NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm trying to think of people to include in a poll of the same name. Here's who I have so far:

Master Chief SPARATAN-117 (Halo)
Doom (Doom)
Gordon Freeman (Half Life)
Rambo

I know I'm missing lots of potential candidates.

how about mentioning that the 'greatest soldier' of all time you're talking about are pixels on a screen developed in the last two years, instead of real-life flesh and blood soldiers from the entirety of human armed conflict. Otherwise, it would make a rather bizarre list, dontcha think?

Audie Murphy, Alvin York, etc

General Patton?

Or would you consider Captain America better?

Charles Upham-Two V.C.'s
Erwin Rommel-Capptured a Italian Battalion in WWi with only two other officers and 6 enlisted men

what about forrest gump?? :mp5:

Saladin
Napolean
Ghengis Khan
Alexander the Great
Spartucus
Julius Ceaser
Charlemagne
Ulysses S. Grant
Fredrick the Great was there for Prussia

There are many brilliant commanders, you can't pick just one...

Saladin
Napolean
Ghengis Khan
Alexander the Great
Spartucus
Ulysses S. Grant

There are many brilliant commanders, you can't pick just one...

Ulysses S. Grant was a butcher, not a very good general.

The rest are excellent, but where is Hannibal?

General Patton?

Or would you consider Captain America better?

Patton was a brilliant general, but a horrible soldier.

General Bradley was a far better soldier, and nearly as capable as a general.

502th Easy Company, AKA, Band of Brothers. Greatest soldiers of all time.

Lord Wellington
Von Rundstedt
Field Marshall Slim
Lee (confederate general, first name has slipped my mind for sum reason)
Stonewall Jackson
None of the union generals were especially competent, they won mainly because of the huge resources of the North and the costly Pyrrhic victories that the confederates won (they nearly always won)
Hannibal of course- just missed him out there

Monty or Eisenhower.

Monty was an exceptional general but made costly mistakes such as market garden, while Eisenhower was a better organiser than tactician

That little green plastic people.

Koopa Troopas - They'd give up the shell on their own back to take out an enemy.

Lord Wellington
Von Rundstedt
Field Marshall Slim
Lee (confederate general, first name has slipped my mind for sum reason)
Stonewall Jackson
None of the union generals were especially competent, they won mainly because of the huge resources of the North and the costly Pyrrhic victories that the confederates won (they nearly always won)
Hannibal of course- just missed him out there

That isn't true. There were some Union generals that excelled quite well. Sherman, Hancock, Doubleday, Meade. It's just that the war movement in the north was so politicized that you got idiots like McClellan and Burnside in control of armies.

Robert E. Lee.

Or the Pirate King, which ever sounds more reasonable.

the unknown soldier

Big Boss, of course.

Close runner up, Solid Snake.

Why do people always bring up generals in these debates? Kind of silly but last time I checked wars are won by the grunts, esp SGT's. You can have brilliant commanders, but without NCO's wars would fail. Besides most General's really don't get involved in slugging it out with the enemy.

"Every Cpl carries a field marshall's baton in their knapsacks." N. Bonaparte.

:headbang: There are no one whose is better soldier than ANYONE from the Arctic Soldiers. And they really exist! :mp5: :sniper:

What about Le Legion Etrangere?

Alexander the Great

I'm pretty damn sure Leonitas or any of his elite guard would beat the shit out of everyone suggested so far, on any terms. He'd probably do it personally to each and every one of them, at the same time or one after another.

Lauri Törni

or

Mannerheim

doh

It has to be The Unknown Soldier (literally, not the one in the tomb) beacuse the best and brightest of all generations can seemingly be overlooked

David Stirling

Vassili Zaitsev who's story the movie at the enemy at the gates is based on. Decapitated the leadership of the German army and saved Stalingrad from the Nazi's turning the tide in WWII.

Joseph "Plum" Martin

Leonidas or Horatio Nelson

David (as in the Biblical David) He became a general much later on but he was a frontline soldier for much of his life

I meant in video games you twits ;)

I'd have to say that Robert E. Lee would be on my list, as well as Stonewall. Grant was terrible, he merely threw everything he had at the enemy, and won due to superior numbers. Hannibal, of course. Achilles and Odysseus, certainly. Also, Rommel, Patton, and possibly some others.

Of course, I give Lee the number one spot.

I meant in video games you twits ;)
Well, even so, I have to put in my two cents on real-life. Tokugawa Ieyasu is probably the best general, though Sun Tzu, though I'm not sure if he existed as a singular entity, would've made a pretty damn good general himself. Okita Soushi is my all-time favourite "fighter", I have to say.

Musashi Miyamoto: although he was never an army he would have kicked ass had he been.

Qarlo Clobregny, from the novella 'Soldier'. It was because of him that mankind was spared the threat of wars to come.

Musashi Miyamoto: although he was never an army he would have kicked ass had he been.
He might've been good, but I've read both Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Miyamoto Musashi's Go Rin no Sho, and I'd say Sun Tzu would certainly have been better than Musashi, even though he's Chinese and not Japanese...

Jean Moulin, even if it's not really a soldier.He was at a high post of the administration in france during WWII; he leaved his post after realizing the cooperative government of vichy was criminal. He united the resistance movement inside the country, but was betrayed, captured and tortured to death. He never talked, saving many lives. That is what I call a hero - generals are geniuses, but they are not heroes in my opinion.

I'm trying to think of people to include in a poll of the same name. Here's who I have so far:

Master Chief SPARATAN-117 (Halo)
Doom (Doom)
Gordon Freeman (Half Life)
Rambo

I know I'm missing lots of potential candidates.
Greatest fictional soldier? Solid Snake.

What about Casca Longius? XD
But seriusly the only one I can think of is Rommel, in WWI he got the Iron Cross after a assault what happend was that when he used all of his ammo he jumped in a fench trench and he killed 5 men with his bayonet and he only got a scratch in his leg....... respect

He might've been good, but I've read both Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Miyamoto Musashi's Go Rin no Sho, and I'd say Sun Tzu would certainly have been better than Musashi, even though he's Chinese and not Japanese...


Hmm, I'm confining myself to the actual "fighting" part of being a soldier, I'm not thinking about an individual's gift for strategy. (Look at my other posts).

I think in hid day Miyamoto would have beaten just about anyone in face to face combat. Sun Tzu, if he was a single person, would undoubtedly have been the better general. (But then if that was the case I'd have to go with Alexander or Scipio - the proof is in the pudding).

Lord Wellington
Von Rundstedt
Field Marshall Slim
Lee (confederate general, first name has slipped my mind for sum reason)
Stonewall Jackson
None of the union generals were especially competent, they won mainly because of the huge resources of the North and the costly Pyrrhic victories that the confederates won (they nearly always won)
Hannibal of course- just missed him out there

Lee was in my opinion the greatest civil war general but Arthur Wellesley himself, the Duke of Wellington, has an outstanding record: "through Flanders, Portugal and Spain", not to mention India, France and, of course, Belgium. Sherman, although a successful campaign co-ordinator, never did have the chance to prove himself by commanding a full scale battle in the American Civil War. Napoleon I and some of marshals were very talanted, namely Davout and Massena, and First World War generals are also not to be overlooked: perhaps Brusilov, the Luddendorf-Hindenburg partnership and perhaps even Haig, if you forgive the Somme. I feel that generals such as Alexander and Leonidas can not be judged so well as there is not the same amount of factual evidence available. On the sea no one beats Horatio Nelson, in my opinion.

Numerous Medal of Honor winners or any veteran alive will tell you the greatest soldier was the buddy or fellow they served with that didn't get to come home.

They gave the ultimate sacrifice and truely are the greatest soldiers.

Major Sharpe and his riflemen.

alexander the
great attilla the hun
king arthur
aquiles
hector
ulises
napoleon
maximus
julius cesar
churchhill

Leonidas, with Zhukov running second.

IMHO, there is no "greatest soldier of all time." Every man or woman who risks life to stand between their country and danger, terror and other assorted evils is a "great" soldier.

IMHO, there is no "greatest soldier of all time." Every man or woman who risks life to stand between their country and danger, terror and other assorted evils is a "great" soldier.

Yeah but compare guy who does something stupid and gets killed with Charles Upham (http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/upham.html)

He is my pick by far.

Vassili Zaitsev who's story the movie at the enemy at the gates is based on. Decapitated the leadership of the German army and saved Stalingrad from the Nazi's turning the tide in WWII.

One Soviet sniper (who may have been slightly over glorified by the Soviets) did not make the difference in the battle of Stalingrad.

Here's one for Soviet Narco State:

A strong nomination has to go to:
David 'Mickey' Marcus, Col in the US Army and Israel's first general for two thousand years - a brilliant tactician, a fearless leader and the military architect of Israel's victory in the war of independence, against overwhelming Arab firepower.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/marcus.html

Hmm, I'm confining myself to the actual "fighting" part of being a soldier, I'm not thinking about an individual's gift for strategy. (Look at my other posts).

I think in hid day Miyamoto would have beaten just about anyone in face to face combat. Sun Tzu, if he was a single person, would undoubtedly have been the better general. (But then if that was the case I'd have to go with Alexander or Scipio - the proof is in the pudding).
Ahh, well in that case any Japanese would probably beat any Chinese ;). Them and their silly straight swords... Musashi was in the 1500's, right? If we're talking feudal Japan, Okita Sōshi is at the top of my list, as I stated before. He'd've 0wned Musashi...even with that whole tuberculosis thing...

Audie Murphy..

Too Small (http://history1900s.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.arlingtoncemetery.org%2Fhistorical_information%2Faudie_murphy.html )

Got you all fools
G.I. JOE!:)

Got you all fools
G.I. JOE!:)
You'd have a good point, except that G.I. Joe is American, and thus can not be the greatest soldier. This only applies to modern Americans, though. Robert E. Lee was pretty damn good.

One Soviet sniper (who may have been slightly over glorified by the Soviets) did not make the difference in the battle of Stalingrad.
Maybe he didn't determine the outcome of the battle but he did kill a shitload of nazi officers (I think 242 was his official count for the battle of Stalingrad alone) which deffinitely demoralized the germans but mostly I just thought enemy at the gates was a really cool movie. Supposedly the story of him killing the best german sniper was true too. Almost made me want to join the army and be a sniper if I wasn't all against war and stuff.

One Soviet sniper (who may have been slightly over glorified by the Soviets) did not make the difference in the battle of Stalingrad.
Maybe he didn't determine the outcome of the battle but he did kill a shitload of nazi officers (I think 242 was his official count for the battle of Stalingrad alone) which deffinitely demoralized the germans. You are right of course that his main role was to serve as propoganda tool for the Soviets, but mostly I just thought enemy at the gates was a really cool movie. Supposedly the story of him dueling with the german's best sniper was actually true also. Almost made me want to join the army and be a sniper if I wasn't all against war and stuff.

Here's one for Soviet Narco State:

A strong nomination has to go to:
David 'Mickey' Marcus, Col in the US Army and Israel's first general for two thousand years - a brilliant tactician, a fearless leader and the military architect of Israel's victory in the war of independence, against overwhelming Arab firepower.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/marcus.html

Yeah lets turn every thread into a Israel Palestine debate that should be fun.

have to say the best rea; soldier would be Carlos N Hatchcock. The best sniper PERIOD. Not only was he a good sniper, but he also risked his life saving as many soldiers as possible, when his APC was hit by a mine. Before that he had snuck DEEP into enemy HQ and killed a Vietcong general. I could ramble on for a while, but if I did no one would read this post

The greatest Video game soldier is definatly Solid Snake. again i could ramble but you people wouldn't care

Yeah lets turn every thread into a Israel Palestine debate that should be fun.
Keep on topic, please - I did. What's your problem?

Ulysses S. Grant was a butcher, not a very good general.

The rest are excellent, but where is Hannibal?

Grant was a butcher
Robert Edward Lee is shis name
Marlborough(Churchill) betrayed his countryman so he could be called Britains best.
Monty and Patton were show offs trying to out do each other
Ike was truely incompetent as was Clarke
I respect Bradley he was good no butcher here.

I agree with Monkeypimps backing up of me Upham was excellent

This is similar to an old thread distinguishing Soldiers from Generals except it was greatest military leaders.
But Generals are Soldiers too.

Another is Kiwi Ngarimu

Zatar who/what the hell is Ulises? do you mean Ullysus
Are feck i cant spell it either

Aenius and Hector

I'm pretty damn sure Leonitas or any of his elite guard would beat the shit out of everyone suggested so far, on any terms. He'd probably do it personally to each and every one of them, at the same time or one after another.

Yeah good luck 20 foot+ stabby spears against Persian scabs wearing wicker is a good test.

partnership and perhaps even Haig, if you forgive the Somme.
The Somme cannnot be forgiven he continued his arse hat ways.
2 years to make an army 6 months to destroy it!!!!!!!!
He was backed up by nongs like Rowlinson and Kitchener

IMHO, there is no "greatest soldier of all time." Every man or woman who risks life to stand between their country and danger, terror and other assorted evils is a "great" soldier.

Standing is nothing winning is everything.
Come back with your shield or on your shield.

Standing is nothing winning is everything.
Come back with your shield or on your shield.

Nice philosophy. Be sure to shit on the graves of Vietnam vets while you're at it.

The best and bravest soldiers of the last 300 years are the Gurkhas, they still fight with freaking swords!

The best and bravest soldiers of the last 300 years are the Ghurkas, they still fight with freaking swords!

Good point. And they are still feared in combat to this day.

The best and bravest soldiers of the last 300 years are the Ghurkas, they still fight with freaking swords!


hehe, you mean the Kukri. That thing rules, although most of em say they only use it for cooking nowadays :)

hehe, you mean the Kukri. That thing rules, although most of em say they only use it for cooking nowadays :)

I thought it's called a kirpan, but they don't fight with it - it's ornamental.

I thought it's called a kirpan, but they don't fight with it - it's ornamental.
nonsense!
http://www.himalayan-imports.com/faq/GurkhaWWII.jpg

Well, I stand corrected, they do make use of them.

Whaddaya know.

I thought it's called a kirpan, but they don't fight with it - it's ornamental.

Kirpan is a traditional Sikh dagger.

nonsense!
http://www.himalayan-imports.com/faq/GurkhaWWII.jpg

was just looking at the same website!

Oh, by far, General F. Bumblestew of the Third Armored We'll-Pretend-We're-The-Red-Cross-And-Then-Shoot-Them-When-They-Least-Expect-It Brigade. His innovation far surpassed any other general of World War Version 1.3. Too bad about that fleet of B-52's, though. I mean, they showed up outta nowhere.

Roger Young (spelling?)

He despite heavy enemy fire in WWI he advanced upon a german position he was hit several times into chest, shoulders and limbs, but he managed to get close enough for grenade use (in his wounded state this would be close quarters I presume) so he could break up the german fformations and save his entire unit. Of course he died a few seconds afterwards... but as a quite famous high ranking Officer of the German forces during WWII said:

"Männer! wir kämpfen, und kämpfen heißt opfern. Opfern und siegen..."

was just looking at the same website!
Gurkhas totally rule... They are fighting in Iraq now too. If they had a few thousand of them this little insurgency would be over in a week.

Kirpan is a traditional Sikh dagger.

Aren't the Ghurkas Sikhs? I thought they were, maybe my memory chip has melted...

Roger Young (spelling?)

He despite heavy enemy fire in WWI he advanced upon a german position he was hit several times into chest, shoulders and limbs, but he managed to get close enough for grenade use (in his wounded state this would be close quarters I presume) so he could break up the german fformations and save his entire unit. Of course he died a few seconds afterwards... but as a quite famous high ranking Officer of the German forces during WWII said:

"Männer! wir kämpfen, und kämpfen heißt opfern. Opfern und siegen..."


The line in german is very true.

"Men! We fight and fighting is sacrafice. Sacrafice and triumph...."

Aren't the Ghurkas Sikhs? I thought they were, maybe my memory chip has melted...
I think they are mostly if not all Hindu. Sikh's also kick ass, any religion that requires you to carry a dagger is my kind of religion.

Aren't the Ghurkas Sikhs? I thought they were, maybe my memory chip has melted...

Not sure, but the Kirpan is the ornamental dagger you were thinking of. The kukri is a nasty piece of kit though.

the link below is about the kirpan:

http://www.sikhcoalition.org/InfoKirpan.asp


and they are Hindus...

http://www.14usaaf27tcs.4mg.com/gurkhas.html

As for greatest soldier, although i don't think that there can be a greatest, my vote goes to

Miyamoto Musashi

http://www.samurai-archives.com/musashi.html

Wrote 'The Book of Five Rings', was never defeated in combat and was an artist.

:sniper: Rokka!

Aenius and Hector
Diomedes kicked both their asses during his Aristhea. Hell, he killed Parocy(whatever) and mortally wounded Aeneas and Venus at the same time, and he knocked Hector and Mars senseless in a 2v1. Granted, Aeneas showed himself to be pretty bada▀ during his extended duels with Turnus, but that so he could get the girl. When there is are multiple women behind the battle, all bets are off.

Of course, in the next post after asserting these two, you go on to insult Persians to the extent that killing about 10% of a Persian army when outnumbered over 800:1 is unimpressive, so I'll call you a fierce raving destitute and hope at least one person here made that same horrible translation and gets the reference.

The Somme cannnot be forgiven he continued his arse hat ways.
2 years to make an army 6 months to destroy it!!!!!!!!
He was backed up by nongs like Rowlinson and Kitchener

Are we talking about British and (to an extent French) casualties? I think you slightly overestimate them, and may I remind you that the casualties were greater for the Germans and it did provide some stragecic gains, albeit minor ones. The victory campaign in 1918 orchestrated by Haig is one of the finest campaigns in history, and I think this goes some way to compensate for what many would call "blunders" at the Somme.

The Three Hundred Spartans of Thermopylae > all those sissy asses.

What about El Cid??
Atilla the Hun??

*Thanks AoE2 for History lessons*

Ghandi

Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Caius Julius Ceasar, Vice Admiral Ramsey,...

Leonidas an his "lions"

They fought till the end against an enemy that was much stronger in order to give time for their allied to prepare them.

Viriathus
He defeated several times the powerful roman army using guerilla tactics

Hector
He fought against an enemy knowing he could not win. Somekind of stupid - but a good soldier even should be stupid

The Afghans against the british empire, the soviet empire, the U...
This people have defeated a lot of powerful armys. Perhaps it was posible to conquer them but they still used to go on with the fighting. Let us see what happens there the next 10 years.

I forgot "El Cid"
He even won a battle when he was dead.

The greatest soldier of all time is one that does exactly what he is told. Thus, child soldiers come the closest. I am not endorsing the practice, but just telling it how it is. In a perfect world, adult soldiers would do exactly as they're told, even if it meant going to Mars in just their birthday suits.

Diomedes kicked both their asses during his Aristhea. Hell, he killed Parocy(whatever) and mortally wounded Aeneas and Venus at the same time, and he knocked Hector and Mars senseless in a 2v1. Granted, Aeneas showed himself to be pretty bada▀ during his extended duels with Turnus, but that so he could get the girl. When there is are multiple women behind the battle, all bets are off.
Thanks ill look into that was Venus Priam's wife?
And does that have anything to do with the Illiad i read upto Aenus and Iulsus landing on Alba Longa then i stopped paying attention in Classics and gave up on doing school Work :D
If it did have anything to do with the Illiad then why was Mars on the Trojan side? obviously it aint. All the Gods bar Lady God of War(Minerva) were against them for Paris(Francus)scorning Athena?
Of course, in the next post after asserting these two, you go on to insult Persians to the extent that killing about 10% of a Persian army when outnumbered over 800:1 is unimpressive, so I'll call you a fierce raving destitute and hope at least one person here made that same horrible translation and gets the reference.

Nah i was just goofing off i have massive respect for the Spartans and Leonidas.
Said how Darius loped off his head afterwards.
Im really impressed by the forgetten allies of Sparta who stuck around until the end when Leonidas told them to bail.I would say Thebens but thats Aegypt kind of similar though i think

Are we talking about British and (to an extent French) casualties? I think you slightly overestimate them, and may I remind you that the casualties were greater for the Germans and it did provide some stragecic gains, albeit minor ones. The victory campaign in 1918 orchestrated by Haig is one of the finest campaigns in history, and I think this goes some way to compensate for what many would call "blunders" at the Somme.
It's actually a common saying of course he didnt lose a whole army but the losses were Madness,Lunacy,Butchery and that sort.People were incouraged to form regiments from their local Factories etc and it truly did take that one battle to destroy that Army.
He continued to persist with the attack saying oh another day and well break them another day another day another day.

Just like in the Crimea French say oh your not pulling you weight so lets have the Somme

True Casulties were larger but the overall gains were of little value for the losses gained.
I dont think he can clean the blood off his hands no matter how hard he tries

Nice philosophy. Be sure to shit on the graves of Vietnam vets while you're at it.

No way i wont shit on them Remember the Spartans.
They didnt lose the War Public opinion Shat on them especially after the Tet Offensive which was a massive American Victory but the fool who allowed Media coverage cost America,Australia and New Zealand the War.
I definatly dont hate Conscripts
We learnt if later on if theirs Media on the roads and you dont like it call them Hostile and Lite the Fuckers Up.
Not your problem they shouldnt be their.
What is this Hate Harlesburg Day it my freakin Birthday dammit

What about El Cid??
Atilla the Hun??

*Thanks AoE2 for History lessons*
Who thinks their should be a 3rd AOE?set around the New World-30 years war to Napoleanic era maybe ACW or Crimea it would allow guns and swords a truely neat time to be fighting a mixture of Anticuty and modernisation