Who do you think was the most powerufl nation during and after the war?

well the country that ended the war on the best note was the US...they had a prooven military...and had shown the world it's industrial strength, as well as having the most powerful weapon in the world! the USSR takes second place because they also had a prooven military that was willing to endure tremendous losses for victory and ended up with the most territory in the end...plus the largest land army EVER!
Then after the USSR developed it's own A-bomb it was the US and USSR trying to fight for who was most powerful (IE...the Cold war)
But right at the end of the war the US was most powerful with the USSr in a close second...at least thats my opinion.

The USA, Russia then China, and in that order. Correct me if I am wrong.

Totally agree with both

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"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."

I think that during the war, Germany was very strong. Probably the strongest. They were building the best tanks, planes, and had the best soldiers, having strong nationalism, willing to die for their homeland. They may have had the best, but they could never keep up with the U.S. having mass production on their side. Then there is Japan. They had, not the best army, but they had an overflow of men just willing to lay down their lives for their country. i.e. Kamikaze pilots, etc.

After the war, it is Russia, since they got a lot of land, and then U.S.A., and Britain I guess.

Why do you say China?

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"Goddamn it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!"
- Captain Henry P. "Jim" Crowe (Guadalcanal, January 13, 1943)

I believe with Jackson, I think that Germany was the strongest during the war. I mean they were able to get so far, but just were overall outmatched by all the allied countries. But they proved to be superior in Air and Naval unites many times.

it was U.S. without a dought.

I believe it was Germany instead of the US because Germany was able to send so many troops around the world and always have some to spare. The "Hitler Youth" also helped out with troops and such with kids being trained from a very young age to be killing machines and "zombies" to Adolf Hitler.

Quite true and they (H.J.) were also known as Luftwaffen Flakhelferen, H.J. Marine, among other roles including helping the police forces, supply detachments, signals/dispatch, air raid and medical.

Right Evans, and being involved in all of that, gave Germany quite an edge when fighting came around. They always had more docters, nurses to replace dead ones. And soldiers were plenty, but just not plenty enough.

Tell me about it. Take the battle for the Seelowe Heights which are about 30 miles from Berlin. Ive read some very interesting stories about how outnumbered the Germnas were for example: the Russiane outnumbered them some 40 to 1 in men, some 5 to 1 in aircraft, some 10 to 1 in armor and 15 to 1 in artillery.

Anyway, in just one small German unit defending the heights. There were 11 Russian assaults launched against these men numbering around 600 troopers.

After the first several assaults failed, the Russians used a massive artillery barrage which killed appx half this small unit on th eheights. Then an Officer from this unit led his men in an immediate attack on the Russian tank forces which knocked out I think 18 T-34's and JS 1's.

The Russians launched another attack which enveloped these few men, there was hand to hand combat which resulted in the Germans being swamped and only a handfull of these men made it back to the heights and were incorporated into another unit.

This sort of thing went on and on during this battle and you can get a "picture" of how the Germans were ground down during the battle.

If the Germans had had 1 or 2 full strength divisions employed there, I should think that the Russians would have never reacher the Seelowe Heights. The only way I could see the russians doing so would be to completely overwhelm the Germans and sending their entire forces set for berlin, to roust these Germans from there. This would result in the Russians possibly losing most of their entire tank forces in taking this position. When the heights were finally taken from the Germans, it is estimated that the Russians had lost appx 1/2 their armor.

Had these German forces been better equipped and with Tiger and Panzers, its quite possible that the Russians could have been stopped but, these Gereman froces were not available as we know and or had already been splitup or destroyed.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Kind of reminds me of battles of the Civil War. With the Union just sending more and more soldiers in outnumbering the confederacy by many thousand.

during the war I'd go for Germany, who fought most of the world on their own and managed to keep doing so for 5 years. After the war I'd say USA. China does not belong in this list. Even during Korea, Chinese soldiers did not perfom well.

so :

1939-1944 : Germany
USSR
USA
UK
(holland - hehe we rule....LOL)
1945-1955 : USA
USSR
UK
Holland (Yep. still in there)

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*** We shall not retreat, nor shall we surrender. If we cannot stay here alive, we shall stay here dead***

I believe the most powerful nations during the second world war were Sri Lanka, the Principality of Monaco, and Nigeria - in that order.

can you go into more detail as to why?

LOL! Erich thanks I needed that today.

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C.Evans, was it Gebirgsjaeger defending the Seelowe Heights?

Id really like to read more into this, it sounds like a very fascinating battle, and definetly one that I havent heard of. If you could provide a book name or url that goes more in-depth Id really appreciate it.

But now back to topic...

From 1939-45 the Germans definetly had the most professional, proficient, and most dedicated army there ever was in history up to that point in time.

If you look at all the battles and events that happened during WWII, the Bulge, Stalingrad, Kursk, Tobruk, Normandy, etc., etc., etc., you will find they all have Germany fighting against huge odds and against a enemy that is numerically superior and has more firepower. Theres no way if the USSR or the US were in Germany's position during the war that either superpower would have held out for as long and as bitterly as the Fatherland did.

Granted after the war the US and USSR were most powerful, either of these during the war were easily outmatched by the Third Reich. Heck, even during the Cold War, Western Germany was the cornerstone of an Allied defense of Europe, and that was directly after what had occured during WWII!

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'The "glorious" fight of the so-called partisans was nothing more then a mean, common murder.'
- Kurt Meyer, after his loyal comrade Heinz Schrott was killed by perfidious French partisans while wounded in a street.

I tend to disagree. The Germans did an excelent job considering their position. The germans had their strategy and the US and Russians had theirs...tremendous weapons production for US and a treadmendous population for russia...verses a smaller technologicaly superior enemy. Both strategies had their pros and cons...but the allies won the war. I think the germans mostly had better weapons than the allies...but as for fighting spirit i think all 3 had pretty hight fighting spirits. As for the importance of west germany in the cold war...it's importance was merely because of it's proximity to the Soviet Union's border.

Dear Gibson: The books I know of that talk about the Seelowe Heights battles are: In the Time-Life series on ww2, the one called: Battle for Berlin. This has some very interesting info on the battles.

Then there is a book by James Lucas called: The Last Days of the Third Reich: The collapse of Nazi Germany, May 1945. This is the one I took some of the info I posted on the Seelowe Heights battles.

Im not sure but there might have been a Gebirgsjager unit fighting there, there were some nearby that were fighting in the Czech mountains for sure and this book even elaborates on those battles too. Its been a pretty good book to read. You can get one at Barnes and Nobles bookstore for about: $10.00.

There is another book(its an old one) but its got great info on the fighting at the Heights and in Berlin. Forgive me if im wrong but I think the title is: The Last Days of Berlin and its by Corneiluos Ryan (Spelling?) the auther who also wrote: "A Bridge Too Far".

In Ryans book, you have actual interviews with the Commanding generals like Gotthart Heinrici and I think Wieldling. Plus many others. This book almost seems ias if Heinrici wrote it himself.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

I think the US was overall the most powerful nation after the war, it had a big army, both its navy and airforce were the strongest in the world, with lots of experience gained during the war. Moreover the US economy was booming, the country itself and the civilian population were untouched, etc...
The Soviets had the largest and strongest army in the world, but their manpower reserves were severely depleted, and much of their land was devastated. Britain had a big empire left, but its economy lay in ruins. So I would have to go with the US on this one, since they had not suffered half as bad as many other nations.