Best commander

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#41

Agreed.

People tend to confuse his enduring public reputation as a brilliant commander, as one of a handful of commanders known to the general public, with his real military ability and achievements. He’s a German Patton. Nothing that makes him a lousy commander, but a lot of aspects that aren’t in the general public profile which deprive him of the status accorded to him by the general public.

His failure to assure his LOC and push on is put forward as a sign of a dashing, aggressive commander, but it was just negligent.

He wasn’t tested like his Eastern Front colleagues nor tested in real and sustained adversity like, say, Slim.

No doubt he was a very good commander, but WWII had plenty of them and he was just one of many.

#42

Something that is lacking in this thread is looking outside land commanders.

For example, in the Pacific, the USN commanders undertook sustained campaigns over huge distances with serious logisitcal problems, but by their strategy and operations steadily reduced Japan and deprived it of its ability to fight.

Similarly, the Mediterranean was a crucial naval battle area in the first half of the war, as was the North Atlantic.

#43

actually,. i preffer to go for Tiger of malaya,…

#44

well,.
even the panzers are very close to the beach,… they also need time to engage the landing force,…at the time of those panzer to reach the beachead,. in no more than 30 minutes,. for the airforce to repel the panzers,. and on the top,. there were almost constant CAP over the beacheads,.

not to mention naval barrage with some beach party spotter,…

#45

What are your guys’ thought on Guderian?

#46

As it has been already quoted, Logistics, and a tendancy to gamble. Against badly led troops he often got away with it, but when faced with a competant general he got spanked

I’ve heard some think the British hyped him to deflect criticism for their early incompetence. I don’t know.

Until Monty came along, the lack of cooperation between the various branches of the British army was astonishing. It was so bad the infantry and tank regiments were hardly on speaking terms

" and he tended to be right, especially regarding the defenses of Normandy…

The only way he was right was with the statement that the defences weren’t strong enough, and most of the senior commanders in France were well aware of that fact

I’d like to ask what others would think would have happened had Rommel been present at Normandy during the landings?

He might have managed to launch a counter attack with the 21st Panzer Division against the British at the Sword beachhead a few hours before it actual did, but it probably would have still have been thrown back with heavy losses, as it was when it did attack.
End result, he might have reduced the area gained on the first day, especially in the British and Canadian sectors, but the Allies would still have managed to gain a viable beach head by the end of the day.

#47

Every german commander was great,only Hitler resolve was wrong sometimes
Some:
Rommel,Wittmann,Pfeffer-Wildenbruch,Von Paulus,Steiner,Gille

#48

If so, why did any German commander ever get beaten?

Was it all Hitler’s fault?

On every battlefield in every theatre for the whole war?

Was there never a German commander who told Hitler he could win, or did they all tell Hitler he was bound to lose?

Were people like Model just useless puppets of Hitler, or free agents acting with vast military power and just losing because Hitler was no good, instead of them with full control of the battlefield?

#49

Nope,but Hitler was a boss,and I think some battlefield isn’t turn into worst like Stalingrad