There has been a considerable debate about Monty and Patton in some of the threads. I would like to extend this to cover other Generals as there are others who may well be considered better than either of these. For this reason can I ask people who they consider to be the best Allied and the best Axis Generals and why?
Personally I find these questions impossible to answer. What does 'best' mean? Are we talking about a divisional, corps, army or army group commander? One might be a brilliant divisional commander but only an average army group commander. How do we compare those who fought in the jungle of Burma with those fighting in the artic of northern Finland or the dessert of Libya? How do we compare those in charge of the invasion of the European main land with those performing the frog-leap advance in the Pacific? By 'generals' do we then include those of the technical or administrative branches as they were often just as important for securing victory (or failure)? What about those responsible for the overall strategy the chiefs of the generals staffs? Answering your question can at best IMHO by subjective opinions, often strong opinions as seen in the threads about Montgomery and Patton. I think that we at best can agree that some where better than others or some were worse than others. Kind Regard Steen Ammentorp The Generals of World War II
Generals also do different things. How do you compare an organizer and trainer of troops like Lesley McNair with Brehon Somervell, a logistics expert, or George Patton? They do different things and fight different wars. Somvervell fought a paper and production war that supplied the battlefronts. But without supplies, the toughest soldier can't fight. McNair trained men. But untrained men are also useless in battle. How do you compare generalship that's appropriate for island-hopping warfare in the Pacific with armored movement in France and mountain warfare in Italy? Joe Stilwell spoke six Chinese languages, so he would have had trouble if he'd been sent to command the invasion of France. It ultimately becomes pure subjective debate.
