best general

[purves grundy]

General Aung San, Burmese independence hero. The Burmese still worship him today. His daughter's Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

[Larry O'Hara]

i always thought generals would be cool people in real life, since you actually have to be excellent at your job to get that high up, and not just a cunt

same with proffesors and billionaires and suchlike

re Professors, you're joking, aren't you? One springs to mind whose published work is cut & paste, garlanded by casuistry. Although I suppose he's excellent at that.

 

[nino_savatte]

I am somewhat shocked Bernard Montgomery is not in the poll.

....or "Chinese" Gordon or Earl Haig or......

 

[KeyboardJockey]

....or "Chinese" Gordon or Earl Haig or......

Montgomery as I understand was a vain man who although inspirational to some troops in the desert war was a failiure in other later campaigns. Haig was just a total bastard I grimmace everytime I walk past Haig's statue. The man responsible for the invention of Haigs Mincing Machine aka the Western Front of WW1.

Rommel was one of the more honourable German officers of WWII IMO and may have been a great statesman general if the plot against Hitler had succeeded and an armistice with a non Hitler led German govt reached with the Allies.

 

[nino_savatte]

Montgomery as I understand was a vain man who although inspirational to some troops in the desert war was a failiure in other later campaigns. Haig was just a total bastard I grimmace everytime I walk past Haig's statue. The man responsible for the invention of Haigs Mincing Machine aka the Western Front of WW1.

Rommel was one of the more honourable German officers of WWII IMO and may have been a great statesman general if the plot against Hitler had succeeded and an armistice with a non Hitler led German govt reached with the Allies.

I agree and Haig was an unfeeling monster, who could be accused of war crimes against his own men.

 

[kakuma]

re Professors, you're joking, aren't you? One springs to mind whose published work is cut & paste, garlanded by casuistry. Although I suppose he's excellent at that.

I've only met two proffessors and they were both pretty cool boffiny types, one was a world authority on ancient russian or something and he had a really cool beard

 

[phildwyer]

1. Pompey the Great.
2. Hannibal.
3. Shaka.

Two Africans and an Italian, how times change.

 

[Bigdavalad]

Montgomery as I understand was a vain man who although inspirational to some troops in the desert war was a failiure in other later campaigns. Haig was just a total bastard I grimmace everytime I walk past Haig's statue. The man responsible for the invention of Haigs Mincing Machine aka the Western Front of WW1.

Rommel was one of the more honourable German officers of WWII IMO and may have been a great statesman general if the plot against Hitler had succeeded and an armistice with a non Hitler led German govt reached with the Allies.

Montgomery was far from a failure, although Market Garden was a failed campaign, he did lead the British invasion of Holland/North Germany, although without the publicity of his North Africa campaign.

Rommel may well have been an honourable man, but he was a vastly over rated General.

Haig, although a pretty crappy General, isn't as responsible for the slaughter of WW1 as some people consider - he had no other way of attacking until tanks were introduced in late 1916.

 

[Belushi]

Alexander
Napoleon
Cromwell

 

[nino_savatte]

I just remembered I never voted but here are mine:

Belisarius - recaptured the western portions of the Roman Empire but it nearly bankrupted the Byzantine Empire. A bit of a vanity project for Justinian by all accounts. Got shafted by Justinian upon his return to Constantinople.

Saladin - a man who was more civilised than the men he opposed.

Attila the Hun - head of the largest proto-biker gang on earth, the Huns did everything in the saddle...just like the Hell's Angels.

 

[Andy the Don]

What no Heinz Guderian, father of Blitzkrieg..

 

[bugsy7]

What was the name of that Vietnamese general geezer (was it Giap or something)? He banjoed the Frogs at Den Bien Phu and then proceeded to give the Septics a fucking good spannering until they pulled out of Vietnam in the early Seventies.
He's definitely worth a mention.

MsG

 

[Signal 11]

^ What he said (General Vo Nguyen Giap, it says 'ere).

Hasn't anyone mentioned Clausewitz yet, either?

 

[Udo Erasmus]

what about Mao, while I detest his politics, his writings on guerilla warfare are unparalleled in combining politics and war and he influenced Giap too.

 

[Gavin Bl]

What no Heinz Guderian, father of Blitzkrieg..

And Liddell-Hart, ignored by the British brass for his silly ideas on mobile warfare.

How about ol' Sandino, giving the yanks the runaround in Nicaragua?

 

[kyser_soze]

Sun Tzu, altho not strictly a general, wrote the one key text that pretty much all the rest will have studied!

Monty wasn't a bad general, just not a great one - he was vain, was unable/unwilling to subsume his ego in joint command and failed to make use of Bletchely sourced intel that often (which pissed Churchill off apparently since he was a hge supported of Bletchley Park).

But probly Wellington, Yamamoto (OK, not a general but the equiv surely?)

Coupla others but I'd have to look 'em up and ruminate...

 

[Belushi]

Yamamoto (OK, not a general but the equiv surely?)

If we can have admirals want to change my choices!

 

[deeplight]

1. Definately Alexander the great. The man lived to conquer ffs. He'd done half of Europe and most of India before he was stopped by elephants and a well organised Indian general.

2. General Vo Nguyen Giap as the man above said. He had an easier job than many generals with the jungle to hide in and such an obvious right cause but he still had to utiklise it all properly against such advanced hardware.

3. He only beats Napoleon in my eyes though because America was such an arrogant shitcunt in vietnam.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

I'm surprised Slim only has the one vote so far. His claim is way stronger than Monty's for example. Not many generals can claim to have beaten the Japanese the hard way, with no clever stuff like sinking their fleet or nuking them.