Copying Butter Ball Bill's idea of the prettiest plane of all times, I bring up the topic of your favourite military commander. No time limits. Only requirement is that he/she actually existes/exists.
Having said all of that, I would go for Patton.
The past is a foreign country.
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290 Replies
25 Nov 2015, 16:11
Liberinsula wrote:
purplepizza117 wrote:
Definitely General George S. Patton. I tend to put the 'slapping incident' aside, we all make mistakes.
I still prefer Monty.
*sighs*
Kalantigos wrote:
Actually, British people should be picking that miserable fellow called Wellington.
Lol, couldn't agree more. Just finished reading Richard Holmes' biography on him. Great general and an even better person (except that he cheated on his wife multiple times )
Kalantigos wrote:
aDudeWhoDoesThings wrote:
Kalantigos wrote:
Actually, British people should be picking that miserable fellow called Wellington.
No Horatio Nelson love?
I do like Nelson, but I prefer Wellington. He was proud, but not to the point of seeking public acclaim. He hated "hero-worship" directed at him. He was dignified and courageous, but not flashy and dramatic. He did not go out of his way to be heroic, but just did his duty as he saw it. He often called his men the scum of society (which they were, let's be fair) and never gained the adoration that Nelson did. However, his men respected him, and would probably follow him to hell and back.
Never breaking down was Wellington's motto. However, beneath the tough-as-nails exterior, all the losses were taking a toll on him "My heart is broken by the terrible loss I have sustained in my old friends and companions and my poor soldiers. Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won."
As I said, he was a general. Anyhow, my favourite British general was one who fought alongside the Duke, but he isn't half as famous. Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton.
comrade dave wrote:
After the siege of Badajoz he broke down in tears after seeing the dead piled up at the breaches in the wall.
Tough-as-nails, but stilled cared for his men. Picton's 3rd Division suffered heavy casualties at Badajoz.
The past is a foreign country.
6 Dec 2015, 06:32
Bringing back a dead topic here, but I have to agree with Pablo, as Leo Major said, a man who captured nearly a hundred SS soldiers single handedly, he rejected a DCM from Montgomery because he believed his commander to be "incompetent"
"A knight cannot save the world. They call certain methods of fighting good and others evil, acting as if there were some nobility to the battlefield." "Honor? Glory? There's no point in speaking to a killer who indulges in such nonsense." "It's a crime we call victory, paid for by the pain of the defeated"
6 Dec 2015, 16:44
aDudeWhoDoesThings wrote:
Bringing back a dead topic here, but I have to agree with Pablo, as Leo Major said, a man who captured nearly a hundred SS soldiers single handedly, he rejected a DCM from Montgomery because he believed his commander to be "incompetent"
Wow!
6 Dec 2015, 19:57
He also was able to capture the city of Zwole single-handedly on a "recon mission" after his partner was killed early in the op, he was able to create so much noise by grenades and gunfire they believed the Canadians were storming the city, ambushed 10 sets of 8-10 soldiers and escorted them back to base, went back to the city to set the Gestapo HQ on fire, and then raided the SS HQ and killed 4 out of 8 officers, the other half fled. He was pretty much forced to accept a DCM for this one
"A knight cannot save the world. They call certain methods of fighting good and others evil, acting as if there were some nobility to the battlefield." "Honor? Glory? There's no point in speaking to a killer who indulges in such nonsense." "It's a crime we call victory, paid for by the pain of the defeated"
6 Dec 2015, 23:20
aDudeWhoDoesThings wrote:
He also was able to capture the city of Zwole single-handedly on a "recon mission" after his partner was killed early in the op, he was able to create so much noise by grenades and gunfire they believed the Canadians were storming the city, ambushed 10 sets of 8-10 soldiers and escorted them back to base, went back to the city to set the Gestapo HQ on fire, and then raided the SS HQ and killed 4 out of 8 officers, the other half fled. He was pretty much forced to accept a DCM for this one
How on earth have I not heard of this?!
7 Dec 2015, 05:08
purplepizza117 wrote:
aDudeWhoDoesThings wrote:
He also was able to capture the city of Zwole single-handedly on a "recon mission" after his partner was killed early in the op, he was able to create so much noise by grenades and gunfire they believed the Canadians were storming the city, ambushed 10 sets of 8-10 soldiers and escorted them back to base, went back to the city to set the Gestapo HQ on fire, and then raided the SS HQ and killed 4 out of 8 officers, the other half fled. He was pretty much forced to accept a DCM for this one
How on earth have I not heard of this?!
May be because he was a Canadian and didn't get a lot of publicity due to that, but I personally put him above even the White Death in terms of individual heroism, imagine one Canadian soldier escorting nearly 100 men to be imprisoned
"A knight cannot save the world. They call certain methods of fighting good and others evil, acting as if there were some nobility to the battlefield." "Honor? Glory? There's no point in speaking to a killer who indulges in such nonsense." "It's a crime we call victory, paid for by the pain of the defeated"
7 Dec 2015, 12:12
aDudeWhoDoesThings wrote:
imagine one Canadian soldier escorting nearly 100 men to be imprisoned
That is awesome!
8 Dec 2015, 19:30
Mein Gott! That bastard must have been one of the best soldiers in the world!
The past is a foreign country.
8 Dec 2015, 20:22
Yep, first Canadian to get 2 DCMs in 2 different wars, incredible man
"A knight cannot save the world. They call certain methods of fighting good and others evil, acting as if there were some nobility to the battlefield." "Honor? Glory? There's no point in speaking to a killer who indulges in such nonsense." "It's a crime we call victory, paid for by the pain of the defeated"
8 Dec 2015, 22:53
aDudeWhoDoesThings wrote:
Yep, first Canadian to get 2 DCMs in 2 different wars, incredible man
What is the other war? Korean?
8 Dec 2015, 23:10
Yep, commanded a 20 man squad and took a hill the US retreated from after thousands of Chinese attacked, they reorganized for a counter attack and his 20 man squad held thousands of troops for 3 days
"A knight cannot save the world. They call certain methods of fighting good and others evil, acting as if there were some nobility to the battlefield." "Honor? Glory? There's no point in speaking to a killer who indulges in such nonsense." "It's a crime we call victory, paid for by the pain of the defeated"
9 Dec 2015, 00:01
aDudeWhoDoesThings wrote:
Bringing back a dead topic here, but I have to agree with Pablo, as Leo Major said, a man who captured nearly a hundred SS soldiers single handedly, he rejected a DCM from Montgomery because he believed his commander to be "incompetent"
who was this? simply amazing. and the fact that he escorted back the prisoners ... any US american or Nazi would just have shot them IMO...
9 Dec 2015, 00:24 (edited)
I am so incredibly disappointed that none of you has yet mentioned the incredible WW1 genius, who, with a few officers, soldiers and added naval personnel, combined with local troops, but at no time with more than a couple 1.000 men, managed to tie up several 100.000 enemy forces...
General and later Fieldmarshall:
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck
The genius of the German East African campaign in WW1
The only one of the German commanders to have a Victory Parade in Berlin after WW1 and a stark opponent of the Nazies:
">Picture with "Go **** Yourself" in reply to being asked to be a German ambassador by Hitler removed.
[Concerning the edit: uhm, yes, that 4-letter word can be imagined; besides, he said it in German of course, but that is also 4 letters and also starts with an 'F']
He was the only German commander to defeat the British on their own soil (in East Africa, but still) during WW1. Decades later (in 1967!!! He never gave up the fight for the right of his men!), the surviving African troops that were under his command, finally received the pension they were due, identifying themselves by remembering the drills in German that they learned.
9 Dec 2015, 19:59
_Pontus_ wrote:
The genius of the German East African campaign in WW1
Yes, I have seen this man before! He held up so many Allied troops simply with stealth and bluff.
10 Dec 2015, 00:11
and the biggest artillery guns (105mm) on land in all of Africa, which he quickly had removed from a stranded German Kreuzer (Königsberg?), and then put them on wheels.
A very resourceful man.
10 Dec 2015, 01:48
_Pontus_ wrote:
and the biggest artillery guns (105mm) on land in all of Africa, which he quickly had removed from a stranded German Kreuzer (Königsberg?), and then put them on wheels.
A very resourceful man.
I mean honestly, himself alone probably delayed the Allied victory by a month at least... held up 45,000 people in 1915 ALONE.
10 Dec 2015, 04:04
By the way, I looked into it a little more... Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck single-handedly held up 1 MILLION Allied troops with his 13.4 thousand. Four hundred thousand of those Allied troops were actual soldiers, and 600,000 were African porters who carried materials for the Allies.
10 Dec 2015, 04:07
_Pontus_ wrote:
which he quickly had removed from a stranded German Kreuzer (Königsberg?), and then put them on wheels.
Also, yes this is true, when the Königsberg was scuttled in 1915 during a naval battle in the Rufiji River delta... when some parts of the British Cape Squadron and an old pre-dreadnought steel-clad warship attacked the small German naval force and brought in two shallow-draught monitors from England and demolished the Kreuzer.
10 Dec 2015, 19:21
I advise anyone to read-up on Von Lettow-Vorbeck. It is an amazing story!
However, once I found out how he turned down Hitler ánd that he relentlessly battled the consecutive German Governments until 1967, when he finally succeeded (=> !!! that's almost 50 years after WW1 !!!), to give the due pensions to his African Askari soldiers, who fought for the Emperor as if he was their own, this man became my absolute hero.
Integrity, bravery, command skills, loyalty to crown and his troops, creativity et cetera and so forth...
An amazing commander and human being.
BTW, he was best friends with his opponent Smuts, who commanded the South African troops and remained so, despite they were trying to 'kill' each other for King/Kaiser and Country.
)
