Who was the best commander in WWII?

[BunkerBob]

okay. yh the man was a fantastic general. the best german general. the man lost to bernard montgomery. so who is the better general. the man who fought in the open desert or the man who won in the open desert. rommel was an all round general though. hitler liked him. of course after rommel became a traitor and tried to make peace with the allied forces hitler had him burnt alive in hot oil or sometin. anyways. Montogomery alll the way. the brains behind Overlord. the overalll commander of the british forces. he was a field marshall. the highes rank of the highest. he was the supreme allied commander of WW2. thats why he is the gr8est

You need to study history more, just because you are in charge, does not mean you are the best suited for the operation. Erwin Rommel lost because he could not get the supplies he needed to fight a desert campaign. The British would of lost Africa long ago if supplies were not being deverted to the eastern front. Erwin lost because of a lack of supplies and replacements. An army fights on its stomach. If your troops are hungry, and there is no food to go around, do not expect to be around for long.

Did you notice that the losses for the British increased as his supply lines shortened? His losses were replaced and the equipment was able to stay in operation. Desert combat is the worse kind of combat out there, if you do not keep your equipment and yourself togethor in good order, you will die.

[SniperHans]

wasn't it Chruchill who stated over old Monty? (after Operation Market Garden and the Ardennes):
If you judge on the Ressources and the possibilities of the Former (Rommel), you can estimate the mediocrity of the Latter (Montgomery).

By the time of the second battle of El Alamein, Afrikakorps had 33.500 Men without supplies vs 251.000 well equipped brits on Montys side. 62.000 Italians didn't help much because they had to hold the positions all over the captured land.
Also Rommel was not in Africa when the attack commenced. He was Ill and recovering in Berlin, while it was unclear wether Georg Stumme (who died after a few days) or Ritter von Thoma should have the main command during the defense.
So its not really Rommel who was beaten by Montgomery at El Alamein, its the German Afrika-Korps.
Rommel wasn't only an offensive General. In fact he kiled most brits when luring them into death zones of flak88 and mgs instead of actually overrunning them. He was also responsible for the major pat of the beach obstacles on the atlantic wall and he knew the weakpoint in Normandy, but he had not enough time to prepare it evrywhere.

[Halftrack]

sorry, this List is more than incomplete

( the French Generals Name is Charles-Marte-Jules Tassin , the German Fieldmarshall
was called Gerd von Rundstedt, the US High Commader was Dwight D. Eisenhower )

MANY superior commanders are missing, while others ( what the heck does tassin there ? )
simply dont belong there...

US: definetively missing Bradley and McArthur
Germany: Model and Guderian could have been mentioned, von Manstein SHOULD

[vengefulnoob]

Still think Zhukov... He practically commanded eastern front

He shouted so loud down radios at seelow his officers had hearing problems for years

He's an iconic hero in Russia, Stalin took most of his credit because he was respected by the people, and a friend of kruschev.

He was not a party fanatic or a communist but a strategist who arguably won world war two...

[Alyonn]

Zhukov, that's simple. Because he's the winner and he's the one who captured Berlin and did it with lower casualties than the enemy (which is almost impossible to make). End of story.

Most of the german army had already surrendered to the western allies trying to get away from the soviets :p Zhukov had incredible trouble getting through the Seelow Heights, and sent hundreds of men to their deaths in frontal attacks. Not the mark of a good general, in my opinion. The defenders of Berlin were mostly young or old men with very little equipment and almost no armored assets, not to mention the fact that berlin had been bombed to hell and gone by the time the russian army got there... and personally any general who can't keep his soldiers under control enough to stop wholesale rape and murder of a conquered populace doesn't get my respect to begin with. Nearly the entire female population of berlin was raped, some dozens of times.

No, I don't respect Zhukov.

[BurroDiablo]

personally any general who can't keep his soldiers under control enough to stop wholesale rape and murder of a conquered populace doesn't get my respect to begin with. Nearly the entire female population of berlin was raped, some dozens of times.

Personally, I'd like to see how you'd keep 100,000+ battle hardened, desensitised and sexually frustrated Soldiers under control. It happens in war all the time even under the strictest of Generals, the longer a Soldier is in a war the more he is desensitised to violence; when you've seen 100 bodies crushed by tanks, thousands missing limbs, seen your friends die, the guy next to you take a sniper bullet to the throat and bleed to death, you simply stop giving a crap.

Zhukov was brilliant, but for only one reason - his ability to stand up to Stalin. Without his pushing and arguing, Stalin would have never listened to his Generals and would have basically went ahead systematically making error after fatal error until the Germans were knocking on the Kremlin's door. That kind of move lost it for the Germans; whoever disagreed with Hitler more than often got fired... sometimes literally.

[Soviet_Marine]

Moreover - Zhukov has declared an order, wich says that if soldier would be spotted by any red army officer (or polotiical officer, SMERSH operatives etc) that officer must shoot soldier.

[221]

I think you mean "if a soldier would be spotted raping* someone. He would be shoot by officer.

[Ost_Front_Soldat]

Von Rundstedt or Von Manstein? Can't choose!

[Tyler4170]

Micheal Wittman!  If he was a commander or not I respect the Tiger Ace and would have been very scared in my wimpy sherman to see him, I respect mainly for Villers-Bocage.

[Ost_Front_Soldat]

Forget Bocage! The man took out dozens of T-34s in his StuG III! Point 65.5!

[nico97one]

Our generals (the french) are loosers in this post ...
Just in one vote for DeGaulles (BBC 18 June 1940)and one vote for the other ...

France je t'aime !!!
Allons enfants de la patrie ...

[HappyBrit]

Between, Montgomery & Zhukov but i chose Montgomery as he had more patience than other commanders. Patton was a loose cannon, no major strategic thinking at all, just wanted to kill the Germans

[vengefulnoob]

Here I have a chunk of text about Zhukov from the brilliant "battle of Kursk" by David glantz and johnathan house:

"Zhukov was an energetic, stubborn, and often ruthless commander who approached war with dogged determination. His force of will, often combined with an utter disregard for casualties, proppelled soviet forces through their trials in the initial period of the war and, ultimately, to victory. Like the American general Grant, he understood the terrible nature of modern war and could endure it's effects. He demanded and recieved absolute obedience to orders, he identified with and protected key subbordinates, and, at times, he stood up to and incurred the wrath of Stalin. There was little finesse in his operations, and he used the red army as a club rather than a rapier. His temperament was admirably suited to the nature of war on the Soviet-German front, and Stalin knew it. For this reason alone, Stalin could tolerate Zhukov's occasional failures."

[VassilyGrossman]

Has to be Von Manstein - best offensively minded general, even in retreat!