Quote Originally Posted by 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.
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.