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By "greatest" I mean the leader who was the most intelligent strategician, inspired strong esprit de corps, and was most effective on and off the battlefield (through organization, logistics, technology, etc.). Feel free to comment on your answer if you would like.
Given these parameters, I would have to say Satan, or can an evil leader be defined differently? (I say this because, over the long run, he appears to be winning).
Why not : Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel ?
The Desert Fox! Good choice. Had he had the fuel and men required to carry on, he might have won North Africa for he Nazis, but even if he did, Africa was merely a sideshow for the Allies.
I used to think the same thing about Rommel and there is no doubt he was an able commander but I dont think he ascends to the level of greatness. He was an excellent tactician and operational artist but strategically he leaves something to be desired. His acquiescence in leaving Tobruk besieged in his rear for so long is a point in his disfavor. He should have spent more time reducing it, it would have been time well spent and would have freed up several thousand troops for his assault on Egypt. He also chose his stopping point at el Alamein poorly, he should have pushed another twenty miles past the Quattra depression before halting.
I used to think the same thing about Rommel and there is no doubt he was an able commander but I dont think he ascends to the level of greatness. He was an excellent tactician and operational artist but strategically he leaves something to be desired. His acquiescence in leaving Tobruk besieged in his rear fro so long is point in his disfavor. He should have spent more time reducing it, it wold have been time well spent and would have freed up several thousand troops for his assault on Egypt. He also chose his stopping point at el Alamein poorly, he should have pushed another twenty miles past the Quattra depression before halting.
Hitler micro-managed his campaign just like he did all the other generals. Rommel achieved much despite this handicap, and that is where I think much of his credit is duly given.
Yes, Hitler micromanaged his generals but Guderian, Model, and even Paulus showed in the East that it was possible to stand up to him if you made your case well enough. Rommel buckled when he had very good arguments to complete the reduction of Tobruk before continuing the campaign. Tobruk was a thorn in his side and he was denied a vital port facility. Taking Tobruk would have shortened his supply lines considerably and went far to ameliorating his fuel deficiency. His position at el Alamein was an excellent defensive position but a poor jump off point for an offensive, his mission was to take Egypt not defend Tripolitania. He Buckled at Tobruk just like he buckled later in France. He wanted to put his reserves closer to the beaches and was overruled and then he refused to press hard enough to get the Panzer divisions released from the Calais area to repel the invasion. he had a good plan to defeat the invasion but did not have the moral courage to stand up to hitler to fully implement it. In the end the plan was half done. Finally, he committed suicide rather than protest his innocence of knowledge of the July Plot. There has never been any hard evidence that he was invovled. He was a good general, even great at times, but he lacked a little in the way of moral courage to stand up to his superiors when they forced mistakes on him. That is also part of being a leader, even in the German army they did not blindly follow orders despite what you may believe.
During WWI Rommel fought on the Western Front and won the Iron Cross. During WWII Rommel was given command of the 7th Panzer Division that invaded France in May 1940. Rommel's troops moved faster and farther than any other army in military history (the "Ghost Division").Desert FoxWhen Benito Mussolini asked for help in North Africa, Adolf Hitler sent Rommel to command the new Deutsches Afrika Korps and he successfully drove the British 8th Army out of Libya. He moved into Egypt but was defeated at El Alamein. With the USA Army landing in Morocco and Algeria, his troops were forced to leave Tunisia.El Alamein.On the 1st of November 1942, Sir Montgomery launched an attack on the Deutsches Afrika Korps at Kidney Ridge. After initially resisting the attack, Rommel decided he no longer had the resources to hold his line and on the 3rd of November he ordered his troops to withdraw. ... However, Adolf Hitler overruled his commander and the Germans were forced to stand and fight...The next day Montgomery ordered his men forward. The Eighth Army broke through the German lines and Erwin Rommel, in danger of being surrounded, was forced to retreat. The foot soldiers, including large numbers of Italian soldiers, were unable to move fast enough and were taken prisoner.For a while it looked like the the British would cut off Rommel's army but a sudden rain storm on 6th of November turned the desert into a quagmire and the chasing army was slowed down. Rommel, with only twenty tanks left, managed to get to Sollum on the Egypt-Libya border.The Afrikakorps was never accused of any war crimes; furthermore Rommel ignored orders to kill captured Jewish soldiers and civilians in all theaters of his command.France again.Rommel was sent to head the German Army in France that was preparing for the Allied invasion. Rommel believed the existing coastal fortifications were entirely inadequate and he immediately began strengthening them. Under his direction, a string of reinforced concrete pillboxes were built along the beaches, or sometimes slightly inland, to house machine guns, antitank guns, and light artillery. Mines and antitank obstacles were planted on the beaches themselves, and underwater obstacles and mines were placed in waters just off shore. The intent was to destroy the Allied landing craft before they could unload. (Rommelspargel "Rommel's asparagus")Rommel firmly believed that Germany would inevitably be defeated unless the invasion could be stopped at the beach.The Commander-in-Chief West, Gerd von Rundstedt, expected the Allies to invade in the Pas-de-Calais because it was the shortest crossing from Britain and the nearest point to Germany. Hitler's HQ, although agreeing with this assessment, also considered a landing at Normandy as a possibility. Rommel, believing that Normandy was indeed a likely landing ground, argued that it did not matter to the Allies where they landed, just that the landing was successful.Unable to halt the Allied troops during Operation Overlord, on the 15th of July 1944 Rommel warned Hitler that Germany was on the verge of defeat and encouraged him to bring the war to an end.DeathIn the summer of 1944 Rommel was approached about joining the July Plot. He refused, criticising the tactic of assassination claiming that it would turn Adolf Hitler into a martyr. Instead he suggested that he should be arrested and brought to trial...In the autumn of 1944 Hitler discovered that Rommel was plotting against him. On 14th of October 1944, Rommel was visited by two generals who had been sent by Hitler with an ultimatum: suicide with a state funeral and protection for his family and staff or trial for high treason. Erwin Rommel took poison and officially it was stated that he had died of a brain seizure. Buried with full military honours...TMO it's not a "lack of moral courage" but his morality that betrayed him.
I know his history, I spent about 5 years as a teenager reading everything I could get my hands on about him because I though he was a fascinating person. I still have not changed my mind about his quality as not being the greatest leader of all time.There is ABSOLUTELY no hard evidence that Rommel refused or accepted any role in the July plot. It is all speculation based on his travels and those of known plotters. Being in the same place at the same time is not the same as being approached. To the best of my knowledge the story that he refused participation is apocryphal and was most likely spread by surviving plotters. You are correct that he had principle, I am not impugning his character by citing moral weakness. I am saying that faced with Hitler, he was spineless. At that, he was not a Nazi, he was a typical hidebound German officer. I say German and not Prussian because he was Swabian, which was only Prussian governed but not originally Prussian.In addition to the Iron Cross 1st class he won the Pour le Merite in Italy during WWI and was the youngest person to ever do so, the most prestigious Prussian military award, kind of the German version of the Medal of Honor, Victoria Cros, or Creux de Guerre. His post war book Infantry Attacks is essentially the story of how he won it.
For me Stonewall Jackson and Hannibal were the greatest generals. Rommel, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great make the next tier. Patton, Sherman, Julius Caesar, and Scipio Africanus would make the next group. MacArthur, Montgomerie, and James Longstreet round out my list.
Stonewall Jackson is quite unknown from this side of the Atlantic. Except Robert Edward Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest, few if no other confederate military leaders are famous here.Although I do agree about Hannibal Hamilcar as the greatest one due to his stunning skills.
