![[FGM] Bootie](https://i0.wp.com/thefewgoodmen.org/wp-content/uploads/wpforo/avatars/fgmbootie_193390399.jpg?resize=110%2C110 "[FGM] Bootie")
I would choose Rommel. I'd want to ask him at what point did he realize what kind of a man he was truly serving? What did he tell himself during those years? How did someone with a reputation for personal honour reconcile that with enabling a genocidal regime, even if he wasn't directly involved in the Holocaust?
Who would you choose?
Mikhail Katukov- he singlehandedly derailed Guderain's career.
Now I gotta google this. 🙂
Given my lifelong interest in the ACW, and the confederate military in general, I would love to sit down to a fireside chat
with General James Longstreet. Read is bio and he was one, fascinating guy. He pleaded with Lee to take the Pipe Creek alternative.
"If brute force doesn't work you aren't using enough brute force." - mTk
War does not determine who is right, but it does determine who is left. - B.Russell
"Turn based games don't need a pause key". - mTk
"Overkill is underrated." - Col John "Hannibal" Smith
Senatus Populusque Romanus- SPQR - The Senate and People of Rome (circa 60 BC)
@mtk must have been heartbreaking what he went through with his kids!
Yeah, that was not to long before Gettysburg IIRC. 😢
"If brute force doesn't work you aren't using enough brute force." - mTk
War does not determine who is right, but it does determine who is left. - B.Russell
"Turn based games don't need a pause key". - mTk
"Overkill is underrated." - Col John "Hannibal" Smith
Senatus Populusque Romanus- SPQR - The Senate and People of Rome (circa 60 BC)
I'll have to focus on the local level, and for that, I'll mention General Jose de San Martin (1778-1850). Perhaps some of you aren't familiar with him, but here there are districts, cities, streets, schools, squares, and just about anything else you can think of that bear his name. San Martin was an Argentine military and political leader who commanded the Army of the Andes and was key to the independence of Argentina, Chile, and Peru from Spanish rule. He achieved Argentina's emancipation, crossed the Andes to liberate Chile, and then declared Peru's independence, becoming a fundamental figure in South American independence.
Field Marshall William Slim, the BEST British general of World War 2. Did so much more with so much less than the much vaunted Montgomery, but did it in Asia, not as many reporters there as in Europe. Still, a very underappreciated Allied general.
@hoa_ksop my Uncle was his personal signalman in the 50's.
I’m not sure we can really call him a general, since military ranks as we know them today didn’t exactly exist back then, but my choice is Alexander the Great — the greatest of them all. His battles and strategies are still studied in military academies today. His life, though brief, flashed across the known world like lightning: Egypt, where he founded Alexandria; the conquest of Persia; and reaching the borders of India. Never defeated, always victorious.
For me, I’d probably pick Ulysses S. Grant — not just because of the victories, but because he seemed calm under pressure and understood the bigger picture of war better than most of his contemporaries. He wasn’t flashy, didn’t chase glory, and yet he kept grinding forward when others hesitated. I’d love to hear how he handled the weight of command and the constant criticism while still pushing toward a strategic endgame.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." — Vegetius
"Do not hurry to the sound of the guns without knowing why they are firing." — British maxim
"In war, the simplest things are difficult." — Clausewitz
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." — Moltke
"The side that can most quickly exploit success is the side that will win." — Guderian
Some days you’re the hammer, some days you’re the nail. 🪖🎲
Looking for a game? Challenge me here:
Read his autobiography. He finished it the day before he died to provide some financial security for his family. He was a special general, he and Sherman.
For me, I’d probably pick Ulysses S. Grant — not just because of the victories, but because he seemed calm under pressure and understood the bigger picture of war better than most of his contemporaries. He wasn’t flashy, didn’t chase glory, and yet he kept grinding forward when others hesitated. I’d love to hear how he handled the weight of command and the constant criticism while still pushing toward a strategic endgame.