World War II brought serious disasters to the whole world, and of course, a number of famous generals emerged in the war, so how many of the top ten famous generals of World War II do you know? The following rankings are in no particular order.
1. Heinz Wilhelm Guderian
Guderian was a general in the German Army and the founder of the Blitzkrieg. Before the outbreak of World War II, Guderian used tanks and mechanized troops in modern warfare, and under his organization and promotion, Germany built one of the most efficient armored forces of its time. During World War II, Guderian led the Panzer Army to blitz Poland, transverse France and participate in the Soviet-German War.
Guderian
On May 10, 1945, Guderian surrendered to the U.S. Army, and he was held in the United States as a prisoner of war for three years. On 17 June 1948, no charges of war crimes were pointed out during the trial. On May 14, 1954, Guderian died of a heart attack in Bavaria at the age of 65.
2. Erich von Manstein
Manstein was a military strategist, strategist and tactician of Nazi Germany during World War II, who served in the army after graduating from the Berlin Military Academy in 1906 and fought in World War I. In 1936, he participated in the formulation of the war plan for the invasion of Austria, Czechoslovakia and France.
After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Manstein served as the chief of staff of Army Group South, participated in the German-Polish War, and a month later was transferred to the chief of staff of Army Group A on the Western Front, and proposed the "Scythe Plan". After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, participated in the offensive in the Leningrad direction. In 1941 he was promoted to marshal.
Manstein
Operation Winter Storm was launched in November 1942 and failed to rescue the 6th Army besieged at Stalingrad. In 1943, a counteroffensive against the Soviet army was launched through the Third Battle of Kharkov. After defeat at the Battle of Kursk, he was dismissed in 1944 and captured by the British in 1945.
Manstein was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1949, but was released in 1953 and became senior adviser to the West German government and honorary chief of staff, dying in Munich in 1973 at the age of 85.
3. Erwin Rommel
Rommel was a field marshal and military strategist of Nazi Germany during World War II, and was known as the "Desert Fox". He joined the army in 1910, participated in World War I, and in 1938 he became the commander of the Führer's base camp. In 1941, he was appointed commander of the Afrika Korps, and in less than two months after his arrival in North Africa, he turned the tide of the initial situation in North Africa and was promoted to general. In June 1942, he was promoted to Field Marshal of Germany. In 1944, Rommel was involved in a plot to overthrow Hitler and committed suicide by poisoning himself at the age of 53.
Rommel
4. Bernard Law Montgomery
Montgomery was a British military strategist and field marshal who served in the British Indian Army after graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and fought in World War I. After the outbreak of World War II, he led his troops to fight side by side with the Belgian and French armies, participated in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, and served as the commander of the British 8th Army in North Africa in 1942, commanding the Second El Alamein Campaign, defeating the German-Italian coalition and turning the tide of the war in North Africa. In 1943, he participated in the planning of the Normandy landings, and at the time of the landings he was deputy commander-in-chief of the Allied forces. In 1945, he accepted the surrender of the German army at Lüneburg and served as deputy commander of the Allied Joint Command on behalf of the British side of the Allied Control Committee.
Montgomery
Montgomery is regarded as one of the most prominent Allied commanders of World War II and one of the greatest commanders the British Army has ever seen. The Battle of El Alamein, the Sicilian landings, and the Normandy landings were the three masterpieces of his military career. He died in 1976 at the age of 88.
5. Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
Zhukov was a famous Soviet military strategist and marshal, he was born into a peasant family, joined the Soviet Red Army in 1918, commanded the Japanese army in the Battle of Nomenkan in 1939, and later participated in the Soviet-Finnish War. In 1941, he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, and in the same year he commanded the defense of Moscow. In 1942, he was appointed Deputy People's Commissar and Deputy Supreme Commander of the National Defense Committee, where he participated in the formulation or implementation of plans for most of the major battles of the Soviet Union. In the same year he commanded the Battle of Stalingrad.
Zhukov
In 1943, the commander broke through the siege of Leningrad and was promoted to marshal. After that, he successively commanded Operation Uranus, the Battle of the Dnieper, the Battle of Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, the Battle of Belarus, the Battle of Berlin, etc., to drive the German army out of the Soviet Union and invade the German mainland.
In 1945, Zhukov, on behalf of the Supreme High Command, accepted the unconditional surrender of Germany and temporarily took charge of the Soviet troops stationed in Germany and the German-occupied areas. He died in Moscow in 1974 at the age of 77.
6. Isoroku Yamamoto
After returning to Japan, he vigorously developed aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft, and organized troops to conduct rigorous training, which played an important role in the development of Japan's naval aviation.
Isoroku Yamamoto
In 1939, Yamamoto was the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and he opposed Japan's war against the United States, but under the pressure of the Japanese right-wing forces and the pressure of the Japanese military leadership, he finally launched the Pacific War, and attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, at which time the United States officially entered World War II. In 1942, Yamamoto planned the Battle of Midway, and in 1943, while inspecting the troops, he was shot by the American army and died at the age of 59.
7. Douglas MacArthur
MacArthur graduated from West Point in 1903 with a score of 98.43, setting a record for West Point's graduation score (said to be the highest score of any cadet in West Point's 25-year history). Participated in the First World War.
In June 1919, at the age of 39, MacArthur was appointed president of West Point, becoming the youngest president of West Point since its founding. In August 1936, MacArthur received the rank of Marshal of the Philippines. In 1937, he retired from the U.S. Army, and on December 31, he became commander-in-chief of the Philippine Army and began to form the Philippine Army.
MacArthur
During World War II, MacArthur served as Allied Commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater, commanding Allied operations in the Southwest Pacific Theater, and was promoted to general on December 24, 1942. In 1943, MacArthur was appointed commander-in-chief of the Allied Southwest Pacific Theater. In December 1944, MacArthur was promoted to five-star general in the Army.
After the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, MacArthur was appointed commander-in-chief of the United Nations forces, but under the counterattack of our heroic volunteer soldiers, MacArthur became increasingly unacceptable to the American authorities, and on April 11, 1951, Truman removed him from his post on the pretext of "failing to fully support the policies of the United States and the United Nations" and was replaced by Ridgway. MacArthur died at the U.S. Army Medical Center in 1964 at the age of 84.
8. Chester William Nimitz
Nimitz was a U.S. Navy admiral, participated in World War I, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, Nimitz served as the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces in the Pacific Theater and other positions, leading the war against Japan, Nimitz led the U.S. Navy to a major victory, in December 1944, Nimitz was promoted to five-star admiral. After the war, Nimitz served as Chief of Naval Operations until his retirement in 1947.
Nimitz
On February 20, 1966, Nimitz died at the age of 81. The United States named the first and most advanced Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier built after his death in honor of Nimitz.
9. Dwight David D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1915 and served as an aide to Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur in 1933. In 1942, Eisenhower served as commander of the US forces in the European theater and commander of the Allied forces in the North African theater, and was promoted to lieutenant general and general. In 1944, he served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, successfully planned and commanded the Normandy landing campaign in which the Allied forces opened up the second battlefield in Europe, and was promoted to five-star general. In 1945, he succeeded Marshall as Chief of Staff of the Army.
Eisenhower
He won the U.S. presidential election in 1952 and became the 34th president of the United States, and in 1956 he ran again and was re-elected, leaving the presidency in 1961. During Eisenhower's eight-year tenure, American society experienced the most stable and prosperous period after the war, and on March 28, 1969, he died of a heart attack at the age of 78. He is also the only president among the nine five-star generals.
10. Omar Nelson Bradley
Bradley, who graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1915, was transferred to the Army Staff in 1938. After the United States entered World War II, Bradley successively served as the commander of the 82nd Infantry Division, the commander of the 10th Army, the commander of the 1st Army Group, and the commander of the 12th Army Group.
Bradley
After the war, Bradley became Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army in November 1947. In August 1949, Bradley rose to the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and soon became chairman of the NATO Military Committee and its Standing Committee. In September 1950, Bradley was promoted to a five-star general in the United States. Bradley was involved in the planning and organization of the Korean War during his tenure as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1981, Bradley died of a cerebral thrombosis in New York at the age of 88, and he was also the last American five-star general to die.
Brief summary:
The above-mentioned 10 people were all famous generals of various countries in World War II, and objectively speaking, most of them achieved dazzling results with advanced weapons; if we talk about the art of military command alone, perhaps they were not even as good as some generals at the level of army and division commanders on the mainland at that time, let alone figures at the level of marshals on the mainland, and the contest on the Korean battlefield was a good proof of this.