Nazis- is there anything worse in this world?
Well, yes, and that's Nazi zombies, but luckily we're not dealing with any master race zombies
today.
Nope, instead today we're dealing with the living, breathing variety, in our latest installment
of who would win?
A modern soldier or a World War II Nazi?
The date is 1941, and the war in Europe is going swimmingly for Adolf Hitler.
France is defeated, Britain's been holed up in its little island kingdom, and the offensive
against the Soviets is one stunning success after another.
It's definitely springtime for Hitler- even though it's late fall- and in a blitzkrieg
of ecstasy the Nazi ruler inspects the secret Nazi labs building a reverse-engineered UFO,
genetically engineering blue-eyed blonde-haired master race clones, and of course, a time
machine to kidnap Einstein and force him to build a nuclear bomb for Germany.
Skeptical of his scientists' claims to have built a functioning time machine, Hitler asks
one of his guards to give it a test try.
“Hey, Hans,” Hitler says, “Why not hop in, give the glorious future of the Third
Reich a peek, and come back here and tell me all about how amazing Nazi Germany is in
the year 2020?”
Not one to disappoint his Fuhrer, Hans the Nazi steps into the German time machine, and
with the press of a button, he disappears into thin air!
It's now 2020, and Hans the Nazi has reappeared smack-dab in the middle of Rammstein military
base, the largest American overseas base and bulwark of NATO's power in Europe.
Stumbling straight into an American soldier, Hans realizes that the future has gone horribly
wrong, and now he's about to taste the business end of freedom as we pit Hans the Nazi against
a modern American soldier and figure out who would win.
We'll break down piece by piece the training and equipment of each individual soldier,
and figure out ultimately who would come on top.
When it comes to training, the similarities between a modern American soldier and a Nazi
soldier are plentiful.
The Nazi soldier would have entered into basic training with an advanced knowledge of firearms
and even some infantry tactics thanks to the prevalence of the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany.
Boys were greatly encouraged to join the Hitler Youth as early as 14, a nationalistic program
that was something like the Boy Scouts in the USA- only with a much greater emphasis
on national pride, hating Jews, and learning to fight.
Run by World War I veterans, the resentment over Germany's loss was instilled in the young
generations, and Hitler was no fool- he spent years preparing many of Germany's young boys
to become soldiers.
Modern America lacks any such program, and most recruits to the military come from a
normal, civilian background.
Once entering military training though, the training of both was very similar.
A nazi soldier would endure 16 weeks of initial training before being sent to their unit where
they would receive additional training.
Our modern American soldier however will have undergone 8 weeks of training to turn him
from a civilian to a soldier, and then an additional 16 weeks of infantry school to
teach him how to dominate any battlefield.
Nazi soldiers had very good, all-around training, and the benefit of many World War I veterans
to learn from.
Unlike other nations, Nazi soldiers also received familiarity training with other weapons that
may be attached to their unit, specially the machine gun.
Modern American training mirrors this model, and an American infantryman is not just familiar
with every weapon his platoon may carry, but often has to qualify on several of them to
prove his proficiency.
All-around, the modern American soldier is more experienced than even a pre-WWII Nazi
soldier leaving initial training, and while Nazi trainees had the benefit of World War
I veterans, modern American soldiers have the benefit of veteran trainers who have spent
numerous tours in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Yet the Nazi soldier enjoyed the benefit of a much greater degree of discipline, and a
familiarity to military manuevers that stem from his years in the Hitler Youth.
When it comes to training, we're going to call it even on both sides, but the Nazi soldier
and his years of fanaticism spent in the Hitler Youth will get the edge over our American
soldier when it comes to fitness and willingness to fight.
In hand-to-hand combat, our American soldier will have received more, and better training
than our Nazi soldier.
Nazi soldiers could expect to learn some basic hand-to-hand and boxing techniques, but modern
American soldiers have for decades learned mixed martial arts techniques.
A brutal and decisive martial arts program, in the early 2000s the entire US military
martial arts program had to be re-focused due to a lack of training in non-lethal restraint
techniques.
When it comes to hand-to-hand combat, our American soldier edges out on top, thanks
to decades of experience and evolution of military training.
Both soldiers had options available to them other than bare fists though, and in a slug
match, our combatants would've quickly turned to these secondary tools to achieve victory.
Our Nazi soldier would have carried the seitengewehr 98 knife/bayonet.
Featuring an almost 15 inch blade, this deadly knife could be affixed to the front of the
rifle as a bayonet.
American soldiers often carry a knife as well, but most iconic is the American entrenching
tool, or e-tool for short.
A folding shovel with surprisingly sharp edges, the e-tool allows an American soldier to quickly
dig himself a fighting position in any soil, but also serves as a truly devastating hand-to-hand
weapon.
A single swing from an e-tool is enough to split an enemy's skull open, or even deliver
a head-rattling concussion through a protective helmet.
Given the obvious advantages of a short stabbing weapon and an axe-like swinging weapon, we're
only going to barely give our American soldier the win here simply because unlike the Nazi
knife, the American e-tool can also be used to quickly dig a fighting position, giving
it more utility in a combat situation.
At close range, the Nazi soldier wielded the iconic Walther P38, a pistol that became famous
as Allied soldiers sought them out as war souvenirs.
Incredibly the P38 is still in use around the world, including in Afghanistan where
insurgent forces have routinely used them against NATO soldiers.
Firing a 9mm bullet, the P38 has a maximum range of 50 meters, and was accurate enough
to have an effective firing range of 25-50 meters.
With a muzzle velocity of 320 meters a second, the P38 had impressive stopping power for
its small size.
With only an 8 round magazine though, the P38 wouldn't have allowed a Nazi soldier to
maintain fire on a target for very long, instead relying on accuracy rather than volume of
fire.
Our American soldier counters the Nazi P38 with the Beretta M9.
The favorite of most Resident Evil games, the M9 has been in service since the 1980s.
An extremely reliable weapon, the M9 packs a 9mm round with a 15 round magazine, giving
our modern soldier a greater firing capacity before needing to reload.
The weapon has muzzle velocity of 381 meters per second, giving it greater penetration
than the Nazi P38, and had a maximum firing range of over twice the Nazi weapon, at 100
meters and 50 meters for maximum effective range.
With twice the maximum and effective firing ranges, and nearly twice the capacity, the
win here clearly goes to the modern American soldier and his trusty M9.
For medium and long-range engagement, our Nazi soldier carries the Karabiner 98k, standard
issue rifle of the German army in World War II.
An extremely reliable battle rifle, the K98k saw action on battlefields from Africa to
the Russian eastern front, and operated just as well in mud and rain as in snow and ice.
The weapon features a 7.92 mm caliber round, which would deliver catastrophic damage if
it hit a target thanks to its size and muzzle velocity of 760 meters a second.
The rifle had an effective firing range of 500 meters with iron sights, though it could
still deliver accurate fire out to 1,000 meters with a telescopic sight.
Its maximum range of 4,700 meters meant that even at extreme distances the rifle may have
been inaccurate, but could still be deadly if a shot happened to land on target.
Unfortunately the rifle was limited by a 5 round capacity, giving it almost no capability
to suppress a target.
Instead, German infantry relied on accuracy, and accompanying machine guns, to neutralize
enemy forces.
Our American soldier brings his trusty M4 Carbine to this fight.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the M4 performs incredibly well in a variety of environments,
and anyone who's ever had to use one in the field- instead of reading about it on internet
articles- knows that the rifle has no problem firing even when mucked up with dirt and grime.
Where the rifle comes up a bit short is in stopping power, as it chambers a 5.56 round
in a thirty round magazine that has for a long time been called deficient by its operators
for not delivering enough stopping power for a first-round kill.
However, its muzzle velocity of 910 meters a second combined with steel penetrator munition
gives it great functionality against body armor.
Its maximum effective range of 500 meters for a point target, and 600 meters for a range
target give it considerable reach.
Additionally, the M4 offers selective fire capabilities, allowing its user to fire single
rounds for long-range accurate fire, or 3-round bursts for close quarters combat.
When it comes to range, both rifles are tied with both having a maximum effective range
for a point- or man-sized target- of 500 meters using just iron sights.
Our soldiers won't be fighting much further out than that from each other though, so ranges
beyond this are largely meaningless and it would be hard to see your target anyways.
The K98k outshines the M-4 with its far larger round, which would be devastating at close
to medium ranges.
However, with a much lower muzzle velocity than the M-4, the lethality of that big round
drastically decreases the further it has to travel- to the point that the first one or
two shots will be easily stopped by the standard body armor carried by American infantry at
most ranges.
By comparison, the greater magazine capacity and faster firing rate of the M-4 give the
modern American soldier an unparalleled advantage in a fire fight, as well as the ability to
switch to 3-round burst fire for close quarters combat.
Able to deliver three devastating rounds with one squeeze means that at close range the
M4 trumps the K98k, but with its superior magazine size and firing rate the M-4 comes
out on top at medium to long ranges as well.
If our Nazi soldier happened to time travel with a telescopic sight though, our American
infantryman had better close the distance fast, because the K98k could deliver accurate
fire at ranges the M4 couldn't hope to touch.
At close to medium ranges, we're giving the win to the modern American soldier.
But at extremely long range, the win easily goes to the Nazi soldier and his ability to
reach out and touch someone up to 1,000 yards away with stunning accuracy.
In the end, our time-traveling Nazi has the advantage in physical and mental fitness thanks
to his years spent in nationalistic Hitler Youth training programs, and has the advantage
in extreme long range fire thanks to the accuracy and range of the K98k rifle.
However in every other area the modern American soldier dominates, thanks to an evolution
in training programs over the last 80 years and greatly upgraded modern equipment.
Maybe you disagree though- which of the two do you think would actually win in a one-on-one
fight to the death?
Let us know in the comments, and now that you're at the end, why not keep the watch
party going by clicking the video over here, or perhaps you'd rather watch this one here
instead?!
Hurry up and click one, unlike our combatants today- you can't lose!