The best WWII general?

[Sarmatian]

No one has yet mentioned operation Mars which was a costly and spectacular failure for the Russians under Zhukov despite the advantage in materiel and manpower. Some historians think the failure was covered up to protect the reputation of Zhukov to build him up as a hero.

First of all, there isn`t enough reliable data about operation mars. It is still just speculations. Educated guesses, at best.
Second, it wasn`t a spectular failure because it tied down german troops, which were much needed elsewhere.

Sheer numbers don`t mean anything. The scene from the film enemy at the gates where the first man gets the rifle and those after him bullets is not fictional. Many times soviets were forced to fight that way. German soldiers were experienced and battle hardened veterans, superbly equiped (just not for the winter :) and serving under excellent commanders. If you have one note worth 100 euros, and I have 5 notes worth 20 euros we still have the same amount of money.

Of course, soviets had other good generals. Konev, for example as somebody had said. But, Konev was supposed to be demoted and maybe even put to trial by russian high command. It was only after Zhukov personally insisted that Konev should be his second in command, was his career saved.

When we are talking about Rommel, there are a few things that must also be taken into consideration. He could have withdrawn his troops, but I presume that he wanted to win the war, not save his career. If he had done that, he would have surely lost. Blitzkrieg was not just a tactic germans used in battles. It was a tactic for the entire war. They knew they could not match the resources soviet and allies had, so they had to win fast. That is why withdrawal wasn`t an option for Rommel.

[Csargo]

I dont know about the best during WWII but my fav. would have to Rommel. He did great in Invasion of France and in N Africa

[orangat]

First of all, there isn`t enough reliable data about operation mars. It is still just speculations. Educated guesses, at best.
Second, it wasn`t a spectular failure because it tied down german troops, which were much needed elsewhere.

Sheer numbers don`t mean anything. The scene from the film enemy at the gates where the first man gets the rifle and those after him bullets is not fictional. Many times soviets were forced to fight that way. German soldiers were experienced and battle hardened veterans, superbly equiped (just not for the winter :) and serving under excellent commanders. If you have one note worth 100 euros, and I have 5 notes worth 20 euros we still have the same amount of money.
.......

Educated guess? even Zhukov admitted in his writings that Operation Mars was a disaster. And it wasn't supposed to be just a holding movement. Zhukov's ham fisted approach of throwing divisions one after the other into a meat grinder isn't confined to this one operation.

[Sarmatian]

Educated guess? even Zhukov admitted in his writings that Operation Mars was a disaster. And it wasn't supposed to be just a holding movement. Zhukov's ham fisted approach of throwing divisions one after the other into a meat grinder isn't confined to this one operation.

I said "speculations" and "educated guesses about casulties. It was a disaster, I agree, but we don`t know for sure how many casulties there were.

[orangat]

I said "speculations" and "educated guesses about casulties. It was a disaster, I agree, but we don`t know for sure how many casulties there were.

The fact that operation Uranus was so well documented and for posterity and propaganda and only 'speculations' and 'educated guesses' for the casualties for the equally large operation Mars suggests a huge coverup of the disaster.

[orangat]

Its hard to compare the performance of all the generals mentioned since some are field commanders like Patton and Rommel while some are strategists like Eisenhower and Zhukov(?).

The greatest generals imo can do it all, like the famous generals of antiquity.

[Atilius]

I'll cast a pro forma vote for von Manstein on the strength of his repeated success under adverse conditions, but I really want to relate a couple of stories about Freyberg and Wingate who were mentioned here earlier.

Orde Wingate was one of history's great oddballs. I'm borrowing here from an article by Charles Berges originally published in Military History Quarterly:

Wingate was posted to Palestine in 1936 as an intelligence officer. "He was entranced by the land and the people, finding the Jews far more intelligent and stimulating than his brother officers (he rarely missed an opportunity to tell them so)." He quickly became a committed Zionist at a time when the British army and police were generally pro-Arab. "He soon was on warm terms with the Zionist leadership, men such as David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weitzmann (who called Wingate 'my favorite madman')."

In 1937, responding to Arab sabotage of the Iraq-to-Palestine oil pipeline, Wingate organized and led an ambush by members of the Haganah against the saboteurs. Berges writes of the aftermath of the operation:

...the then teenaged Moshe Dayan described the settlers' elation at their successful first fight. Amid the excited talk and jubilation, Wingate sat in a corner, stark naked, munching onions, combing his body hair with a toothbrush, and writing a report.

Too much information? Sorry...

Freyberg was a great favorite of Churchill, who wrote (in The Second World War):

One day in the 1920's when I was staying at a country house with Bernard Freyberg I asked him to show me his wounds. He stripped himself and I counted twenty-seven separate scars and gashes. To these he was to add in the Second World War another three. But of course, as he explained, "You nearly always get two wounds for every bullet or splinter, because mostly they have to go out as well as go in."