Favorite WWII Commander

Andrew George Latta McNaughton, born in Moosomin (then North-West Territories, now in Saskatchewan) February 25, 1887, died in Montebello (Quebec) July 11, 1966. General Officer Commanding First Canadian Infantry Division from 1939 to 1940, First Canadian Corps from 1940 to 1942, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief First Canadian Army from 1942 to 1943, Minister of Defence from 1944 to 1945.

He stood firm for the unification of the Canadian Army despite opposition from both Britain and at home. He was first and foremost Canadian and was an officer of the men always.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Admiral Raymond Spruance.

His bold decisions and careful reasoning during the Battle of Midway ensured our win of the Pacific war. By putting the Japanese on the defensive from the Battle of Midway onward, Spruance allowed our leadership to put the war in the Pacific on the back burner so that the Third Reich could be destroyed before they developed atomic weapons or deployed jet fighters and bombers in significant numbers.

Frankly, I believe that God directly intervened at the Battle of Midway in many respects because nothing went according to plan (on both sides) yet the Allied leaders (especially Spruance and Fletcher) were able to make correct and counterintuitive decisions in spite of not having much information.

Halsey was great for morale and bold enough to lead and inspire men to do things like the Dolittle Raid, but he also loved the fight a little bit too much and was not as strong a tactician because of it. His misadventures at the Battle of Leyte Gulf are the most egregious example of this.

An article you might find interesting:

http://www.centurytel.net/midway/veterans/spruance.html

 

Hard to choose just one.

Patton.

Eisenhower.

Bradley.

Chesty Puller.

MacArthur.

Just to name a few.

 

Not MacArthur. He left men to rot & die on the Road to Bataan. Pulled out & left his men to be slaughtered, he did. Thousands.

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/bataan.html

 

McArthur was a brilliant general, but had deplorable personal morals. He had to make a humiliating settlement with a newspaper concerning a libel suit after it was discovered he was keeping a mistress.

He took a sizable bribe while in the Phillipines, and was frequently insubordinate.

We were lucky to have him in WWII, but Korea went badly due to his miscalculations about what China would do.

 

Oh, and I'd have second Spruance for best commander. Not only did he do a masterful job in the battle, he withdrew precisely at the right time. Yamamoto, hoping to catch the carriers, sent his battleships and heavy cruisers eastward. By nightfall, it was clear that they weren't going to contact the American carriers, and knowing that the fleet would be easily destroyed by American planes when daylight came, he withdrew, ending the battle, and giving up any hope of occupying Midway.

 

Lord Lovat is one of my favorites, and here is why:

Lord Lovat Link

Well... He is Scots after all!

 

So many very good choices, it's almost impossible to pick just one, but...

...Bradley...

he's the only one of all of 'em I ever met, and he was still sharp as a tack after 69 years of active federal commissioned duty.

 

OOH-RAH!

 

To internationalise it a bit(in no particular order):-

Rommel - brilliant tactician who outfoxed and outsmarted the British against superior odds time and time again

Monty - beat Rommel. Nuff said

Guderian - invented Blitzkrieg

Patton - held his nerve under extreme pressure

Stillwell - kept the Chinese in the war

Zhukov - led the Red Army to victory whilst still keeping Stalin at arm's length

Yours in Christ

Matt