The world’s most fearsome military units

 The world’s most fearsome military units

I guess it’s really up to the circumstances isn’t it? Any American unit would do if you wanted shit blown up in addition to being trained quite well, a British unit for sheer stubbornness and willpower, Russian for ruthlessness… but in my opinion, the most fearsome means the best of the best


These three guys are part of the Kommando Spezialkräfte Marine, also known as the Kampfschwimmers.

This German unit I am referencing right here isn’t the most publicised like the Navy SEALs of the USA and SAS of the UK, and tends to lurk in the shadows. In fact, over the years, KSM numbers have decreased tenfold since the 90s, at which point they had only an estimated four thousand active members. (I've been let know that these numbers are due to the Kampfschwimmer being merged with a minesweeping group as support staff or something like that.) For roughly a decade, the dropout rate for training was 100%, meaning no-one made the cut, leading to the authorities questioning whether standards should be lowered.

To provide an idea of how tough these “Frogmen” are, I’ll insert a little Wikipedia paragraph in here (and yes, I know Wikipedia isn’t known for its unwavering pinpoint accuracy). “ At the final examination they have to swim about 30 km with full equipment in the Baltic Sea to reach the beach after being discharged at the sea.”

So, to real quick give you an idea of that 30km swim, that’s just two kilometres shy of swimming the English channel at its narrowest point… in full combat gear.

Germany has come a long way military-wise since its complete dismantlement after WW2, and their special forces leave little more to be desired…

Edit: I’ve been informed by a very helpful Frank Taeger that the KSM is in actuality much smaller than I anticipated, and the numbers were inflated due to merging with German minesweepers until roughly 2003.

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