well my two favorite generals are on that list. it was a hard choice between guderian and rommel for me because they mirror eachother so much. i picked guderian because he came up with so many of the strategies that rommel took up and that are still a major part of warfare, especially tank warfare, today. as exalted as rommel was, he could have been a greater asset on the eastern front instead of in africa.

Well, very hard choice between Rommel and Manstein. Guderian was also brilliant panzer leader but his true talents were in theorical side. Rommel was master of tactics, Manstein was master of strategy.

Well, I think that Rommel was still better than Manstein. Brilliant victories in Africa in both defensive and offensive means were showing his true talents. And those most crucial defeats happened when Rommel was elsewhere.

I voted for Gen Yamashita again and for the reasons given in several other posts. As much as I like von Manstein, his idea that Ciatadel should have been continued as a battle of attritionputs him as far detached from reality as Hitler. I mentioned elsewhere that von Mellenthin considered Herman Balck the finest German tactician in the war,but the fact that Yamashita was still in the field and undefeated at the end of the war is amazing,given the Japanese proclivity for getting wiped out in defensive struugles.

In the end I voted Manstein for much the same reason others have stated however it was a toss up between him and Mitsuru Ushijima however my knowledge of Ushijima is rather too recent and as yet incomplete to place him in the number one spot.

Originally Posted by melkor the first

I mentioned elsewhere that von Mellenthin considered Herman Balck the finest German tactician in the war

Seeing as von Mellenthin served as Balck's Chief of Staff that's not surprising. :P Balck was very good though and Guderian was another who thought very highly of him (he was under Guderian's command in the Battle for France). In retrospect I probably should have added him to the choices.

i voted for Rommel becuase of his brilliant campaign in Africa, and because i dont know much about the other commanders, but Guderian was the other one i considered

I voted for Rommel for a few reasons. Yes he did learn the tricks of the trade from the other two generals but his tenacity was unmatched by any of them. He only had two divisions when he was in africa...his best unites being the Panzer 15th and 21st. He was drastically outnumbered and British tanks were number in the 900 hundreds with a few Grant regiments to Rommels 500 with Mark 2's and crappy Italian tanks. He had two italian infantry regimets with the 90th Light group and a Mt. Brigade. Since he only had limited tanks, he did have one thing in his possession and that was 88 mm AA guns. He used these guns as lethal tank busters and these 88's helped make things a little even. But that was dismal, he had nothing to work with and Hitler did nothing for him. There is no way ever he should have smashed the british that bad. And yet he still won and had he taken over egypt the war would have been very different.

If Rommel would have had been gasoline and more than his left 50 tanks he would have beaten Mongomery with his 700+ tanks. He only lost of the broken german supply!

In my mind he was and will be the cluest general all the times!

Originally Posted by lemontree

I voted Hienz Gudarien, because of the reasons alredy stated by others. But Rommel also a master strategist and tactician. He could turn defeat into victory. His desert campaigns out foxed the allied forces, however, the failure of the Luftwaffe turned the desert war in favour of Montgomery.

I also voted for Rommel because his battles were fought with many more disadvantages than the other German generals mentioned.

Originally Posted by tomtom22

I also voted for Rommel because his battles were fought with many more disadvantages than the other German generals mentioned.

This isn't really true at all. And it depends on when you mean. In the last 2 years of war hardly any German commander fought with either their allotted level of forces or with air superiority.