Even tho Patton defeated Rommel, he’s still the coolest Nazi Reichsmarshall. Definately my favorite.
If we’re going to include air/naval commanders, I’d say Keith Park (in charge of No. 11 Group during the battle of Britain and didn’t put a foot wrong) and Andrew Cunningham (almost up there with Nelson IMHO) deserve inclusion. No idea what Montgomery is doing in that poll though - far too good a publicist and bad a general (again, IMHO).
We should add William Slim (Field Marshal the Viscount) and Arthur Tedder (Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Lord) to any future edition of this poll.
Montgomery a bad general? Did he not defeat Rommel in North Africa. He planed out El Alamein, which was a turning point. And he made the plans for D-Day.
Montgomery a bad general? Did he not defeat Rommel in North Africa. He planed out El Alamein, which was a turning point. And he made the plans for D-Day.[/quote]
Monty also partially thought up what was to become market garden. That Op. was a diaster and was the last allied loss of the war.
He beat Rommel in North Africa - after he had been given an overwhelming superiority in all forms of weaponry, had a very comprehensive submarine blockade of the enemy coast (100% casualty rates in Italian convoys were common!) and a major invasion in the enemy rear. Throw in these little facts and Alamein really doesn’t look like such an impressive victory.
After D-Day, he did some good work but wasn’t particularly impressive. Same applies to the drive into Germany - Arnhem was a failure (largely due to bad planning).
He may not be a particularly bad general, but he wasn’t as good as some of his peers (Slim being the shining example). He was, however, a rather good self publicist - probably the main thing I hold against him.
I think Rommel was much better,but everybody can loose a war,having a good general,because there are lots of factors,troops,supplies,climate…
so,montgomery wasn´t the best for defeating Rommel,because he had the conditions then.
Field Marshall William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim of Yarralumla and Bishopston
born , Aug. 6, 1891, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Eng.
died Dec. 14, 1970, London
I know he isn’t in the poll, but he should be.
In March 1942, Slim was given command of BurCorps (consisting of the Indian 17th and Burmese 1st Division) in Burma, which was being attacked by the Japanese. Heavily outnumbered, he was soon forced to withdraw to India.
Having successfully brought the majority of his shattered command out of Burma, he took over XV Corps, which covered the coastal approaches from Burma to India, east of Chittagong. During this time he planned for a revolutionary new style of warfare—to negate the advantages the Japanese had in mobility on the offense and depth in defence. He also took to the task of training the rapidly-growing Eastern Army and restoring their confidence and abilities.
However, XV Corps was taken from him by Noel Irwin, the incompetent commander of Eastern Army. Slim had been planning for XV Corps’ advance into the Arakan Peninsula for nearly a year. His plan involved indirect approaches, resupply by the air, concentration in the attack and defence and integration at all levels between air and ground forces—Irwin threw all this out of the window and just went for a traditional, direct attack—which went disastrously wrong. Irwin then stepped back and ordered Slim to retake control of XV Corps.
Once again, Slim was thrown in at the deep end with considerable portions of his corps already destroyed by the Japanese. Once again, Slim managed to extricate the majority of his force from a desperate situation.
Irwin initially blamed Slim for the disastrous Arakan Campaign, but justice was done and Slim was elevated to command the new Fourteenth Army—formed from IV Corps (Imphal), XV Corps (Arakan) and XXXIII Corps (reserve)—later joined by XXXIV Corps.
He quickly got on with the task of training his new army to take the fight to the enemy. The basic premise was that off-road mobility was paramount: Much heavy equipment was exchanged for mule- or air-transported equipment and motor transport was kept to a minimum and restricted to those vehicles that could cope with some of the worst combat terrain on earth. From now on there would be almost no non-combatants: All troops were trained to fight as infantrymen first and foremost. The new doctrine dictated that if the Japanese had cut the lines of communication, then they too were surrounded. All units were to form defensive ‘boxes’, to be resupplied by air and assisted by integrated close air support and armour. These boxes would then become the anvil, upon which the Japanese would be broken by the hammer coming down from the reserve formations.
This theory was put to the test in January 1944, when the Second Arakan Offensive was met by a Japanese counter-offensive, which quickly surrounded the Indian 7th Infantry Division and parts of the 5th Indian and West African 81st Divisions. The 7th Division’s defence was based largely on the “Admin Box”—formed initially from drivers, cooks, suppliers, etc, who now fought as “Uncle Bill” had told them to do. They were supplied by air—negating the importance of their lost supply lines. The Japanese forces were then almost totally destroyed by the reserve divisions coming down from the north.
But the real test was now to commence—the Arakan had been a distraction. the main Japanese offensive was heading for Imphal—hundreds of miles to the north. Slim was initially caught off-balance, but rallied incredibly. He airlifted two entire veteran divisions (5th & 7th Indian) from battle in the Arakan, straight into another battle in the north. The Second Arakan Campaign was repeated on a much larger scale—desperate defensive actions were fought at places such as Imphal, Sangshak and Kohima, while the RAF and USAAF kept them resupplied from the air.
Once again, the Japanese were broken upon the anvil by the hammer that Slim brought against them from colossal distances. These were the first major land defeats ever suffered by the IJA.
In 1945, Slim launched his greatest gamble—a blitzkrieg-style offensive into Burma, with lines of supply stretching almost to breaking point across hundreds of miles of trackless jungle. The Irrawaddy was crossed (with the longest Bailey bridge in the world at the time—most of which had been transported by mule and air) and the city of Meiktila was taken, followed by Mandalay. The Allies then switched to a mobile defence, sallying out and breaking Japanese attacking forces in isolation, maintaining the initiative at all times, backed up by possibly the best air-land co-operation seen in WWII—fully integrated air resupply and close air support, performed by both RAF and USAAF units.
With virtualy all major Japanese formations in Burma crushed, Rangoon was taken by a textbook combined land/air/sea operation in May 1945.
Nice record. 
Please please please don’t just post large tracts from other places (wikipedia, nationmaster etc.) as your own! Post the link, and any highlights.
FYI, the link to that is: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/William-Slim
come on stoat!,don´t be jealous,he posts good works,they aren´t copyrighted,so,what´s the problem?.
come on stoat!,don´t be jealous,he posts good works,they aren´t copyrighted,so,what´s the problem?.[/quote]
It’s not a question of jealousy (any idiot can cut and paste) - it’s plagerism. It’s bad manners to the actual author(s). Bad internet etiquette, and rude to those of us who have posted long pieces of our own work.
EDITED TO ADD:
It’s not a problem if a link to the original is provided!
most of us posted our own work,and other works too,with links,if he didn´t put a link,you just search it on google and done.
Man,he is doing a great job posting and doing threads in this forum.MORE THAN SOME OF US :!: .
yes,it´s better to put the link,but he can edit posts then.Im not the mod of this topic,so,this is out of my hands.
I’m with Stoat here. Wherever I have posted work that is not my own, I have referenced it. It’s an important thing to do. When reading posts on this site, I make an assessment based on many things and one of them is the history of the poster. Not referencing work makes this harder.
Without meaning to be rude to PKW, I know where to find the Wikipedia. I also know how to use google. Simple cut and pastes from internet source aren’t actually contributions. Adding your own thoughts, opinions and analysis, supported by evidence from other sources, is the type of contribution that keeps this site interesting.
Finally, thanks to he who brought up Field Marshal Slim again. I am of the opinion that he is one of the greatest commanders ever produced by the Empire. One could argue that he is one of the greatest commanders of all time, especially taking into account his evident mastery of all-arms warfare including the expert application of air power. Read “Defeat into Victory” and “Unofficial History”, both by the Field Marshal.