Who was the best military commander throughout modern history?

there was alot of them SFC MERINO.........
1.CHESTY PULLER LIEUT. GENERAL USMC (RET)
2.GEORGE PATTON GENERAL U.S.A
3.GEORGE WASHINGTON GENERAL CONTINENTAL ARMY
4.FLEET ADMIRAL BULL HALSEY
5.GENERAL BLACKJACK PERSHING
6.HOWLIN MAD SMITH GENERAL USMC
7.ROBERT E. LEE GENERAL CONFEDERATE ARMY
8.GAVIN GENERAL U.S.A (COMMANDER OF 101ST AIRBORNE WW2)
9.BILLY MITCHELL BRIGADIER GENERAL USAAC
10.EVANS CARLSON BRIGADIER GENERAL USMC (COMMANDER 2ND MARINE RAIDER BATTALION WW2)
11.RED MIKE EDSON BRIGADIER GENERAL USMC (COMMANDER 1ST MARINE RAIDER BATTALION WW2)
12.(MAD DOG) MATTIS GENERAL USMC...
13.JOHN A LE JUENE GENERAL USMC

What? No.

Nimitz had MAGIC to help him defeat the Japanese. He had an almost unlimited superiority of material. The Japanese proved almost incapable of adapting to changing circumstances. Nimitz was awesome. The best? No way to tell.

Walt

And Nimitz's plan did -not- involve an invasion of the Philippines. He argued against it. FDR signed off on it to placate MacArthur.

So Nimitz did not have control over all operations, so he didn't have a strategic plan, let alone a flawless one.

Walt

I like General Pershing, Patton and Bradley, General Westmorland, Abrams and Ridgway lastly General Riemer, Swartzkopf, and Sullivan

I saw Norman in Tampa at Raymond James Stadium. Very cool. Had people protesting... very nasty mean people.

LTC (Join to see) Good point about the lameness of union generals. People today are still trying to understand what was going through the mind of George McClellan. The Civil War could have likely been ended much earlier if he hadn't continuously either refused to act or acted late. Union soldiers found a copy of General Lee's plans for Antietam, yet he waited so long to take action that Lee was able to reinforce their position which then led to the single bloodiest battle in history, vs what otherwise would have been an easy union victory.

Capt Richard I P. I do agree with you to an extent. However, I think it was really arrogance that was Lee's final undoing. He had won so many battles leading up to Antietam and Gettysburg - and often while being heavily outnumbered - that he started feeling like his soldiers were unbeatable. He began marching them too great of distances without proper provisions and, as you said, putting his soldiers in situations where they weren't able to effectively fight. By the time he arrived in Gettysburg, his troops were exhausted, but he was obsessed with moving into the north. Some of those initial charges were absolute bloodbaths because he had his people crossing over open fields directly into fire. I've read some union soldier accounts stating that confederates were taking casualties at rates equivalent to the rates at which union soldiers could reload their weapons. Pretty much culminated with Pickett's Charge, and turned the entire momentum of the war.

Lee is vastly overrated. How can the best military leader in the last 250 years be a loser?

The CSA didn’t really have much success on the battlefield. Federal battle deaths were 110,000, CSA battle deaths were 94,000. Since the so-called CSA was on the defensive, and the recent wide spread use of the rifled musket magnified defensive power at the expense of offensive power, those figures should show –many- more federal deaths than CSA deaths, in keeping with Napoleon’s dictum that it takes three attackers to drive off one defender. The rebels also had the advantage of interior lines.

Federal armies in the ‘West’ went pretty much from victory to victory throughout the war, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson early in 1862, occupying Nashville not long after that, driving into north Mississippi to cut the east-west rail line to Texas, driving off CSA army after army in the investment of Vicksburg, where an entire army was captured, driving the rebels out of middle Tennessee and capturing Chattanooga, inexorably advancing on and capturing Atlanta, Savannah and Columbia. The single bad check of the western federal armies was at Chickamauga.

In the eastern theater, Lee had as little success outside Virginia as various federal generals had within it. He is vastly overrated. After he wrecked his own army for offensive operations, he operated primarily on the defensive in an era when defensive technologies were dominant.

Walt

Grant was a much greater great captain than Lee was.

Walt

Why?

Walt

Simple, he survived Stalin, drove the German's out of Russia all the way to the Brandenburg gate, with inferior equipment. No single American General Can make that claim.

The Russians did not have inferior equipment. They -did- have overwhelming material and man power advantages.

So the best general for 250 years that does not necessarily make.

You don't seem to know much about the guy.

Walt

I beg to differ Captain, would you say the K98 was not superior to the 91/30 Mosin Nagant and the M44? The MG The T-34 was superior to what? The KV-1 was a good tank but was slow and by 1942 was being outclassed by German's. The Russian equivalent to the 88 Flak/anti tank, Field artillery piece was what? The Germans were using the MG 34 and 42 which would end up being retooled as the MG3 by most of NATO, the Russians were still dragging around Vickers machine guns on wheels. Soviet U boats accounted for how many sunken ships? Bubbi Hartman Shot down 352 aircraft on the Russian front the nearest Russian shot down how many (I know the correct answer). Lets be perfectly honest were it not for a big mouth German attaché who said the Japanese weren't going to invade Russia, the whole Spring Offensive of 1944 would not have come off, which would of meant that D-Day may never have happened.

My favorite... reporter asks, what are your plans here in Iraq,, Responded with.. Well, we are going to find the enemy.. go to where the enemy is, and kill them. But Sir, how are you going to do this,, First we will use our resources to locate the enemy,, then we will relocate to where the enemy is and kill them,.,. You're not going to tell us, are you sir..NO,, last time we told the media what was going to happen you showed up on the beach in Hati and put our soldiers lives in danger, so your being so irresponsible has lead me to only share that we will find them and kill them ..The rest you can watch on CNN after we are done.. Anymore questions? He was sometimes called the modern Patton..

What? No.

Schwarzkopf had overwhelming superiority.

Plus the JCS rejected his first plan.

Walt

Last 250 years or so.

I took Military History II in college last year and it covered 1890s to present day. The old Army Air Corps stallions are very much left behind. They're overlooked because they went with the transition to the US Air Force.

A great book on Gen. LeMay is "LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay," which shows his commitment to end conflicts through the philosophy of total war and end them as fast as possible.

LeMay has a niche primarily as a technician. He developed the Combat Box/Wing in WWII as well as the 'bomb on the leader' technique used in the 8th AF. You could argue that he was the best general of all time because as head of SAC --- he never had to fight at all. That is straight Sun Tzu.

But since he didn't run the whole Cold War that really doesn't apply. He was also disloyal to President Kennedy.

Walt

Capt Walter Miller - Francis Marion, the swamp Fox.
And yours?

General George Marshall is the greatest American soldier.

General O.P. Smith is my favorite.

Walt

Walt

Capt Walter Miller - No slam on Marion?

Nope. An arguable choice.

Walt

No it's not.

Walt