Military Power

To be in the Special Forces you have to be the best of the best. But which Special Forces group is the best? This topic is open to All brances of service and Special Forces teams from All countries. What do you think is the top 5 Special Forces groups in the world?

My votes would have to go to Spetsnaz, SEALs, SAS, Mossad, and Green Berets

1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D), Special Air Service (SAS), Ha-Mosad le-Modi'in u-le-Tafkidim Meyuhadim, Spetsnaz, SEALs

KnightTemplar wrote:1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1st SFOD-D)

hmmm.... Forgot about Delta.... Probably have to replace the Green Berets with them.

I suppose that, like most people, I had rather assumed that the origins of Special Forces lay in the formation of the SAS in North Africa during the Second World War. It came as a bit of a surprise therefore to discover that the German Army during the First World War had at least two units of what we today would call ‘Special Forces’.

These were the independent Jägersturmbataillons. They contained only the fittest and most athletic of young men, who were proud to belong to such élite units. They did not do trench duty but spent their time practising a mixture of athletic and military activities-sprint races, grenade throwing, obstacle courses, jumping, trench fighting etc. They held competitions at which books by patriotic German authors were often awarded to the prize-winners.

The Jägersturmbataillons were used as assault infantry for special attacks and when an important ‘snatch’ of enemy prisoners had to be made in a night trench raid. A specially chosen group of Jägers would carry out the raid and then, on returning to the German trenches, were whisked back to the rear with any prisoners they had taken before the inevitable enemy artillery retaliation arrived. For this and because they did not do ordinary trench duty and received special rations of meat, the Jägers were (understandably) not very popular with the ordinary German infantry.