The three greatest military minds of the last 100 years?

[SoulAssassin]

Whoever is leading the war against us in Iraq.

 

[compman25]

Originally posted by: Jadow
Mine:

Oddball
Kelly
and
Big Joe

From Kelly's Heroes.

:thumbsup:

 

[ranmaniac]

http://sfw.7chan.org/cat/src/120000986722.jpg

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: MrToilet

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Hitler

Heh, yeah, if he wasn't a complete raving psychopath.

It's amazing how *close* the Germans came to winning WWII multiple times, and equally mind-boggling how idiotic Hitler was during those times.

The Germans had tactical and material superiority for the first 3 years of the war (pre-U.S.), better armaments, a better trained army, better officers, and still Hitler found ways to screw it up.

its impossiable to win a war fighting on 2 fronts, if he didnt attack russia and just solidified his hold on the rest or europe, things would be a lot different today

 

[Starbuck1975]

I always felt Mac was overrated. The Inchon landing was not a unique idea, since he had a military that had made a few hundred amphibious landings in WW2, still had the equipment and training for it, so it was only natural for a commander to consider one in Korea.

True, but MacArthur, in his understanding of logistics, struck the North Korean supply lines by landing behind enemy lines...sure the landing was old hat to American forces, but Inchon was still a very risky and ambitious operation by any standard...envelopments require a great deal of strategic thought and tactical proficiency.

As Napoleon once said, amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: MrToilet

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Hitler

Heh, yeah, if he wasn't a complete raving psychopath.

It's amazing how *close* the Germans came to winning WWII multiple times, and equally mind-boggling how idiotic Hitler was during those times.

The Germans had tactical and material superiority for the first 3 years of the war (pre-U.S.), better armaments, a better trained army, better officers, and still Hitler found ways to screw it up.

its impossiable to win a war fighting on 2 fronts, if he didnt attack russia and just solidified his hold on the rest or europe, things would be a lot different today

His point is that despite the impossibility, the Germans were at lady victory's doorstep. Recon units closed within 20 miles of Moscow itself and, if Hitler had no ordered the 1st and 3rd (IIRC) panzer divisions out of the drive on Moscow they might have captured it. Sure, it's a hypothetical, but it shows how close they really were.

 

[IronWing]

Pabster. I've read his stuff. I'm a believer.

 

[Auric]

Rommel = cliche answer... overrated

Patton = overrated given advantages in materiel... uber mechanization and total air superiority versus his enemy

Churchill = asshat: Gallipoli, Norway, Dieppe, Dresden, &c.

So, it's certainly not those three but I don't know otherwise.

 

[foghorn67]

Patton, Rommel, and Halsey.

 

[Maximilian]

Heinz Guderian, except for his dislike of that "Guderians duck" Jagdpanzer model which turned out pretty nicely i gather.

 

[Pocatello]

Ummm, I'm the greatest general ever. I have conquered the world in Rome Total War numerous times and done it again in Medieval II Total War. Alexander the Great and Caesar never managed that!

 

[silverpig]

Capt. Winters... oh, and Spears. That guy was badass.

 

[MrToilet]

Originally posted by: BlinderBomber

Originally posted by: MrToilet

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Hitler

Heh, yeah, if he wasn't a complete raving psychopath.

It's amazing how *close* the Germans came to winning WWII multiple times, and equally mind-boggling how idiotic Hitler was during those times.

The Germans had tactical and material superiority for the first 3 years of the war (pre-U.S.), better armaments, a better trained army, better officers, and still Hitler found ways to screw it up.

The last part of your assessment isn't quite correct. The Germans did not have a material or manpower superiority after they attacked the Russians. In fact, what drove the Germans to adopt tactics like Liddell Hart's was their knowledge that the next war would most likely involve Russia and France.

As for the quality of their weapons, that's questionable too. German tanks weren't better, by any means, than their French counterparts. German tanks had two unique advantages early in the war which made their victories possible - more radios and better organization.

The Germans massed their tanks into the now-famous Panzer units, unlike the French who spread them out among their infantry units to act as support. Hence, when German armor appeared, the technically superior French tanks were also outnumbered and unable to offer resistance.

The Germans didn't dominate the French and Russians for three years through superior manpower or through vastly greater technology: it was their doctrine that decided nearly all the major engagements. As the war dragged on the Allies improved the quality and quantity of their weapons they also embraced many of the tactics that had made the Germans so successful earlier in the war. The emblematic battle of the war has to rest at Kursk where the Russians were so well-aware of what the Germans were planning to do that they laid the perfect trap. (though Kursk is an interesting side-story in and of itself).

Whoops, forgot to include that caveat: Pre-Russian invasion. It just amazes me how stupid Hitler was by attacking his "ally" just to get more materiel. Can you imagine a Europe being split between Hitler/the Nazi party and Stalin/USSR right now? Absolutely nuts.

And by manpower I meant quality of troops, not necessarily numbers...the Germans had better trained soldiers and better tactics, definitely, at the onset of WW2.

Makes me want to play Axis and Allies Europe again. What a great game.

 

[IAteYourMother]

Napoleon

edit: was not from the last 100 years. fail.

 

[CorCentral]

You guys are all wrong......

#1 would have to be Oddball from Kelly's Heroes!

ODDBALL--

These engines are the fastest in any tanks in the European Theater of Operations, forwards or backwards. You see, man, we like to feel we can get out of trouble, quicker than we got into it.

Kelly--

[looking skeptical] Got any other secret weapons?

ODDBALL--

Well, yeah, man, you see, like, all the tanks we come up against are bigger and better than ours, so all we can hope to do is, like, scare 'em away, y'know. This gun is an ordinary 76mm but we add this piece of pipe onto it, and the Krauts think, like, maybe it's a 90mm. We got our own ammunition, it's filled with paint. When we fire it, it makes pretty pictures, scares the hell outta people! And we have a loudspeaker, when we go into battle we play music, very loud. It kind of... calms us down.

:laugh:


EDIT: Damn someone beat me to it..... Well I gave a few added movie lines so there

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: TehMac

Originally posted by: invidia
Adolf, Goering, and Himmler

fail.


Hitler was not even assassinated because they realized he could do a better job of fucking things up for the Germans much quicker than the allies could do!

Hitler tried to veto the assault rifles, the MP 43, MP44, and STGs because he thought "they looked inartistic."

Great military mind.

You need to get a little more well informed.

Regardless, you can't take away from the fact that he did control a very LARGE part of Europe for a time and that's impressive. Besides, who cares about the assault rifles thing when you look at his strategies during certain times of the war? As one person above said, there were times they had the chance to do serious damage/win and they didn't.

To me, that would take away from his greatness as a military leader much more than his random crazy traits.

 

[techs]

Hitler had little to do with the strategy of blitzkrieg. That was developed by the German armed forces. Hitler just told them who and when to attack.
Hitlers early success was mostly due to the correct decisions his military made in anticipating how to fight the war.
Which doesn't make Hitler a great military mind at all.

 

[Exterous]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975
MacArthur: The Inchon landing during the Korean War, probably one of the most decisive and ambitious military envelopments in modern history.

Heinz Guderian & Gerd von Rundstedt: The architect and implementer of the blitzkrieg tactics.

Definitely under rated on this topic. IMO better than Rommel as Guderian was the innovator of modern tank tactics. We would have heard a lot more about him if he had stayed on Hitler's good side.

Edit: I would add Yamamoto as, as i under stand it, he basically brought naval aviation to the forefront of modern warefare

 

[StinkyPinky]

The guy in charge of the British side in the Battle of Britain must rank up there. That was a pivotal battle in WW2 too. If they had lost, Britain would have been open for a land invasion.

 

[BrownTown]

Hitler would definitely go on my WORST military minds of the last 100 years, if it weren't for his stupidity Germany would have actually won the war. I mean opening up a second front against the largest military in the world at the time before you have even won the first front ranks absolutely first among stupidest moves ever in military history. The day that Hitler invaded Russia the war was over, the USA could never have done a thing against Germany and just kept Japan occupied and Germany would still have lost.

As for BEST, I would have to rate whoever designed the "Blitzkrieg" tactic because that completely revolutionized warfare, everyone in France was preparing for a long drawn out trench warfare like before and they got completely blindsided, Germany literally just went around all of Frances defenses and didn't even bother to take them out till much later. Also might wanna just make a somewhat lesser known choice and pick Mustafa Kemal for pwning the British empire in Galipoli.

 

[91TTZ]

1. Colonel Sanders
2. General Cho
3. Captain Morgan

 

[elmer92413]

I'm going to go back an extra 38 years just so I can add Robert E. Lee as my first choice. Then Rommel. And finally Zhukov.

 

[compuwiz1]

Originally posted by: mh47g
George W. Bush

He asked for the greatest military minds, not the greatest criminal minds.