Summer Campaign-Naval Bracket Rd.2

**Marshal Murat** · 05-20-2007, 16:03

The naval bracket begins m'harteys!

There are 10! choices, so there are 5 picks per poster.
Poll will be open for 7 days
Good Luck to every admiral.

**King Kurt** · 05-22-2007, 12:44

What is Nimitz doing here - the man sailed a desk in WW2. It should be Spruance or Halsey, the men doing it not the man signing the order requestions. And also where is ABC? - the finest English Admiral in WW2. My definition of a fine admiral is one who is at sea and wins the battles, not one who has a big ship named after him.
Rant over - I will retire to my bunker and await the brickbats.

**Boyar Son** · 05-23-2007, 01:53

Ya, or you could start from scratch and defeat the dominating navy of the pacific, and come up with a grand strategy to defeat the japenese, and serve for two world wars and continue after, and also serve on several ships from ensign to Fleet Admiral...

Or you could just go on a ship and say you were there...whatever...

**King Kurt** · 05-23-2007, 10:58

Don't deny the man's talent as head of the navy - although I would dispute the starting the from scratch to beat the japanese - most capital building programmes had been in train since the late 30's. Also the US forces in the Pacific were inevitably going to win in the Pacific due to weight of men and material - the production capacity and material resources of the US meant that would eventually overwhelm the Japanese forces. Now Nimitz did an excellent job in marshalling those forces and he created an atmosphere of always going forward, but it was the Admirals in the front line that achieved the victories - Nimitz gave them the tools, but they were the people who used them.
As for Cunningham, his achievements border on the miraculious. using fairly outdated equipment - WW1 vintage BBs and carriers with biplanes - he reguarly defeated a modern navy with an extensive modern land based airforce to support it. It was his attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto that was the model for Pearl Harbour - with the exception that we were at war with Italy when we attacked them!!
I suppose my point is that the poll should be about the achievments of Admirals at sea, fighting the enemy just over the horizon, not the person shapping and equipping the force - for example Eisenhower isn't in the modern generals poll. These guys were important - arguebly vital - but how can you compare a frontline admiral with a chief of staff - they aren't doing the same job.

**Boyar Son** · 05-23-2007, 23:38

But Nimitz was an admiral at sea!! he worked his way up from ensign to fleet admiral.

Its too bad people dont read about him much... disregardin him as if he was nothing

**Tran** · 05-23-2007, 23:47

Don't worry, I voted for him.

**Seamus Fermanagh** · 05-24-2007, 16:40

CinC leaders in the modern era can be evaluated. The limitation is that they were/are only rarely involved in tactical decisions since their role is largely that of strategic leader. Voters are free to discount them for this if they see fit. In a modern era, however, with relatively rapid communication, the need for the leader to be physically present in order to have a material impact upon the outcome is not the one-to-one correspondence it was in the days of fighting sail.

Nimitz should be evaluated based upon his strategic choices in directing his forces: the choices to intercept at Coral Sea and Midway, the list of amphibious assaults targets in the Central Pacific campaign, his choices regarding the shape/tone of the submarine offensive, the response to the kamikaze threat, etc. It is also fair to evaluate him on his decision NOT to conduct much of his business from bases nearer to the front.

His personal story suggests that he was well regarded by his peers and superiors as a junior officer. VERY few USN officers have much of a career after grounding a ship under their con -- yet Nimitz got past this.

**Marquis of Roland** · 05-31-2007, 02:04

Yi Sun Shin is another one of these great general/admirals that are not well known in western literature. He lived approximately during the same time as Sir Francis Drake, but being on the other side of the world (he is Korean), the two probably never heard of each other.

He fought many battles with the vastly numerically superior Japanese fleets and never lost a battle. Of course, he had armored warships (possibly the first ironclads) and superior gunpowder weapons to the Japanese, nevertheless he made superior tactical decisions as well that made his many victories possible while greatly outnumbered.

He was shot and killed in battle, much like Nelson, and like Nelson, he postumously won it