Who would you march with?

[Vuk]

Charlemagne!! Didn't have to think about that one!

[Somebody Else]

Alex - though, I'd prefer to ride. And get to see more of the known world than pretty much anyone else alive at the time. Oh, and have a pretty good chance of acquiring much wealth &c.

Pompey, though I'd ditch him after his Eastern campaign. Much the same reasons as above.

Lieutenant Chard. Wouldn't mind a gong...

Otherwise though, I'll stick with present day western armies... for preference, oh, I dunno, AAC or cav. With a healthy dose of US kit (they do know how to pamper their soldiers better than we).

[UglyandHasty]

Julius Caesar

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Rogers

Grant

Forrest

Bradley

Hackworth


among "furriners:"

Boru

Hannibal

Sulla

Kesselring

Lawrence

Clive

Haig (sorry, bad joke. NFW)

[Mooks]

Well, if I was a "simple warrior of history" I'd march with whoever had the power and authority at the time and place I lived. No one here has answered Hitler, but if I lived in Germany in the 1930-s I'd gladly march for a guy that told me that I belonged to the superior rase, and who promised me food and labour. It's easy to make smart choices once you've learnt the lesson.
Also, I think the people following earlier leaders had no real choice. Sure, Richard Couer de Lion might have been a charismatic figure in history, and a decent military commander, but I believe few would've followed him if they had the choice. People of older days viewed the world in a different way than we do today, so from that perspective, there's no answer to that question.
Beisdes, I think few people today would chose to go to war at all, and if they had to, I can't se why you'd pick a war were you could die from a wound in the hand thanks to infection when you could go to a modern war with modern healthcare, medicine and surgery.

Just take El Cid for example, who really thinks that waging war against Al-Andalus (which had a very rich and flourishing culture and was about 500 years ahead of the Christians when it came to science) is a thing worth dying for?

So I'll just answe: Depends on when and where I lived. If I lived in England around the mid 14th century, I'd have little choice but to follow Edward III in his campaigns into France etc.

Richard a decent military commander? How about the greatest military commander of his generation. Id gladly grab a sword and fight in his adventures.

Other then him id say Gauis Julius Caesar. The 30-50 mile marches a day would be pretty rough. But he was one hell of a general and his soldiers became very very well off.

On the healthcare part. Im sure in centurys to come, there will be a cure from cancer, viruses ect ect. Then they will say "Who would want to die from things you can cure with modern medicine?".

[IrishArmenian]

Also:
Temujin
Jochi
Subedei

[IrishArmenian]

Not just Canadian troops m8

he knew there were 2 SS Panzer Division at Arnhem (he said so later), but still wanted it to go on, as (and this is what he didn't tell) he wanted to be the first in Berlin.

Pity Prince Bernhard is dead and doesn't visit this forum, he could give you loads of examples. I still like these quotes:
Monty: "I consider Market Garden 90& succesfull."
Bernhard: "My country can never afford a succes of Montgomery again"

Oh yes, I merely meant that there were many unsuccesful raids on the French coast "orchestrated" by Britain's favorite idiot (Not Blair, mind you this is before he screwed everything up) cost the Canadians many elite fighting units that trained with the SAS and SBS I believe.
If it was not for the damn stubborness of you Limeys, Montgomery would be widly recognised as one of the worst Commanders ever. He didn't care for any human life.

[Samurai Waki]

Gah. I'm surprised Nobody has said anything of Admiral Nelson!

"England expects that every man WILL DO HIS DUTY!"

[Avicenna]

Genghis or Attila.

Oh, and Naughtius Maximus.

[King Henry V]

Gah. I'm surprised Nobody has said anything of Admiral Nelson!

"England expects that every man WILL DO HIS DUTY!"

Ah yes, but wouldn't that be sailing rather than marching.

[Red Peasant]

See, if one was Canadian, Monty was practically the enemy. He threw away Canadian troops (good ones too) like used tissue.

What a load of rubbish. It's very difficult to like Montgomery as a person, but I have never heard of him being accused of deliberately wasting men's lives in any sensible history. In fact, the opposite was more probably the case, with his concern for his troops' lives causing him to be occasionally over-cautious. He had served in the blood-bath of WWI and he had been horrified at the casual slaughter and attitudes to it by the high command.

Market Garden was the one occasion when he was over-bold, with an ill-prepared plan of action. However, his own original plan had not been nearly as ambitious as the final one for the operation, which was championed by Ike and others at the top of Allied command.

I've also never heard of any Canadian resentment against Montgomery, although there will doubtless be a few whingers. They even named schools after him. The troops under his command were fiercely loyal to him because he was a common soldier's general. He may not have the 'romantic' dash of a Patton, but I'd say that Patton was far more profligate with the lives of his men.

Montgomery was also praised by German generals, especially when he stepped in and re-organized US troops during the so-called 'Battle of the Bulge'. His problems with the US generals are well documented, yet he had a high regard for Eisenhauer, and for the ordinary American soldier whom he praised fulsomely.

Monty may not have been perfect, but he was in fact a bloody good general.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

I might be shot by certain forum members if I stated mine.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Alfred
Harold Godwinson
Pompey
Hanabal
Charles the Great
Richard the Lionheart
Henry V
Monty
Henry VIII

Thats pretty much my order of preference as well. I'd put in our Once and Future King but I can't prove he existed, so he's not historical.

[naut]

Nothing new here:

1. Aethelstan
2. Alfred the Great
3. Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar

[naut]

I might be shot by certain forum members if I stated mine.

Hitler? Stalin?

[AntiochusIII]

Hitler? Stalin?

Why would anyone march with either?

I mean, you are almost certainly guaranteed for death. -.-"

Personally, I seriously doubt anyone here actually have the guts to go on all those old and ancient military marches they patriotically declare they would. Never mind the fighting and the gore, first you gotta know what's in it for the usual marching day and the usual lodgings and food: diseased, uncomfortable, unhygienic, dangerous, Spartan discipline for some armies, and ruinously chaotic situation in others.

None of you would survive a week.

[Subedei]

None of you would survive a week.

Second that plus there is a vivid illustration of e.g. Greek style battles in John Keegan´s "Histroy of Warfare". Well as I stated...i ilkie hiking, but hate fighting...expect with my digital troops on the field of fun....

@ AlexanderofMacedon: I never got the point of Germanophil people of your style [nothing against beer fans, Würstel fans or the like].....here we call them "ewig Gestrige"....

[The Wizard]

As I said, Great Migrations raiding: none of the danger, all of the fun

[SCRIBE]

Mandela,
Martin Luther King Jr.,
Gandhi

Datu Lapu Lapu, fought against Magellan and his invaders
Andres Bonifacio, fought against the colonial oppression and slavery of Spain
Geurilla soldiers fighting against the invasion of the Philippines against the Japanese in WWII

Julius Caesar,
Septimius Severus,
Belisarius,
Basil II,
Emperor Constantine XI, in the fall of Constantinople

Saladin,
Cao Cao, from the romance of the three kingdoms era

It would be an interesting experience (albiet a harrowing one) of marching with the leaders of the age of Antiquity to the Medieval Ages, from the intrigue that was the Three Kingdoms to the professional armies of the Romans in late Antiquity to the defense of the great city of Constantine.

If I lived in harsh times such as the colonial Philippines or in WWII, I would definitely help defend my home from such murderers.

In situations like Martin Luther King Jr. and the like, I would definitely march for such a cause.

[Justiciar]

Ultimately Innocentius has it right..

That said, my top five would be;

Edgar Aetheling
Charlemagne
Genghis Khan
Mohammed
Penda

[Spart]

Whoever has a just cause
or whoever has a good win/loss ratio
or whoever has enough gold to pay me
In that order

[Craterus]

None of you would survive a week.

Sounds like a challenge.

[rotorgun]

General Norman "Dutch" Cota!

The finest infantry division commander of WWII IMO. His leadership was always directed from where infantry soldiers appreciate it-at the front line. Anyone who could have taken the "Bloody" 28th infantry from the Hertugen Forest, and keep them together through the Ardennes campaign where they delayed the entire 5th Panzer Army long enough to allow the 101st Airborne to get into position at Bastogne is alright with me.

[Pannonian]

General Norman "Dutch" Cota!

The finest infantry division commander of WWII IMO. His leadership was always directed from where infantry soldiers appreciate it-at the front line. Anyone who could have taken the "Bloody" 28th infantry from the Hertugen Forest, and keep them together through the Ardennes campaign where they delayed the entire 5th Panzer Army long enough to allow the 101st Airborne to get into position at Bastogne is alright with me.

Vasily Chuikov's style was pretty frontline - at one point the oil tank above his CP was hit, and he coolly replied to a concerned HQ that he was where it was brightest. For much of Stalingrad his "Army" strength wasn't much more than a division, if that. Holding together a front that was never more than 200 yards in depth, with no line of retreat, horrendously difficult to resupply, and for much of the time split into several surrounded pockets, long enough for Uranus to be planned (not executed - the holding action began before it was even conceived) and carried out. The 62nd Army was a legend in its time, its commander fittingly the man who took the eventual German surrender in Berlin.

[Csargo]

I don't know if this goes along with the marching but I would have loved to fly in the Jasta 11 with Manfred von Richthofen.

[The Wizard]

For much of Stalingrad his "Army" strength wasn't much more than a division

A Soviet Army was a division -- a Soviet Front was the equivalent of a Western Army or Army Group, IIRC.

[cegorach]

Rather a corps... Western division was equal to soviet corps, corps of soviet army and so on.

[Fate]

Without a shadow of a doubt, id love to March under Sir Arthur Wellesley (Later the Duke Wellington).
And id be a rifleman :D

[Geezer57]

Been reading the Richard Sharpe novels?

[CaesarAugustus]

Caesar Augustus, Julius Caesar, Ghenghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Flavius Aetius, Alexander the Great, Scipio Africanus, Hannibal, Saladin, King Henry the Fifth (I think, whichever one fought at Agincourt), Giuseppe Garibaldi, Napoleon