BF2S Forums Which is Your Favorite General/Military Leader in History?

Bertster7 wrote:

KillerKane0 wrote:

I have 2:

William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who made Georgia Howl.

Bill Slim, tied with George S. Patton as the greatest Allied general of WWII.

Bah, Montgomery and Rommel were the best generals of WWII and Monty was better than Rommel.

Montgomery is way overrated!

Alexander the Grape.

Gillenator wrote:

silo1180 wrote:

Oda Nobunaga - United the Warlords creating what is now Japan.  But he did it through any means possible.  He used force when needed, but he mostly worked with local governments to arrange marriages to unite families, making provinces less likely to resist when he brought his forces in to convice the Warlord to cooperate. 

What made him so effective though was he was one of the first military leaders who had studied the Art of War and was able to implement it.  This all during a time when guns were first being introduced to Japan, and the nation was beginning to advance technologically.  In fact, the first gun was sold to Japan by Portugese traders.  A rival Warlord stole the weapon from the person that purchased it.  Nobunaga stole the blacksmith (for lack of a better term) who had been taking the gun apart and putting it back together to learn how it worked.  By taking the man instead of the gun, they were able to produce more guns before the rivals even understood the weapon.

He eventually had his army surround Kyoto (the capital then) and at his "request" the Emporer walked out of the capital.  He massed a huge army consisting of warriors from the provinces, so in the end no force dared rise up against him.

He did all this, then handed the country over to the person the citizens felt was the rightful Emporer.

I would choose Toyotomi Hideyoshi over Oda Nobunaga.
He started as the sandal bearer of Oda Nobunaga and ended as the unifier of Japan after Oda Nobunaga was killed in 1582 by Akechi Mitsuhide.

Yes but Taiko never really had to lead as large an army as Nobunaga did.  Oda paved the way for Hideyoshi to be able to finish the job.  Although I must confess Taiko was a huge influence on Oda, and was the mastermind behind a lot of the treaties and arranged marriages.  But Hideyoshi never burned down a mountain because of "evil monks".  Nobunaga was ruthless at times, and was the warrior of the two.

For those of you that may be interested... I recommend you read "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa.  And another book he wrote "Musashi" is also an excellent read about the life of Miyamoto Musashi one of the best swordsmen ever.

Ajax_the_Great1 wrote:

I don't see how you anti war people can admire people who are only remembered for their acts in war. Especially people like ATG who simply attacked people soley for conquest and personal glory. You know who else did that, Hitler.

Alexander lived more than 2000 years ago, you can't compare him to Hitler.  Alexander was a conqueror, he didn't kill people for pleasure, and Hitler killed millions of people coz of their origin.

Actually Alexander the great towards the end of his reign became a very harsh dictator.

Leonidas I
Leonidas(Greek: Λεωνίδας - "Lion's son", "Lion-like") was a king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta and a descendant of Heracles. He succeeded his half-brother Cleomenes I, probably in 489 or 488 BC, and was married to Cleomenes' daughter, Gorgo. His name was raised to a heroic and legendary status as a result of the events in the Battle of Thermopylae.

In 480 the ephors sent Leonidas with the 300 men of an all-sire unit (soldiers who had sons to carry on their bloodline) and 6700 allies to hold the pass of Thermopylae against the hundreds of thousands of Persian soldiers who had invaded from the north of Greece under Xerxes. According to a contemporary accounts Leonidas took only a small force comprised by his personal fighting unit, because Sparta's religious customs did not allow to send out an army at this time of the year. In addition, he was deliberately going to his doom: an oracle had foretold that Sparta could be saved only by the death of one of its kings, one of the lineage of Hercules. Instead it seems likely that the ephors supported the plan half-heartedly due to the festival of Carneia and their policy of concentrating the Greek forces at the Isthmus of Corinth.

Several anecdotes demonstrate the laconic matter-of-fact bravery that Leonidas and the Spartans were famed for even in the ancient world. On the first day of the siege, when Xerxes demanded the Greeks surrender their arms, Leonidas is said to have replied Μολών Λαβέ ("Come and get them"). And on the third day, the king is reputed to have exhorted his men to eat a hearty breakfast, because that night they would dine in Hades.

Leonidas' men repulsed the frontal attacks of the Persians for the first two days, but when the Malian Ephialtes led the Persian general Hydarnes by a mountain track to the rear of the Greeks, Leonidas divided his army. The King himself remained in the pass with his 300 Spartans and 400 Thebans, along with 700 Thespians who refused to leave. Leonidas' intent was to delay the Persians, sacrificing himself and his men.

The little Greek force, attacked from both sides, was cut down to a man except for the Thebans, who surrendered. Another theory is that Leonidas sent the remainder of the army home in an effort to preserve troops for the main battles of the war. The soldiers who stayed behind were to cover their escape so the Persian cavalry would not overrun the rear of the escaping troops.

Leonidas fell in the thickest of the fight, but the Spartans managed to retrieve his body and protect it until their final fall to enemy arrows. Herodotus says that Leonidas' head was cut off by Xerxes' order and his body crucified, due to his alleged hatred towards the Spartan King. This was considered sacrilege towards Leonidas, and unusual action on Xerxes' part[citation needed]. Immediately after he ordered the desecration of Leonidas' body; however, Xerxes felt remorse and, forty years later, Leonidas' corpse was returned to the Spartans[citation needed].

He was buried with full honours, including a very un-Spartan display of wailing and mourning (Spartans normally accepted death in battle as a matter of course and disapproved of outward grieving, but the oracle at Delphi had ordered this along with the sacrifice of a Spartan king to preserve Sparta). A carved lion monument bearing the inscription below was dedicated at his death site commemorating the sacrifice of him and his men:

usmarine2007 wrote:

Stormin Norman

QFT!!!

also

alexander the great.  never lost a battle and led his men from the font.  most persian kings did not take on such an active role in leadership which is whyi did not choose cyrus or darius.

Last edited by CoronadoSEAL (2007-02-21 10:39:53)

Erwin Rommel, LTC Hal Moore (as portrayed in We Were Soldiers), and of course, Bruce Lee.

Last edited by IRONCHEF (2007-02-21 10:52:32)

Just to mix things up a little I'm gonna go for Ismail Khan (Afghanistan, Northern Alliance). I read a book about the last 100 years of Afghanistan's history recently and he was a legend. He led the Afghani effort in their victory against the Russians during the Cold War invasion and fought continuously against the Taliban refusing to fully surrender control of the northern regions to their rule. As I was reading the book I kept expecting him to get nailed in each operation he went into as he never shied away from dangerous conflicts even when was raised to a high military rank but the man is invincible. There is one famous story where he took injections of adrenalin to stay awake and fight longer and be seen by his fellow soldiers in the field and thus inspire confidence! He also managed to escape from Kandahar prison when he was betrayed to the Taliban by one of his former allies.

He is still alive today and is still as controversial as ever, he was sacked from a government position in 2004 but reinstated as Minister for Energy by American puppet President Karzai, he supposedly has good links with Iran, which certain people aren't too happy about and some corners have questioned his attitude towards human rights.

I just think he's a tough motherfucker!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ismail_Khan

Last edited by Braddock (2007-02-21 10:59:08)

Mannerheim.

I´m not even going to write about his deeds, but he has a place in all the Finnish peoples hearts!!!

usmarine2007 wrote:

Stormin Norman

He lived down the street from my parents..lol

Im surprised you didn't vote for General Macarthur, IMO he was better then Gen. Patton.  Its said that he studied Sun Tzu's book, and he also stopped the Koreans after WWII, HE also helped rebuild Japan. 

Would you agree that Macarthur is a better General then Patton?
Also what are your thoughts on Eisenhower?

Sun Tzu was brilliant.  He literally wrote the book on military strategy...why do you think some of his ideas are seen as simple today?  It is because they have been used for centuries.  Also, many of his ideas are commonly forgotten, or misused.  How many times have generals forgotten these simple rules and lost?

I vote for Rommel, Lee, Mao, and Guderian (first two were great battlefield leaders (amongst other things), the other two were master tacticians)