LimaBravo said:
The Ghurka would proceed to make a snowman & them kill the enemy with it. I have no doubt, Frosty would be a icon of terror in East if the Ghurkas ever made it that far north. Wow artillery no shit thats terrifying ( http://www.mail-archive.com/cybershooters@mail-it.com/msg00640.html ). Surely no man could brave some artillery. Oh wait just the Nepalese in the house raise your hands ( http://www.nepalesekhukuri.com/vcs.html ).
Hmmkay Praetorian guards were wealthy Roman soldiers who didnt want to fight afield in addition to the name being synonymous with intrigue, conspiracy, disloyalty and assassination. Et tu bruti.
Mongolian horsemen, I assume you mean the Hun, as after the Hunnic period their force strength declined dramatically. Medieval was a large period of time & knight strengths varied dramatically. Hungarian knights could kick anyones ass for the longest time & the French heavy armour certainly gave them a leg up but the quality of comparative fighting strength varies. Its kinda like saying all modern armies .... some are alot more fragile than others.
British Highlander Redcoats ? What you mean the Scotsmen who betrayed their country to slaughter women & children ? Or do you mean the guys that took 30 years to figure out how to deal with untrained rabble charging down a hill at them.
Because before the farce that was Culloden & the lack of useful French input (Theres a shocker) the highlanders chopped the red coats into little tiny undignified pieces. Jesus even the few times they had the advantage they were chased off by by men in their nightshirts.
As to the bravery of pilots. Yesssssssssss It takes a brave man to get into a plane, fly 400 knots & 4000 feet across a battlefield in total safety & your only threat being flying low & slow & other planes must be terrifying for the poor men of the air corp. They must be so releived when they get home in time for tea & biscuits. /sarcsm.
Thank you, you have caused me to fall off my chair. You have had to resort to using crude language and plain untrue statements. Tells me something about just how mature your view of debating is.
The roman pretorians may have been backstabbing and selfish, yes. Has that anyhting to do with badassitude? NO. When they did go to battle, they made short work of their foes. If you know history as you claim, you can not deny it. Roman pretorians were not only made of rich nobles from italy, but also thracian, armenian and samarthian horsemen. Yes, pretorian cavalry, the orgins of the medieval knights. Heavily armed and armoured, crushed their enemies in a VERY badass way. Look it up.
Mongolian horsemen. NOT THE HUNS. (the huns are not a single people, but a collection of nomads and outlaws from the eastern Europe steppes and beyond, 5th century) The mongols who conquered almost the entire world. in the 11th century they slaughtered teutonic, polish and hungarian knights in their thousands. The only thing that stopped tehm from sweeping to the Atlantic was a funeral ceremony that called the generals back. Along with them, the army disbanded. The mongols were unstoppable against the other armies in the world at the time. Politics killed them, not an enemy.
The medieval knights are indeed a wide category. In the beginning of the medieval era, in the 6th century, mounted, armoured horsemen dominated the European battlefields. The king of Franks, Charles the great, created the social class of knights. Although knights were different all over Europe, the basic principle is the same: Better armoured, better armed, better trained and professional. Their only purpose was to fight, and they did. A lot. Until firearms and high grade armour were availabe in great numbers, knights were nearly invincible. Of course, more modern tactics could still defeat them (Porties, Agincourt, Bannocburn, etc), but knights were the most badass warriors in Europe in the middle ages. No matter wether the knights were polish, english, hungarian, french or spanish.
British "highlanders", redcoats. (A general term for a soldier of the british empire) The soldiers who enforced the worldwide British empire in the 19th century. The soldiers who fought everywhere, in every conditions imaginable, against nearly everything, including nature. The sodiers who took the bulk of fighting in Waterloo. It doesn't matter one bit what you think of their cause, but they were badass. Lack of honour or a moral compass won't make them any less badass. That's the point of this thread!
Then, fighter pilots. Think of WW1 planes. Would you get in one and do what no one had done before? I think not. A pile of canvas and piping strapped to an engine they called a plane was incredibly dangerous to fly. It wasn't a cheerful job to clatter to the skies to fight other equally non self-preservant nutters. Go ahead and fly one yourself. Try the Sopwith camel.
Next WW, and who were the most cracked and overworked military personel of the war? Pilots, airmen, the lot. Especially german pilots, they were constantly on full alert and had no leaves. I wrote too hastily about "all fighter pilots", modern fighter pilots are not as badass as the ones form the past, too many computers and technology.
