The Best of the Best at What They Did-Great Military leaders

G

godofthunder9010

Active member
Okay, so naturally the most unfair question immaginable is: "Who's the best military leader of all-time?" That's because times have changed and so does technology. So what I'd like to know is who everyone thinks is the best commander sorted into things like Cavalry, Infantry, Armor, Air Force, Navy, etc. So feel free to add categories and your own opinions.

Greatest Infantry Leader of All-time: Alexander the Great
Greatest Cavalry Leader of All-time: Subedai (he's a Mongol if you haven't heard of him)
Greatest Naval Leader of All-Time: I'm going to pass because I can't decide who I like best on this one.
Greatest Armor/Tank Leader of All-Time: Heinz Guderian
Greatest Pilot of All-Time: Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (the Red Baron himself)
Greatest Air Force Leader of All-Time: Again, numerous options, but I'll have to pass one this as well.
 
Hm very tough question especially how you already stated the great difference in times and technology... o well

Infantry: Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

Cavalry: Subedai was the man :p

Naval: (Forgive spelling) Farragut

Armor: MacArthur

Pilot: Red Baron of course.

Air Force: No clue really... maybe Doolittle? lol
 
IrishWizard said:
Hm very tough question especially how you already stated the great difference in times and technology... o well

Infantry: Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

Cavalry: Subedai was the man :p

Naval: (Forgive spelling) Farragut

Armor: MacArthur

Pilot: Red Baron of course.

Air Force: No clue really... maybe Doolittle? lol
Click to expand...

I'd be interested to hear why you rate MacArthur over Guderian for best Armor/Tank leader. :)

Anyway my choices:

Infantry: Alexander the Great, nuff said.

Cavalry: Subotai, the mastermind behind Batu's great victories.

Naval: Horatio Nelson. Extraordinary tactical skills and saved England at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Armor: Heinz Guderian, father of the Panzerwaffen and Blitzkrieg - needs no further introduction.

Pilot: Hans Ulrich Rudel. Astonishing 519 (among other targets) tanks destroyed on the Ostfront. Only person *ever* to be awarded Germany's highest award for decoration - Knight's Cross with Golden Oakleaves, Swords & Diamonds.

Air Force: WW2 Luftwaffe. Despite being overwhelmed by the industrial output of the Allies, the Luftwaffe had arguably the best planes and the best pilots right up until 1945.

Air Force Leader: Albert Kesselring. His resolute defensive campaign in 1943 prevented an Allied breakthrough in Europe until 1944. Also a very able strategist and one of the first Air Commanders to adopt the 'combined arms' theory.
 
I'll have to counter your Luftwaffe with the US Army Air Core of 1945. Sure the pilots may be inferior to those of the enemy in many cases, but they were still pretty damn good by that point. The staggering number of approximately 75,000 combat aircraft is kindof untouchable, even if the pilots had absolutely sucked. That airforce is the most overwhelming airforce that ever was and the biggest in history as well.

Admiral Nelson is probably a prime choice for best Naval commander. So many other great ones though :?

On Rudel, ran into this: http://members.aol.com/ab763/rudel.htm
518+ Tanks
700 Trucks
150+ Flak and Artillery positions
9 Fighter/Ground Attack Aircraft
Hundreds of bridges, railway lines, bunkers, etc.
Battleship October Revolution, Cruiser Marat, and 70 landing craft

VERY IMPRESSIVE. I'm sticking with Richthofen though. I don't believe that anyone has ever been so overwhelmingly good in air-to-air combat. (Its always Germans, isn't it. Why is that?)
 
Greatest Marine SNiper Charles Alcot (i cant spell his name but it somthing like that) He was knowing the best sniper in the marine 98 kills in nam the NVA try to kill him bunch time, and charles kill one of there general, he also pull 5-8 marine out of a buring APC and charles whom also was burnt.
 
Yes. that it i just forgot how to spell it i read about him the other day and forgot about his name but remember what he did.
 
Hmmm....
As far as the air catagories:

Fighter Pilot-Erich Hartmann(352 confirmed kills...)

Air-Force leader- Id have to go with Ezer Weizmann, the man who is responsible for building the IAF for its victory in 1967.
 
No offense Sherman, but Arab's have had a long history of horrible Air Forces, give me some evidence to show this guy your talking about killed sombody good, and maybe Ill buy it ;)
 
Its acctually not about the competition. Its a simple comarison of how the IAF looked before Ezer Weizmann started his command of the IAF, and how it looked when he finnished. As to Erich Hartmann, he is a German WWII pilot, so the quality of the arab Air-Forces has little to with it.... :D He made most he's kills in the Eastern front, and as far as I know he is the pilot with the most kills ever...
 
Yep. Just for the record(and somewhat offtopic), the Israeli Ace with most kills is Colonel Gyora Even(Epstien) with 17 kills. He is also, as far as I know, the world leader in Jet Vs. Jet kills.
 
Cmon people Mccarther are you lot serious
next you will say Custer for infantry

Infantry funnily enough Albert Kesselring (Luftwaffe)
Cavalry Dont know any really
Naval Nelson, Kptlt. Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere 1886 - 1941 The most successful U-boat skipper of all time. During his carreer he sank 194 ships of 450,000 tons.
Tank Heinz Guderian
Pilot Hartman hands down as a pilot. the red Baron was very good but alot of his kills where against unarmed British aircraft. Rudel for achievement but he was lucky.
 
Doppleganger, the best armor commander is General MacArthur? Please do tell me all about his major armor battles because I long to hear these stories!
 
Well, I have found this forum very entertaining, as many of these entries appear to be directly from a National Lampoon Edition on Military Leaders of History.
 
David Hurlbert said:
Doppleganger, the best armor commander is General MacArthur? Please do tell me all about his major armor battles because I long to hear these stories!
Click to expand...

Hang on a minute David! I think you've got me confused with IrishWizard.

"Armor: Heinz Guderian, father of the Panzerwaffen and Blitzkrieg - needs no further introduction. "

I picked Guderian.
 
hmm not totally slanderful..but close.

Would the person that decided national lampoon was not a very good reference book to judge military commanders by please stand up?

smack smack

now sit down... :D
 
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