Who was the most accomplished General of WWII

arnhem44

I've often wondered who was the most accomplished general of WWII,many were great leaders of men but still had to answer to superiors in alot of cases which would of in effect of held them back, for example generals of the German and Russian Armies ,others were glory seekers making names for themselves in the war,there seems to be so many from the whole conflict is it possible to pick one?

DublinDes

DublinDes

Morlar

I would have thought the most popular choices would be Rommel or Patton or Bradley. To be honest I would know more about select majors (& lower ranked men) & battles or campaigns than any particular general's progress from the beginning to the end of the war so it's hard to give a useful answer.

Riamfada

Serious answers Des, please.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

Hooch

In terms of accomplishment during and after the war i'd say Omar Bradley. (Last 5 star general of US Army)

marcsignal

An often overlooked General, imo was 'General Winter' in Russia.

It did more damage to the Wehrmacht an terms of loss of equipment, men, and morale than any of it's human adversarial contemporaries.

Delancey

The best general I would have to say was Zhukov ,

The most outstanding military leader I think was CINCPAC Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz

surripere

Having to choose but one, I'd say Manstein.

dresden8

This guy did some amazing stuff on the Eastern Front but he's not very well known.

http://hosted.wargamer.com/Panzer/balck.html

Fratton Fred

There was a lad from Rathmines called Cunningham who played a pretty big role. Control of the Med was vital to get victory in Africa and then invade Italy.

FiSe

Adolf Galland?

Tricky question impossible to answer.
The same question like what was the best tank of WWII, what was the best aircraft of WWII, what was the best ship of WWII, who was the best pilot of WWII.....

Jarren

Hans Guderian

For outflanking the Maginot Line

Erwin Rommel

For the North African campaign

Karl Donitz

For submarine warfare

The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-Boat peril

By Winston Churchill

Black And Proud

surripere wrote: »

Having to choose but one, I'd say Manstein.

He was masterful in what he did. I'd second your choice

Voltex

Black And Proud wrote: »

He was masterful in what he did. I'd second your choice

Agreed
As a stratagest..he was excellent
Rundsted is one id personally admire

kowloon

British General William Slim is often cited as a particularly effective and popular general. His role was a bit obscure though seeing as he was posted in Burma for a lot of the war.

Paul91

Winston Churchill - as he mobilised the UK and commonwealth to eventually win the war

Jako8

I'll say Zhukov.

T "real deal" J

Eric Von Manstein was the most gifted of German generals. Post Stalingrad encirclement at Kharkov probably the greatest achievement of the war.

Could someone please outline examples of Zhukov's tactical astuteness? Admittedly moscow counteroffensive excellent timing (moreso general russian awareness of extreme conditions and German preparatory failing).
Operation Uranus was daring but was more of a group plan by stavka. I'm sure Zhukov was at the forefront.
Subsequent battles executed from a position of overwhelming material and manpower superiority?
not to take anything away from this guy he was a bulldog...but a few examples would be great. thanks

jam_mac_jam

Jako8 wrote: »

I'll say Zhukov.

yep, me too.

Mjollnir

jarecki1976 wrote: »

Hans Guderian

For outflanking the Maginot Line

Erwin Rommel

For the North African campaign

Karl Donitz

For submarine warfare

The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-Boat peril

By Winston Churchill

Not to put too fine a point on it, but really, how difficult and/or important an achievement was it, really, to outflank, or actually just make irrelevant, the Maginot Line?

citizen_p

Wilhelm Mohnke

Morlar

Mjollnir wrote: »

Not to put too fine a point on it, but really, how difficult and/or important an achievement was it, really, to outflank, or actually just make irrelevant, the Maginot Line?

I think the french thought it was pretty important. Not to be pedantic but everything is simple in hindsight, at the time it was not as simple as 'deciding' to go through the ardennes/belgium, the counter moves were quite complicated and involved diversionary forces lined up and put in place to hold the defenders at their soon to be redundant positions. It was not just a move but a complete deception on the french despite their air power etc. Also even though they were effectively bypassed that still left a motivated and large army behind the german lines which were in vast massive fortifications (Metz etc) which had to be dealt with. Having the imagination and foresight and faith/ability to get through in numbers is no mean feat.

Militarily it was (in hindsight) as we all know a monumental mistake (literally) to put that much faith in it but I would argue that defeating it was not as simple as you might think looking at it 70 odd yrs later on a map.

meathstevie

Kurt Student. First ever large scale airborne operations.

Seriously tarnished his record in Crete.

Sephiroth_dude

Rommel.

T "real deal" J

T real deal J wrote: »

Eric Von Manstein was the most gifted of German generals. Post Stalingrad encirclement at Kharkov probably the greatest achievement of the war.

A close second is the Manstein plan. He devised the strategy where the germans went through the Ardennes forest and completely took the french by surprise, enabling a full outflanking and encirlement of the french army. The results were sensational at the time, the world was gobsmacked!

Tony EH

marcsignal wrote: »

An often overlooked General, imo was 'General Winter' in Russia.

It did more damage to the Wehrmacht an terms of loss of equipment, men, and morale than any of it's human adversarial contemporaries.

Unfortunately, it didn't discriminate between friendly and enemy forces though. The Soviets suffered from "General Winter" too.


Tony

Tony EH

Zhukov for the Allies.

Manstein for the Germans in attack and Heinrici for them in defence.

Yamamoto for the Japanese Navy.




Tony

Lockstep

marcsignal wrote: »

An often overlooked General, imo was 'General Winter' in Russia.

It did more damage to the Wehrmacht an terms of loss of equipment, men, and morale than any of it's human adversarial contemporaries.

Extremely true.

Zhukov. Rommel was devestatingly efficient as well.

Selah_Nova

Howya's,
Probably a bit late in the day but Id say Tomoyuki Yamashi-ta who took Singapore. He out flanked the british army by landing behind their main defense line, then, armed not with tanks but with that most deadly of weapons, the bicycle, they cycled down the Malay Penninsula and despite being outnumbered about 3 to 1, he and his three divisional commanders pulled one of the greatest bluffs of the whole war and took the surrender of 'fortress Singapore' from the prick who burnned Mallow and Cork during the war of Independence.
Yamashi-ta surrendered in Sep 45 in the Phillipines, theres some wild speculation about all the gold the Japs had plundered and hid there but thats another story. Guess who's there to see him surrender? that non-vindictive black and tan prick, who probably played no small part in seeing 'The Tiger of Malaya' hang for war crimes he did not order.