Yeah, but don't forget it was also Eisenhower who let Operation Market Garden fail to such a drastically extent, which arguably caused the war in the western theatre to go on for about another six months.Treblaine said:
Poll: WWII Military Leaders
- Thread starter SckizoBoy
- Start date
The US and Britain overall. Germany had some good commanders, but they were curb stomped when put on equal footing with the Allies. Their early victories were won by using a type of mechanized warfare which no other country was equipped to fight. Zhukov, however, was overall probably the best commander there. The Soviets may have been the best if Stalin hadn't purged his officer corp shortly before the war began. Rommel was a gentleman and a skilled armored commander, but he had no strategic sense.
German commanders not only decided to fight on a multiple front war, they chose to fight a war of attrition against the Soviet Union who had more than double Germany's population. German commanders launched idiotic offensives like citadel and autumn mist. They took a war that they could have won and completely destroyed their hopes for victory. It doesn't matter if Hitler was running everything, they still went along with it.
Britain had Montgomery, who was not only too cautious, but epic fail operations like market garden were his idea. Montgomery's biggest achievement was defeating the Afrika corp in North Africa, which only happened because the Afrika corp was a rag-tag, under-supplied, assistance force that was pushing the British across North Afrika until they ran out of resources because the Eastern front was gettin 95% priority.
Japanese generals had a pretty decent go for the first six months of the war when they were fighting peasant Chinese soldiers and wiping out under-prepared allied forces. Once the war turned conventional, though, and Japanese generals had to fight a prolonged war, banzai tactics and kamikaze waves couldn't hold up to America's legitimate combat doctrine and technology.
American generals proved they were a higher tier right-off-the-bat by pulling out of the philippines once the Japanese initially attacked because they realized that that area could NOT be defended. McArthur's island hopping campaign of by-passing Japanese strongholds and taking only the necessary ones proved to be the decisive blow to Japan. American Generals devised Operation cobra, which utilized the battle of caen(which was going nowhere) as a distraction to break through German lines in normandy. General Patton, America's greatest general, started an American "Blitzkrieg" that tore through German lines all the way to Germany and left other allied armies in the dust. The battle of the bulge was foreseen by General Eisenhower, who then rushed reinforcements to the area and stopped the German offensive. All these reasons add up to why America had the greatest generals of World War 2.
Sorry for bad paragraphs!
Britain had Montgomery, who was not only too cautious, but epic fail operations like market garden were his idea. Montgomery's biggest achievement was defeating the Afrika corp in North Africa, which only happened because the Afrika corp was a rag-tag, under-supplied, assistance force that was pushing the British across North Afrika until they ran out of resources because the Eastern front was gettin 95% priority.
Japanese generals had a pretty decent go for the first six months of the war when they were fighting peasant Chinese soldiers and wiping out under-prepared allied forces. Once the war turned conventional, though, and Japanese generals had to fight a prolonged war, banzai tactics and kamikaze waves couldn't hold up to America's legitimate combat doctrine and technology.
American generals proved they were a higher tier right-off-the-bat by pulling out of the philippines once the Japanese initially attacked because they realized that that area could NOT be defended. McArthur's island hopping campaign of by-passing Japanese strongholds and taking only the necessary ones proved to be the decisive blow to Japan. American Generals devised Operation cobra, which utilized the battle of caen(which was going nowhere) as a distraction to break through German lines in normandy. General Patton, America's greatest general, started an American "Blitzkrieg" that tore through German lines all the way to Germany and left other allied armies in the dust. The battle of the bulge was foreseen by General Eisenhower, who then rushed reinforcements to the area and stopped the German offensive. All these reasons add up to why America had the greatest generals of World War 2.
Sorry for bad paragraphs!
Germany hands down. They are seriously some of the most brilliant military tacticians I've ever heard/read/watched anything about.
My sentiments exactly! Germany's "Operation Sea Lion" (their attempt to land a food hold on the UK) didn't get anywhere because of the incredible determination Britain saw in this bloody but ultimately victorious battle.LuckyClover95 said:The Germans were excellent as they beat the shit out of a lot of europe, however they couldn't beat a tiny little island less than half their size so I voted Britain. For The Battle Of Britain.
Can argue against that, quite easily.ninja51 said:
1)They won the war? No the Russians did the greatest contribution to germanys defeat.
Previous thread discussing this: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.296731-Poll-Which-WW2-battle-was-more-instrumental-in-defeating-Germany?page=1
2)When Allies landed in Normandy, we were racing to get to Berlin before the russians did, germany was guaranteed to fall to the soviets regardless of what the allies did, even if it would have taken a year or 2 longer.
If you ever try to run, just remember...I have six little friends...and they can all run faster than you can.winter2 said:
OT: Yes, I think Montgomery was the best military commander of the war.
The German commanders are all sadly disqualified for following the orders of an upstart private who insisted on micromanaging every single fucking detail.
Holy christ, give this man a cookie and a beer. The Americans, British, and sadly Canadians, couldn't go a quarter as far combined as the Russians went on their own.Frankster said:
Also, the American commanders made some specifically stupid decisions.
At the end of the day it probably will as Rommel is often considered to be the best German commander and well, Montgomery managed to keep him at bay fairly well so evens.Staskala said:
My vote is on Rommel specifically and germany over all. Rommel I actually know little about in particular but I do know he concentraed more on fighting his enemy than anything else and pulled a few hat tricks.
Th Germans as a whole because initially the german leadership was good and sharp (air force i look at you) but after the inital successes fell into complacency and gluttony that resulted in the cracks forming.
"The attack began well and unquestionably would have been successful except for the intervention of bad weather." This is what General Eisenhower wrote in 1948. And I'm sorry, but if you're the Supreme Commanding General to the U.S. military then you need to factor weather into your planning better.freakonaleash said:
Don't get me wrong, Eisenhower was a brilliant commander, I'm glad we can agree on that, but he authorized Operation Market Garden even though he knew full well that spreading the Allied forces out as broad front would drive the Germans back further.
Admittedly Montgomery himself was responsible for a lot of the mishap, but at least he conceded that he had been in the wrong and didn't just blame it on the weather. Taking responsibility for your actions, even if they have negative consequences is also imperitive to good leadership.
Yeah, but if Hitler hadn't been there, none of this would have started, right? >.>ThisIsSnake said:
(I know someone will disagree with me there, which is why I dislike all this "what if" business so much. Using causality as a method of prediction is futile in situations as complex as these.)
I'll volunteer. Himmler was far more dangerous than Hitler, Hitler just had charisma.Farther than stars said:
How about I agree instead?Farther than stars said:
All the alternative scenarios are especially pointless once you remember that the US had nukes by the end of the war.
Germany could have conquered the Soviet Union (it couldn't) and even held its ground in the West?
All those fancy generation 0 jet engines could have brought back air superiority? (no)
Amazing, but then Berlin and just about everything would have been flattened anyway.