Greatest Military Mind(s) of WWII?

[Robert J. Smead]

Sir Alanbrooke and Alexander: Well balanced in most areas

Sir John Dill: He made the US-UK Alliance work; no battlefield glorie, yet an incredible strategic impact.

[Robert J. Smead]

I forgot to mention :

Orde Wingate: Special Ops en mass.

Creighton Abrams; We did not name that tank after General MacArthur!!!

[Svennemir]

Ehrm, Vlasov fought for the Germans!

(Just thought this piece of information was missing.)

[JJKettunen]

ORIGINAL: Svennemir

Ehrm, Vlasov fought for the Germans!

(Just thought this piece of information was missing.)

Well, Maciste pointed out that he was captured...

[New York Jets]

Ernest J King.

Master of Strategic Ops. Land, Sea, and Air.

[Maciste]

ORIGINAL: Svennemir

Ehrm, Vlasov fought for the Germans!

(Just thought this piece of information was missing.)

And he was captured because he was not allowed by the STAVKA to retreat, but he was one of the few Soviet commanders who counterstroke with effectiveness the german attack (nos as Budionny, for example)

[hellcat]

for sheer achievement Guderain

[vahauser]

It's really pretty easy to pick the great military minds of WW2. Basically, who did their nation turn to most often when the going got really tough?
Soviets: Zhukov, hands down. The only man who could stand up to Stalin and live, and was always sent to where the fighting was toughest. His plans stymied the Axis time and time again. He might have been the greatest of all nations' military minds.
Germans: Manstein and Guderian, with honorable mention to Kesselring and Rommel. All were superb military minds.
Americans: Patton and Nimitz and Le May. All were very formidable military minds.
Japanese: Yamamoto. By far the best the Japanese had.
Other Nations: Nobody on the level of the men listed above.

[John David]

Patton.
Rommel.
Guderain .
Nimitz.
Alexander.

Patton![&o]

What again?

Yeah! So sue me!!

JD

[Marek Tucan]

ORIGINAL: Chris Trog

Ernest J King.

Master of Strategic Ops. Land, Sea, and Air.

And what about US anti-sub warfare in the outbreak of the war? I won't call it good and King had a strong role in that AFAIK

[Wuotan]

Great names in high ranks. So i vote for Jochen Peiper. In my opinion he was the personalized soldier.


Greetings!

[plloyd]

Hermann Balck, commander of the 11th Panzer (Ghost division during Stalingrad)
Hugh Dowding, air marshall for fighter command during the Battle of Britain.
Archibald Wavell, commander of the Med Theatre in 1940 to early '41. Gave Britain her only successes dispite almost no support, impossible commitments and Churchill's meddling.

And about 5-10 others you probably never heard of.

[terje439]

Rommel - also a strategist as his India plans show
Guderian - what would armored warfair be without him??
Mannstein - possibly THE best
Zhukov - Stalin's firefighter
Kesselring - did a great job in the late years
Model - twarted Montgomerys Market Garden
Montgomery - not sure if he belongs here, but worth mentioning
Patton - a good general, probably the best allied general of the war
Hoth - in Hitler's own word, a lion in defense
Mannerheim - holding out against the russian bear for that long is worth something
MacArthur - not the best, but not too shabby

well I could go on forever, but will stop now. Rommel and Mannstein are my favorites, but a hard call.

[Tequila]

Mannstein
Rommel
Zhukov
Chuikov
Koniev
Vatutin