Most underated?

Who do you think are the unsung military figures in history? People who do not get enough credit or people we might not have heard of? For my part i think General Slim.

General Slim is one of my favourite WW 2 personalities. When Slim took over the Far East command, things started to happen. I read an account of how Slim was viewed by certain members of the brass with upper class pedigree. The citicisms of the man were foolish at best. What the author said was very interesting. Many of these officers never learned they had made a mistake. They usually blamed failure on their officers or men or equipment etc. Slim on the other hand took failure very personally and realized he did something wrong. And he never made the same mistake twice.

Great choice.
 
General Slim is one of my favourite WW 2 personalities. When Slim took over the Far East command, things started to happen. I read an account of how Slim was viewed by certain members of the brass with upper class pedigree. The citicisms of the man were foolish at best. What the author said was very interesting. Many of these officers never learned they had made a mistake. They usually blamed failure on their officers or men or equipment etc. Slim on the other hand took failure very personally and realized he did something wrong. And he never made the same mistake twice.

Great choice.

Yeah but when I look at the question I really doubt that WW2 Generals are even in contention, we have all of history to look at.
 
OK well I have a new candidate... Mustafa Kemal.

He performed well throughout the Galipoli Campaign and before that the Russian Caucasus Campaign.
 
OK well I have a new candidate... Mustafa Kemal.

He performed well throughout the Galipoli Campaign and before that the Russian Caucasus Campaign.

Great choice. The man who would become Kemal Ataturk won a great victory over the Greeks in 1922. I'm quite rusty with my Turkish and Ottoman history. But I remember reading a few accounts of how the Turkish soldier was percieved by the west before the Great War. I think the Turks lost to the Balkan armies in 1911 to 1913. ( not sure of the dates). The west seriously underestimated the Turk soldier. Gallipoli and the siege of Kut and the surrender of Sir Charles Townsend in 1915, proved the Turkish soldier was equal to the soldiers of the west.
 
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Great choice. The man who would become Kemal Ataturk won a great victory over the Greeks in 1922. I'm quite rusty with my Turkish and Ottoman history. But I remember reading a few accounts of how the Turkish soldier was percieved by the west before the Great War. I think the Turks lost to the Balkan armies in 1911 to 1913. ( not sure of the dates). The west seriously underestimated the Turk soldier. Gallipoli and the siege of Kut and the surrender of Sir Charles Townsend in 1915, proved the Turkish soldier was equal to the soldiers of the west.


I think the under estimation goes back to the Crimean War where Turkish troops were considered "sub-par" yet history seems to have become so engrossed in the actions of the Light Brigade that it completely overlooked the fact that 800-900 Turkish gunners held off a Russian force of twenty-five battalions of infantry, twenty-three squadrons of cavalry, thirteen squadrons of Cossack light horse and sixty-six guns for two hours before abandoning their positions but in the process secured time for the 93rd Highlanders to get into position and prevent the Russians capturing Balaclava.
 
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim of the Finnish Army during the winter war with Soviet Russia November 1939 to March 1940
 
... and after winter war in the continuation war from june -41 to september -44. Well Mannerheim is same to us Finns like Suvorov is to Russians. Mannerheim was our national corner stone during WWII and without his knowledge of Soviet army and capabilities of finnish army we would have been in deep sh*t. There are many other things and persons behind his success but he was the one who made it all happen after all.
 
Marine Corps General Lewis B. Puller


While I agree that Chesty was without a doubt a fine combat leader I don't believe that he is at all underrated. Matter of fact I believe that in some cases Chesty's legend and myth have taken on a life of their own and in some cases it's necessary to seperate fact from fiction.
 
I remember reading a few accounts of how the Turkish soldier was percieved by the west before the Great War. I think the Turks lost to the Balkan armies in 1911 to 1913. ( not sure of the dates). The west seriously underestimated the Turk soldier. Gallipoli and the siege of Kut and the surrender of Sir Charles Townsend in 1915, proved the Turkish soldier was equal to the soldiers of the west.
I think the under estimation goes back to the Crimean War where Turkish troops were considered "sub-par" yet history seems to have become so engrossed in the actions of the Light Brigade that it completely overlooked th
 
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My choice....Orde Wingate. Here is a real old ball. he helped defeat the Italians in North Africa and captured huge numbers of them. He also help in the formation of the LRDG. He went off to Burma and set up the Chindits to take the fight to Japanese. He was killed in a plane crash in Burma and is buried in Arlington Cemetery.

Indeed. In addition to this, Orde Wingate used his expertise to create and train the Special Night Squads, an elite unit of night raiders who performed reprisal attacks. In imparting his knowledge to some members who would later become high ranking officers (such as Moshe Dayan, the fourth Chief of the General Staff), Wingate had made a considerable contribution to the development of the IDF. The most prominent health and fitness center in Israel, Wingate Institute, is named after him.

Speaking of which, there is also Mickey Marcus. He donated from his extensive knowledge as a U.S Colonel to the highly inexperienced Haganah (preceded the IDF, it means "Defense") during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, creating a strong foundation of military proficiency that would serve Israel for the years to follow. He became Israel's first General. Unfortunately, as he returned to his base one night, the guard stationed outside the gates, who didn't recognize him (the guard was new and Marcus wore no ranks at that moment), told him in Hebrew to say the password. Marcus did not understand what the guard was saying and responded in English. As he approached closer to the gate, the guard shot him, and he died.
 
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