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I think Rommel said, and I apologise to the people who know the correect quote,

"Give me German armour, Italian Artillery and Australian Infantry and I will conquer the world" or words to that respect.

Now in WWI among the Commonwealth, the Canadians were reckoned to be the most disciplined, the Aussies had the most flair and the Kiwis the most desirable combination of both.

I suppose in short it is clear that all of these troops had their moments (good and bad)and any argument about who is the best could go around and around in circles. I suspect that the Dominian troops should be fairly even, and perhaps a tad better than the British (but often not as well equipped).

As for the Finns....The Germans can thank them for teaching the Russians how to fight properly in winter.

In a book written by Brigadier Desmond Young, simply entitled "Rommel", published in 1950 it says, and I quote....

"The Australians he considered rough, particularly with the Italians, but it was the sort of roughness which amused him and did not show "a bad heart." He ranked Austrlalians highly as individual fighting-men but thought that they were inclined to get out of hand.He would have liked a division of them but remarked that an army of Australians would not be an easy command. The South Africans he considered good material but too raw, though he gave credit to their armoured cars and acknowledged that they later fought very well at Alemein. For the New Zealanders he had a great and lasting admiration. They were, he always maintained to Alfred*, Aldinger* and others, the finest troops on our side.
The British he respected - as promising amateurs. He even went so far as to admit that, for small, independent operations, requiring great personal initiative, such as those of the Long Range Desert Group and the SAS, they were better than the Germans, who would not have had the same confidence or shown so much enterprise far behind enemy lines........"

* Manfreed was Rommel's son and Aldinger was Rommel's "Ordonnanzoffizier", a "combination of personnal assistant, camp commandant, ADC and private secretary" in France in 1940, in North Africa and in Normandy in 1944. He also served in the same battalion sa Rommel in the first world war.

Sorry for the monologue....

By the way..I'm an Aussie

If anyone would like to help me, I would like to co-develop a scenerio based on Dieppe. I don't think I have time enough to devote to it, but if someone would split it with me 50-50 I think I could get it done. Let me know at jsaurman@hotmail.com