The following article comprises a list of military units, paramilitary groups, irregular armies, and other related armed formations alike that are named after various renowned individuals.
In addition to the official military and sub-military forces of various nations (both current and historical), this list also includes armed formations that are not under government administration such as volunteer militias, mercenary units, insurgent rebel groups, militant wings of political parties, extrajudicial death squads, guerilla armies, Private military companies, and terrorist-designated organizations.
However, combat units whose names include a particular ideological movement in them which happens to be derived after a certain individual it is associated with (e.g. “Marxist–Leninist”, “Sandinista” or “Christianity”) are not to be included in this article. For example, Guevarista Revolutionary Army would not be a permitted entry as the "Guevarista" part in its name refers to Guevarism, an eponymous political ideology named after communist revolutionary Che Guevara.
The Waffen-SS was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. It was disbanded in May 1945.
The 82nd Airborne Division is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army specializing in parachute assault operations into hostile areas with a U.S. Department of Defense mandate to be "on-call to fight any time, anywhere" at "the knife's edge of technology and readiness." Primarily based at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, the 82nd Airborne Division is part of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 82nd Airborne Division is the U.S. Army's most strategically mobile division.
Bronislav Vladislavovich Kaminski was a Soviet Nazi collaborator and the commander of the Kaminski Brigade, an anti-partisan and rear-security formation made up of people from the so-called Lokot Autonomy territory (1941–1943) in part of the German-occupied area of the Soviet Union. The Kaminski Brigade later became part of the Waffen-SS as the SS Sturmbrigade RONA. Under Kaminski's command, the unit committed numerous war crimes and atrocities in the German-occupied Soviet Union and in Poland. The unit is regarded as one of the most brutal units, with Kaminski himself feared by his subordinates. Kaminski's behavior made the Germans lose confidence in him: in August 1944, he was court-martialed and executed. His brigade was later disbanded and its remaining personnel absorbed into General Andrey Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army.
The Dirlewanger Brigade, also known as the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger (1944), or the 36th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, or The Black Hunters, was a unit of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The unit, named after its commander Oskar Dirlewanger, consisted of convicted criminals. Originally formed from convicted poachers in 1940 and first deployed for counter-insurgency duties against the Polish resistance movement, the brigade saw service in German-occupied Eastern Europe, with an especially active role in the anti-partisan operations in Belarus. The unit is regarded as the most brutal and notorious Waffen-SS unit, with its soldiers described as the "ideal genocidal killers who neither gave nor expected quarter". The unit is regarded as the most infamous Waffen-SS unit in Poland and Belarus, and arguably the worst military unit in modern European history based off its criminality and cruelty.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, also known as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, is the military wing of the Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist organization Hamas. Led by Mohammed Deif until his presumed death on 13 July 2024, the Al-Qassam Brigades is the largest and best-equipped militia operating within the Gaza Strip in recent years.
The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar was a mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, an armed branch of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. From March to December 1944, the division fought a counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state of Germany that encompassed almost all of modern-day Croatia, all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia.
Operation Rösselsprung was a combined airborne and ground assault by the German XV Mountain Corps and collaborationist forces on the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Partisans in the Bosnian town of Drvar in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. It was launched 25 May 1944, with the goal of capturing or killing Partisan leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito and destroying the headquarters, support facilities and co-located Allied military missions. It is associated with the Seventh Enemy Offensive in Yugoslav history, forming part of the Seven Enemy Offensives historiographical framework. The airborne assault itself is also known as the Raid on Drvar.
The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army, is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the most senior posts in the armed forces, and has the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the combined services. The Syrian Army originated in local military forces formed by the French after World War I, after France obtained a mandate over the region. It officially came into being in 1945, before Syria obtained full independence the following year.
The 23rd Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army that saw active service in the First World War, mainly on the Western Front During the Second World War, the brigade saw active service in the Syria-Lebanon Campaign, the Western Desert Campaign, and the Burma Campaign.
The Syrian Republican Guard, also known as the Presidential Guard, is an elite 25,000 man praetorian guard unit in the Syrian Army, and is reportedly at a corps size with around 60,000 guardsmen. It is composed of two mechanized divisions with its main purpose to protect the capital of Syria, Damascus, from any foreign or domestic threats. The Republican Guard was the only Syrian military unit allowed within the capital before the civil war. It is designed to defend the President as well as the major presidential and strategic institutions, including the presidential palaces.
The Second Battle of Ramadi was fought during the Iraq War from March 2006 to November 2006, for control of the capital of the Al Anbar Governorate in western Iraq. A joint US military force under the command 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division and Iraqi Security Forces fought insurgents for control of key locations in Ramadi. Coalition strategy relied on establishing a number of patrol bases called Combat Operation Posts throughout the city.
The 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade "Kholodnyi Yar" is a formation of the Ukrainian Ground Forces formed in 1992. It has been described as "one of the most brutally effective" of Ukraine’s front-line brigades.
The Islamic Emirate Commandos is a commando force of the Islamic Emirate Army. During the Taliban insurgency, the commandos comprised 7% of the Afghan National Security Forces but conducted 70% to 80% of the fighting. The structure of the unit was based on the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.
The Cyprus Turkish Peace Force Command is the Turkish garrison in Cyprus. In 1974 Turkish troops invaded Cyprus following a Greek Cypriot coup d'état which wanted to force union with Greece, occupying the northern third of the island. The invasion force consisted of about 40,000 soldiers and 200 tanks. It outnumbers the Greek military contingent on the island, which is supplemented by the Greek Cypriot National Guard consisting of 12,000 active and 75,000 reserves. Air reinforcement of the Turkish troops can be effected, if necessary, within hours.
The 5th Mechanized Division is a mechanized infantry division of the Syrian Arab Army. The division is part of the Syrian Army's 1st Corps.
The following units and commanders participated in the Lorraine campaign from September 1 to December 18, 1944.
The 17th Reserve Division is a formation of the Syrian Army responsible for north-eastern Syria. It is one of two autonomous reserve divisions of the Syrian Arab Army, the other being the 18th Armoured Division. The 17th Division is part of the 3rd Corps.
The 83rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II.
Liwa al-Quds or the Jerusalem Brigade is a predominantly Syrian Palestinian brigade that operates as a part of pro-Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Since 2019, it is part of the Syrian Army's 5th Assault Corps. It was formed in 2013 by the engineer Muhammad al-Sa'eed. The fighters who call themselves the 'Syrian Arab Army Fedayeen' are active in Aleppo and Daraa. The brigade is composed of Sunni Palestinians from the Neirab camp and Ein Al-Tal camp as well as reconciled rebels.
The 25th Special Mission Forces Division, mostly known by their former name Tiger Forces or Quwwat al-Nimr, is an elite formation of the Syrian Arab Army under the charge of the commander Major General Saleh Abdullah. It was formed in late 2013 and functions primarily as an offensive unit in the Syrian Civil War. It has been described as a "hot commodity for any government offensive", but their relatively small numbers make it difficult to deploy them to multiple fronts at once.
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