfury]

No, you said that Germany was ahead of everyone else.

Which, generally speaking, is true.

 

[GeneralPetrov]

2. Russia

Had it been able to do it without American logistical support it would be number one. However Warfare is logistics so I decided that the number 1 list belonged to the breadbasket of the allies. Nobody should ever underestimate the cost Russia gave to stop Germany or to later on take the war into Europe and destroy Nazi Germany.

I don't mean be picky, but do not equate the Soviet Union = Russia. Roughly half of the total losses were from the other republics.

 

[ashbery76]

US and UK.

Won half the war pretty easily in reality with little collateral damage.Germany and Japan both became their bitches.

 

[qwertyuiop2]

Crete. Nothing better than shattered airborne Nazi morale.