AOE3 Forums

Who do you think they are? I'll collect a tally. Here's my view (from different countries)

Germany:

Erwin Rommel (3 votes)

- Desert Warfare, Atlantik Wall

Heinz Guderian

- Proponent of the Tank theory within the German Armed Forces

Erich Ludendorff

- First proposed the theory of "Total War"

Schlieffen

- Proposed the famous "Schlieffen Plan"

 Japan:

Tomoyuki Yamashita

- Major architect of the Japanese victories in the South Pacific

Great Britian:

Bernhard Montgomery

- Desert warfare master, Italian Campaign

Liddell Hart

- Along with Tom Fuller, the first person to propose a revolutionary idea on the use of tanks

France:

Charles de Gaulle

- Leader of the Free French

Fillipe Petain

- Strategist of World War One

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics:

Georgi Zhukov

- Architect of Operation Uranus, which resulted in the German defeat at Stalingrad, Battle of Berlin

Dominion of Canada:

Arthur Currie (1 Vote)

- Captured the heights of Vimy Ridge, the most fortified bastion of the first world war, with less than 11,000 Casualties, where 170, 000 + French and british troops failed, Battle across the Rhine River, into germany

 United States of America:

Douglas MacArthur

- Key Strategist of the South Pacific

George Patton

- Battle of Normandy, Italian Campaign

(I do not mention Eisenhower as he kinda billed his name to something other people planned)

Rommel was a genius, no doubt. they called him the desert fox, and after he tried to kill hitler (by placing a bomb in his office; hitler survived because he had to go to the toilet), he was ofc executed. but because of the huge amount of respect hitler had for him, hitler gave him the choice between being shot or taking poison.... he chose the last one. in WW1 he fought well too, he was a smart bastard in warfare. a military genius.....

Alright, 2 votes for rommel then, keep em coming people! Oh, and he was injured by a british bomber, after he became involved in the conspiracy against hitler. However, hitler knew he couldn't kill rommel because of the respect rommel's troops had for him. So he offered rommel the choice to take poison and die with his military honors, or face the shame of public exposure.

Rommel was brilliant

I would say Hitler, he almost conquered the world if it was not for the U.S.  The way he talks with great passions also gained many allies, he was a great leader... for awhile .He had also healed germany after the great depression, it just seems he had some issues mainly starting after WW1, maybe from gory battles.

{T_K} KevTheGreat:

I would say Hitler, he almost conquered the world if it was not for the U.S.  The way he talks with great passions also gained many allies, he was a great leader... for awhile .He had also healed germany after the great depression, it just seems he had some issues mainly starting after WW1, maybe from gory battles.

 

Being a leader and being C in C of the armed forces are not the same. His character was woefully inadequate for the role. Yes, he had great charisma and mob phsycology skills, but in the end, he was but the petty son of an Austrian customs official.

Hitler had, by the end of the war, turned his back on the strategy of manuver (as shown to full effect during the napoleanic wars, by Napoleon himself) and went back to the static warfare of ww1, which played to the enemy's strengths (russians, large amounts of troops in set piece, slow engagements) rather than the strategy of Decisive manuever that the germans had perfected, commonly known as blitzkreig, which they had the total advantage in, not in numbers, but in quality, which is how some 3, 000, 000 german troops defeated the combined might of france, holland, belgium, czechoslovakia, and poland. (Together almost 12, 000,000 men in arms, france alone possessing a war strength of 5 million)

Hitler was not a military strategist. It was his involvement that caused stalingrad, berlin, and pretty much every other german disaster of the war. It was his generals who knew what they were doing, not hitler. "No withdrawal" "Budapest must be liberated" (even when the soviets were knocking on berlin's doors)

He also became a raving lunatic towards the end of the war, whenever his generals told him a course of action was not possible (Halt the soviet advance in berlin with 3, 000 men?)

It was because of hitler the general's military expertise went unheeded, with disastrous results. Hitler substituted sound military strategy for the power of the will and his own pseudo-strategy, which doomed the german army to defeat.

 

Source: The German Army 1933-45, Matthew Cooper

 

And please, do not say the US won the war. That is complete falsehood. Just as Canada did not win the war, it could not have been won without them (same with the US). Few people actually know the extent of Canada's military involvement in the second world war, but by the end they had the 3rd largest navy or army in the world (I can't remember which one).

 A few instances of this: Devil's brigade in italy (Canadian Specail forces, the elite of the elite)

Something Leo (Liberated an entire dutch town singlehandedly when his friend was killed while they were on recon)

FYI: Canada pioneered a mach 2 fighter almost 20 years before the US did, but a puppet prime minister called the project off when the americans pressured him to do so. Look up the "Avro Aero"

alright i am willing to give u the hitler was a horrible tactition, in most parts. Other than the tactition part, his other major negative that aided in his loss of the war was his hate of Semitics. But he truely had great charisma, many people followed him, voted for the nazi party, still loved him in jail, got out of jail early, supporting him on the war on poland, etc.  He truely went crazy at the end, but he went from a broken childhood by his father, to a privite, to the leader of a major political group, to the 3rd reich.  Somewhere along he lost his way.

 

however... in the "US won the war" i did not mean that, all i said is that if it was not for the U.S, if that had not entered the war, it might have turned out alot different, of course they could not win it by themselves. But they did help greatly in the war, being a superpower, helping in liberating france, nuking japan, etc.  And i know Canada also took part in WW2, however i just don;t know much of what they did.  In conclusion, the Allies won the war with the help of the U.S joining them.

 

then remove my vote :P, i don;t know much history of the early 20th century, more on the roman - medieval times. 

The problem with Hitler: He didnt listen to his officers.

Hitler's charisma: only about 20% of the german soldiers were actual nazi's that believed in Hitler.

The Blood Clot:

The problem with Hitler: He didnt listen to his officers.

Hitler's charisma: only about 20% of the german soldiers were actual nazi's that believed in Hitler.

True he didn't listen to his officers and generals, he was too overzealous about that.  As for the charisma part, he didn't need them to believe in the cause,  just to fight for it and to be elected to a high power position

 

 

A lot of the generals hated hitler. I was reffering to his general oratory skills towards the general populace. Anyhow, back on topic folks! Who do you think is the greatest mind of the early 20th century in the military sphere?