I feel I have been amiss in my duty for not including more history in my daily posts……I will try to change that oversight on my part.
If you remember any history from your school days you will remember a few of the “famous” commanders in time of war…..men like “Monty” Montgomery, Rommel, Eisenhower, MacArthur etc…..
But there is another list that people should be aware of….a list of the worse generals in history.
You may surprised at the men that make this list…..
In war, there are winners and losers. Sometimes an army is defeated because they simply faced a larger and more powerful foe. Other times they lose because of some bizarre set of circumstances no one could have foreseen, or because they were simply outwitted by a cunning adversary. Sometimes an army is even dealt a defeat because of bad weather (as happened to the Mongol fleet of Kublai Khan in 1281 AD, which was destroyed by a typhoon as it tried to cross the narrow strait between Korea and Japan.) However, there are also those battles that were lost due to the sheer incompetency of a leader, which is the source for this list.
Of course, even a good military leader can have a bad day. As such, this list is not about leaders who simply lost a battle, but those who either snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory or were classic incompetents that somehow managed to be given command of entire armies. A few are on this list because they are perceived as being far more capable than history demonstrates them to have been; in other words, besides the worst leaders, this list also contains the most overrated leaders who, while competent to a degree, do not rightly deserve the level of credit given to them by history. Finally, this is not a list of Generals only, but of men—some of whom may not even have been in uniform—that made the decisions that ultimately led their armies to utter catastrophe. And so, without further ado, here is my list for the top ten most incompetent, overrated, or just plain unlucky military leaders in history.
Source: Top 10 Worst Military Leaders in History – Toptenz.net
Tell me you did not see some of those on the list coming at you.
This is your history lesson for the day…..you now know more than you did earlier…
Class Dismissed!
That’s a reasonable list, and well-argued. McClellan was a poor general for the Union Army, but I would argue that Burnside was the worst. I might also cite Robert E. Lee, who was not as good as Longstreet or Jackson on the Confederate side.
Anyone involved with the fiasco at Arnhem deserves a bad rep, as well as the Iranian generals that sent boys and men into battle against the Iraqis with few weapons other than scarves tied around their heads. I would put Haig closer to the top, for his botched handling of WW1 battles, but my personal number one would be Churchill, and all the others involved in the disaster at Gallipoli.
Best wishes, Pete.
Agree with the Lee thing…..Gallipoli was truly a major screw up…I have always liked Longstreet….chuq
Longstreet may not have been able to win the war in the long term, but he might have forced a settlement. The shape of the US today would be interesting, if that had happened…
I once read a “what if” the South had fight to a draw….as soon as I find it a gain I will pass it on….chuq
I have this film on DVD. It’s a humorous idea of ‘what if’ the South had won.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389828/
Thanx for the link…..gives me something to watch after the doctor’s tomorrow…..chuq
“for his inept defense of the Philippines in 1942”. I would not label Mac inept defense Philippines. Soldiers armed with WW I stuff and hopelessly surrounded by over whelming force with not way to get reinforced. Yes Churchill and Gallipoli one of worst . He wanted revenge for WW I disaster at Gallipoli. But brilliant try as he thought allies from Turkey to western Europe would prevent Iron Curtain over East Europe by Stalin as an invasion at France would not.
Mac was warned and he ignored the warning and he lost the Philippines….chuq
Mac’s air corp was caught on the ground. For no other reason, I would put him on the list.
I feel better; I knew all of them but for the French guy. The only one surprising to me is MacArthur, but, only because I never really studied his record closely.In truth, I think both Patton, and Churchill should be on the list, if only because, no matter how effective one may be, such extreme assholishness puts them into my ‘bad leader’ file…. Such attitudes are not necessary to an efficient warrior…
And why isn’t Mussolini on the list? He lost everything he touched….
Good lesson….
gigoid, the dubious…
Glad you liked it……Rommel is the one that I did not agree with….he was bad because the toad that was his boss was an idiot….chuq
I would not have put Rommel on the list.
I agree…most of his loses were because his boss was an idiot….chuq