Topic: Largest army ever commanded by one man?

Doppleganger · October 17th, 2005

The answer is Stalin, whether he actually directed orders or not. The Red Army were, in theory and in practice, acting at his behest.

BTW, Hitler was not as bad a military commander as most people seem to make out. He actually had a solid grip on strategy. For example, he approved the Manstein Plan for the invasion of France and ignored the advice of most of his Senior Staff in the process. He was proven right as history tells us. Most of the West's view of Hitler as a military commander is through the memoirs of his Generals, who had a vested interest in making themselves look as good as possible and blaming Hitler for almost every problem. Hitler didn't come up with the strategy for the Battle of Kursk as many people commonly believe he did. Yet he gets blamed for it by many people.

Hitler went seriously wrong when he tried to micro-manage everything. His paranoia and onset of Parkinson's didn't help either. He also listened to the wrong men who told him what he wanted to hear and not what was really happening. He really needed to listen to commanders like Guderian and Manstein who could have saved the Third Reich from ruin had they been given the chance.

October 17th, 2005
Doppleganger Tribuni Angusticlavii	The answer is Stalin, whether he actually directed orders or not. The Red Army were, in theory and in practice, acting at his behest. BTW, Hitler was not as bad a military commander as most people seem to make out. He actually had a solid grip on strategy. For example, he approved the Manstein Plan for the invasion of France and ignored the advice of most of his Senior Staff in the process. He was proven right as history tells us. Most of the West's view of Hitler as a military commander is through the memoirs of his Generals, who had a vested interest in making themselves look as good as possible and blaming Hitler for almost every problem. Hitler didn't come up with the strategy for the Battle of Kursk as many people commonly believe he did. Yet he gets blamed for it by many people. Hitler went seriously wrong when he tried to micro-manage everything. His paranoia and onset of Parkinson's didn't help either. He also listened to the wrong men who told him what he wanted to hear and not what was really happening. He really needed to listen to commanders like Guderian and Manstein who could have saved the Third Reich from ruin had they been given the chance. __________________ "An Emperor is subject to no-one but God and justice." Frederick 1, Barbarossa