Elite Units

[Kagemusha]

Finnish elite units would be 1st,2nd and 3rd Jäeger Battalion,1st(and only) Panzer Brigade and Also the long range recon Sissi battalions.And if you look at the casulties ratio you could put the whole Finnish airforce as Elite units.

[Rodion Romanovich]

The LRDG weren't officially an elite unit, but a special forces unit that were quite effective. They did mostly recon but also with SAS I think made raids against axis airfields in North Africa shortly before second El Alamein.

Edit: yes, here's from wikipedia: "Stirling still managed to organise another assault against the German airfields at Aqedabia, Sirte and Agheila, this time [the SAS troops were] transported by the LRDG. They destroyed 61 enemy aircraft without a single casualty."

[English assassin]

IIRC all soviet guards units (and there were a lot) were elite in a sense, even if only meant better equipment or a fuller unit roster.

I'm not sure the British forces really did elite as such. Given that the challenge for both the British and the Americans was to create a large army out of people who a few months before were shopkeepers, it would have been rather counter-productive to have allowed what would presumably have been mostly peace time professional soldiers to swan about lording it over everyone else.

I gather the Germans regarded the various UK Guards regiments as elite but whether they really stood out from their less socially desirable peers in combat effectiveness I doubt. 7th armoured was the first fully mechanised division in the army, and after the North Africa campaign had a reputation. Probably only the paras qualify as a truly elite infantry unit.

Oh and there's the Royal Marines of course, but that's more special forces really.

[Red Peasant]

I gather the Germans regarded the various UK Guards regiments as elite but whether they really stood out from their less socially desirable peers in combat effectiveness I doubt. 7th armoured was the first fully mechanised division in the army, and after the North Africa campaign had a reputation. Probably only the paras qualify as a truly elite infantry unit.

Depends what you mean by elite. My grandfather, from the backstreets of Liverpool (so, less socially desirable to you ), was in the 17/21 Lancers of Light Brigade fame, and they certainly considered themselves as elite ... cavalry. Then, the govt (a Tory govt it should be noted, the so-called guardians of our armed-forces) took their horses off them in the mid 30s and didn't mechanize the regiment for about two years!

[Red Peasant]

Oh, and they were rather annoyed that they were not allowed to wear their Death's Head regimental badges in case they scared the natives over in Europe. An early case of PC thinking.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

German Elite:

Großdeutschland Divisions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%...hland_Division


Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallsch...nn_G%C3%B6ring

Those are some that I can recall now.

[hoom]

28th NZ (maori) battalion.
Not officially an elite that I'm aware of but:

Lieutenant-General Lord Freyberg,
VC, GCMG, KCB, KBE, DSO

I am proud to be asked by the Maoris to write a foreword to the history of their Battalion, partly because they had such a distinguished fighting record, but also because they were such excellent wartime comrades. Speaking of their military record overseas—I believe that when this history is published, it will be recognised more widely that no infantry battalion had a more distinguished record, or saw more fighting, or, alas, had such heavy casualties as the Maori Battalion.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

German Elite:

Großdeutschland Divisions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%...hland_Division


Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallsch...nn_G%C3%B6ring

Those are some that I can recall now.

1st Shutzstaffel (SS) Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler

3rd Shutzstaffel (SS) Division Totenkopf

12th Shutzstaffel (SS) Panzer Division Hitlerjugend