The Italian Xa Flottiglia MAS are considered the inspiration for the US Navy Seals. They conducted unconventional underwater warfare in WW2, attaching pilot-able torpedoes to the bottom of ships hulls and sank various British freighters, tankers, the Cruiser HMS York, and the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth. For the various schedules they had to strictly keep to and to keep attention on the timers for bombs, they had used the first "navy divers watch" which was made by Panerai. The watch series is called luminor because the face would illuminate based on a uronium based paint which was applied to the numbers on the dial. It was highly poisonous for the workers that would paint the watch face, but this came at a time where the dangers of radiation aren't very well known. The luminor certainly made a permanent glow, however, and these watches have become a huge collector piece among watch enthusiasts. Here is an article that explains the story pretty well:

http://www.timekeeperforum.com/blog/battle-beneath-the-waves-panarai-and-the-decima-flottigila-mas-3

If you want to read a great biography of a soldier in the The Großdeutschland Division, check out The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer.

Check out the 7th Panzer Division's French Campaign under Rommel in the Spring/Summer of 1940. They were nicknamed the "Ghost Division" because they would move so quickly that the whole division would effectively disappear overnight and reappear 50 miles away the next morning. Rommel had no qualms about acting in the absence of orders from higher command, and would take the initiative when he saw fit, which was devastatingly effective in the French campaign.

Like other people have mentioned the Grossdeutschland Division was likely the best known Heer division.

The common people were often more interessted in persons like famous U-Boot commanders and high scoring pilots later in the war high profile tank commanders like Wittmann.

A good way to meassure exposure of individual soldiers is the Wehrmachtsbericht.

Hans Joachim Marseille with 150 victories was called "the Star of Africa". He was mentioned 6 times

U-Boot Commander Prien was mentioned 8 times for example.

Obviously a lot of well performing generals got attention.

The Waffen SS divisions like LSSAH or Das Reich were known for their impressive combat records.

The Japanese government celebrated the Japanese Army Air Force's 64th Sentai and its early war commander Katō Tateo. The 1944 Toho propaganda film Kato hayabusa sento-tai used captured Allied aircraft (and some models) to depict Katō's bravery and skill. Ironically, the JAAF's pilots and planes were more publicized in the Home Islands than the Imperial Navy's aviators; the exact reverse of how American public conceptions of Japanese aviation where all planes were Zeroes.