Who had the best forces in World War 2?

Answer 1

During WWII Rommell is quoted as saying that if he had 3 battalions of Maori soldiers he would rule the world. He admired the intellect, fighting spirit, strength and ability of the 28th Maori Battalion.

Answer 2

If the Luftwaffe would have been given more time, arguably, it would be the best air force in World War II. The Luftwaffe was the first air force in the world to develop jet fighters. In fact, during the last two days of the war in Europe, their was a dog fight between the german's jet fighters and some british planes.

== == Although the Nazis had the best fghter pilots and some great planes it could not take the fight to the enemy due to a lack of long range bombers and after about 42 the tactical bomber wing was outdated.

Answer 3

Opinions will always vary.

Depending on the specific era of the war and theatre of conflict, it's easy to arrive at a different answer from a historical perspective, and depending who's being asked the question, they are more than likely to respond with their own particular favourite fighter based on their nationality and personal preference.

Brits will probably answer Spitfire or Hurricane, or possibly Typhoon or Tempest, Americans generally answer P-51 mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-38 Lightning or F4U Corsair, F4 Wildcat or F6 Hellcat.

Those favouring German aircraft might support the Me109, Fw190 or one of the more advanced later designs, such as the Dornier 335 or Me262.

Italians might prefer the Reggiane Re 2005, Macchi C205 or Fiat G55.

The Russians will generally champion the Yak-9, Lavochkin La-7 or possibly the Polikarpov I-16. And Japanese will likely praise the A6M zero, Ki-84 Hayabusa.

Every one of these aircraft was formidable in its own right, with each having their own relative strengths and weaknesses. Some may have been better turn fighters, such as the Polikarpov I-16, the A6M Zero or Hawker Hurricane, which could use their superior maneuverability to defeat their opponents in a turn fight, but could fall victim against a more powerful aircraft using 'boom 'n zoom' tactics.

Others may have had better climb performance, making them effective interceptors such as the Spitfire and Fw190. Others just had an outright speed or altitude advantage, this being a general strength of all the later model American fighters and the late-war experimental German fighters such as the Me262 and Me163 which were the first to implement jet propulsion and rocket propulsion.

Still other factors included reliability, damage tolerance, range and armament.

The Hurricane for instance, was famously damage tolerant due to it's wood-and-fabric design. Conversely, the A6M Zero, which was designed without armour to achieve a lower wing loading was not - it even had a pressurized fuel tank, which could explode if it was hit.

Reliability problems plagued the Japanese Ki-84 which used a maintenance intensive direct-injection engine, and the Me 262 suffered from reliability problems with its experimental turbine engines, with several crashing due to mechanical problems. Every aircraft faced their own technical challenges, but some suffered more than others.

Armament-wise, some aircraft sported high-calibre incendiary 20mm or 30mm cannons, which could cause significant damage, but had a slower rate of fire and a shorter firing duration due to the limited amount of ammunition that could be carried. Others, such as the Mk1 Spitfire and Hurricane, used 8 small-calibre .303 machine guns, with which they could achieve a better spread of fire and a longer fire duration than the cannon-equiped Me109s opposing them during the Battle of Britain.

Armament would evolve over the course of the war, allied aircraft using .303 machine guns would slowly be upgraded with 20mm cannon or 50 cal machine guns. The P47 famously sports eight .50 cal machine guns, while the P39 was equipped with a 37mm cannon firing through the nose, while the Me 262 inaddition to four 30mm cannon was one of the first aircraft to use air-to-air rockets against allied bombers.

In terms of theatres of battle, different aircraft were superior in different encounters. The Spitfire and Hurricane were famously credited for winning the 'Battle of Britain' in a battle of attrition with the Luftwaffe which effectively prevented Operation Sealion from going ahead, meanwhile on the Eastern front later in the war German pilots would score considerable victories over Russian-piloted imported P39s in their Me109s, resulting in a very large number of German aces.

In the Pacific, the A6M zero was dominant early on, only later to fall victim to the American F4 Wildcats during the 'Marianas Turkey Shoot'.

Finally during the allied invasion of Europe, the 357th Fighter group of the 8th Air force would score considerable victories with the P-51 Mustang, due in part to their considerable strength in number and the excellent long-range capabilities of the late model Mustangs.

If the 'best fighter' could be decided by production numbers, providing you don't include the Ilyushin Il-2 russian ground attack aircraft, the leader would be the Me109 with 34,852 built, followed by the Spitfire with 20,351 built, and then the Fw190 with 20,051 built.

If data was available to calculate average kills per active aircraft, that might help settle the question, but taking some of WW2s highest scoring aces for example; Johnie Johnson scored 38 victories in the Spitfire, Kurt Welter scored a total of 63 Victories, with many if not all of those flying the Me262. Kurt holds the record for most number of kills in a jet to this day.

Enrich Hartman, the worlds highest-scoring ace in history, scored 352 victories on the Eastern front flying Me109s.

From Japan, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa scored 87 victories in the A6M zero, but was killed in action in 1944, aged 24 when the transport aircraft he was travelling in was shot down by an F6 Hellcat, ironically after having been turned down to fly a kamikazi mission.

From the United States, the highest scoring ace was Richard Bong with 40 victories in the P-38 lightning.

From Finland, fighting for the axis powers, Hans Wind scored 75 victories flying an export version of the American Brewster Buffalo.

The highest scoring Russian ace was Ivan Kozhedub, with 64 victories mostly in the Lavochkin La-5.

From South Africa, Marmaduke Pattle scored a total of 50 victories, 15 of them achieved early in the war in the obsolete Gloster Gladiator biplane, the remaining 35 in the Hurricane.

In summary, although there were many great aircraft of WW2, just looked at the numbers in terms of unit production and number of German aces, begrudgingly the Me109 may hold the title, but given that Germany lost the war, the title of 'greatest fighter' tends to fall to the most romanticized machine of the allied victors, the aircraft with the greatest nostalgia associated with it, and depending on your perspective, that aircraft could be the Mustang, the Spitfire, the Hurricane, the P38... you name it.

Answer 4

The USA Naval air force is the best air force in the world, because their pilots have to take off and land on carriers, at night and in bad weather.

Answer 5

probably the RAF because the Lancaster was the best plane ever and it had been adapted to do the dam-busters Rad and the hurricane was mid-speed but packed a punch

Answer 6

The Army Air Corps until 1942 then the Army Air Force

It became the U.S. Air Force, a seperate branch of service, in 1947.