We males of the species, have probably all wondered at some time or another ... possibly while in our early teens, before sex really stopped us thinking for five years or so ....
.... who has the best soldiers in the world.
Usually for the Brits .... especially those brought up on a diet of The Victor and other similar boys comics, we will have always assumed its our chaps. Although most of us always had a sneaky admiration for the German soldiers of the two world wars. After all their willingness to take on the best that several nations could offer, all at the same time, might have been foolhardy (as it meant that they always lost), but they sure got close to winning ... twice.
I have to admit that back then, the Japanese and Russians were not considered good .... because they were essentially feudal serf armies, driven to throw themselves on to the guns and bayonets by their officers and commissars, and to simply try to overwhelm their German or Allied troop opponents by weight of numbers.
Now in recent times, we have had to consider that the Yanks are right up there, we perhaps always had to also accept the fact that they had better weapons and logistics than everyone else, certainly a factor .... but lets not be churlish, even those advantages are not enough to stop us admitting, that pound for pound, they are right up there as top soldiers.
I recall reading in a mens magazine in the 1970's in the UK, a spoof article in which there were suggested military Olympics, in which a fixed number of 100 soldiers, with the same weapons would take each other on in a series of battles to determine disputes between nations and causes. It then gave a few examples .... I can't recall them all (I didn't buy the magazines for the articles hahaha), but do recall the Israeli's versus the PLO (Israel easy win). Sadly I can't find the article on the Internet, so I cant give more details, but of course, the British Army were declared the winners.
Now of course there are the Military World Games which have been held since 1995, but they are just the standard athletics Olympic events, and not exactly what I am referring to (or day dreamed about in my my idle teens). That of course was fighting to the death type armed combat, and strangely whilst writing this, I found that PC games and the Internet actually allow people to play versions of the Battle Royal concept, which are on-line to watch. But its not necessarily very accurate in real military terms with a mix of weapons and gadgets from different eras. The two biggest exponents of this are Fornite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)
Anyway, as I got older, I came to realise that this wouldn't work as a means of conflict resolution (no matter that it would be cheaper than real war, and certainly kill less people), and so we would only know the answer for the few hours before the nuclear rain started falling.
So that was that, and I never thought about the subject again for ... oh, lets say 45 years .... until very recently when I saw a small newspaper piece about a 'Battle Royale' between the British Army and the US Army .... and for reasons of memory that no scientist can answer, this instantly brought to mind those thoughts of forty five years ago.
However closer examination showed that it was a actually a boxing competition between fighters of the US Marine Corp and of the Royal Marines, which was being called the "Rumble Across The Atlantic".
So while not quite what I had been thinking about in those adolescent day dreams, well its as close as we will get, and therefore, for the US and Brits, well now we know. The boxers of the US Marines and the Royal Marines went head to head at the Royal Marine Commando Training Centre Lympstone Devon England.
They were watched by hundreds of US, UK and also NATO troops. The seven bouts were all closely fought, but it all came down to the decider between Army Lance Bombardier, Ryan Fillingham and American Marine Lance Corporal Felipe Ninofernandez. Fillingham won, and the Brits took the title.
As one spectator described it "Everyone is extremely proud that given the massive manpower of the US Marines have compared to us, we can still beat them." .... reasons to be cheerful, you bet!
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| Top Soldier In Battle Royal Is A Popular PC Game Theme |
.... who has the best soldiers in the world.
Usually for the Brits .... especially those brought up on a diet of The Victor and other similar boys comics, we will have always assumed its our chaps. Although most of us always had a sneaky admiration for the German soldiers of the two world wars. After all their willingness to take on the best that several nations could offer, all at the same time, might have been foolhardy (as it meant that they always lost), but they sure got close to winning ... twice.
I have to admit that back then, the Japanese and Russians were not considered good .... because they were essentially feudal serf armies, driven to throw themselves on to the guns and bayonets by their officers and commissars, and to simply try to overwhelm their German or Allied troop opponents by weight of numbers.
Now in recent times, we have had to consider that the Yanks are right up there, we perhaps always had to also accept the fact that they had better weapons and logistics than everyone else, certainly a factor .... but lets not be churlish, even those advantages are not enough to stop us admitting, that pound for pound, they are right up there as top soldiers.
I recall reading in a mens magazine in the 1970's in the UK, a spoof article in which there were suggested military Olympics, in which a fixed number of 100 soldiers, with the same weapons would take each other on in a series of battles to determine disputes between nations and causes. It then gave a few examples .... I can't recall them all (I didn't buy the magazines for the articles hahaha), but do recall the Israeli's versus the PLO (Israel easy win). Sadly I can't find the article on the Internet, so I cant give more details, but of course, the British Army were declared the winners.
Now of course there are the Military World Games which have been held since 1995, but they are just the standard athletics Olympic events, and not exactly what I am referring to (or day dreamed about in my my idle teens). That of course was fighting to the death type armed combat, and strangely whilst writing this, I found that PC games and the Internet actually allow people to play versions of the Battle Royal concept, which are on-line to watch. But its not necessarily very accurate in real military terms with a mix of weapons and gadgets from different eras. The two biggest exponents of this are Fornite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)
Anyway, as I got older, I came to realise that this wouldn't work as a means of conflict resolution (no matter that it would be cheaper than real war, and certainly kill less people), and so we would only know the answer for the few hours before the nuclear rain started falling.
So that was that, and I never thought about the subject again for ... oh, lets say 45 years .... until very recently when I saw a small newspaper piece about a 'Battle Royale' between the British Army and the US Army .... and for reasons of memory that no scientist can answer, this instantly brought to mind those thoughts of forty five years ago.
 |
| The "Rumble Across The Atlantic" .... |
However closer examination showed that it was a actually a boxing competition between fighters of the US Marine Corp and of the Royal Marines, which was being called the "Rumble Across The Atlantic".
So while not quite what I had been thinking about in those adolescent day dreams, well its as close as we will get, and therefore, for the US and Brits, well now we know. The boxers of the US Marines and the Royal Marines went head to head at the Royal Marine Commando Training Centre Lympstone Devon England.
 |
| Army American Marine Lance Corporal Felipe Ninofernandez Loses To Lance Bombardier Ryan Fillingham |
They were watched by hundreds of US, UK and also NATO troops. The seven bouts were all closely fought, but it all came down to the decider between Army Lance Bombardier, Ryan Fillingham and American Marine Lance Corporal Felipe Ninofernandez. Fillingham won, and the Brits took the title.
As one spectator described it "Everyone is extremely proud that given the massive manpower of the US Marines have compared to us, we can still beat them." .... reasons to be cheerful, you bet!
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