Military Genius - what and who

[Frank_East]

Frederick the Great was Hitler's number one military genius so much so that he acted as such in the latter days of the Third Reich.One of his favourite books, apparently, was Carlyle's "Frederick the Great",from which Goebbels would read him passages from.Hitler saw his struggle against the Allied Powers as that endured by Frederick against the Russians.

It is recorded that Frederick punished a number of regiments for cowardice in the Seven Year War.When the SS pulled back on the Russian Front without his authority,Hitler exclaimed he would act as Frederick and shoot the SS, the next time it occurred.

As Frederick was said to have acted in his hour of need,Hitler said,I will not give up...I will continue the fight until my enemies are exhausted.

[Beau Geste]

I would suggest Harry, that the ideal commander is one who not only knows his lessons from the training ground or staff college but also has the wisdom, probably through experience, to be able to set the theorists aside and innovate on the hoof. There also has to be an ability towards flexibility, perhaps countermanding one's own orders if a better solution arises. Both of these things require good communication with subordinates and a belief that they will do what you ask unquestioningly because they trust you to do the best for them. Even today, communication can break down - how much more difficult for Marlborough, Wolfe, Nelson, Wellington, Grant or Lee or almost any of the other names put forward here.

This is not to devalue the worth of the Sun Tzu's of this world because they can obviously provide a good framework around which to base a battle or campaign. I am sure that my analysis of what makes a commander is far from complete but to my mind, Haig ticks most of the boxes.

Regards

John.

Sorry about the delay John - off caravanning! I can't argue with anything you say. I've obviously expressed myself badly (not for the first time). It goes without saying that there are a lot of factors that will influence the overall skill levels of a commander and you list some of these. I mentioned Sun Tzu simply to show that in the "modern era" at least there are factors outside the individual that should also be taken into account. One of these that seemed to be ignored was the study of great strategists of the past. I just thought it was worth making that point.

I don't disagree with your point regarding Haig either. He was a superb soldier and a great leader. What made him the leading general of his era was, I think, a whole range of factors including his wide-ranging experience, his personality, his natural and learnt leadership skills, his charisma, his understanding of the art of war and his ability to apply the lessons he learnt in a variety of places including the classroom.

A great man and a great soldier.

Harry

[neverforget]

I think that if I had been fighting in WW1, and had a say in whom my General was to be, I would have chosen Plumer.

Edited 13 August , 2013 by neverforget

[Ghazala]

I agree with previous posters nominating Napoleon. He is credited with being a great tactician and a military genius of his time. Wellington said that his presence on the field made the difference of 40,000 men. General Sir Archibald P. Wavell wrote... If you discover how Bonaparte inspired a ragged, mutinous, half-starved army and made it fight as it did, how he dominated and controlled generals older and more experienced than himself, then you will have learnt something... From 1796, when he assumed his first independent military command, until 1809, Napoleon displayed an astonishing near-invincibility in battle and an equally astounding ability to use that battlefield success to compel his enemies to grant him his political objectives. A dazzled Clausewitz had good reason to call Napoleon the God of War.

[old joe]

I feel that Finnish Marshall Mannerheim should receive some consideration.

[Auimfo]

No one mentioned Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Defeated all opponents, unified the states to create China and became it's first Emperor, successfully revamped China's politics and economy, built a wall and was buried with an entire army (well, a terracotta one at least).

Cheers,

Tim L.

[CIGS]

If one takes the definition of military genius as laid down in the very first post, and in particular the point about being creative, then one has what I personally deem to be as close as you can get to a definition. This being said, I cannot really think of anybody who succeeded in a daringly original creative scheme during the Great War. This is not to say that the generals were bad; indeed, I consider that many were fine examples. On the Allied side I would rate Haig, Smith-Dorrien, Plumer and Foch very highly to name but a few. While all were adaptable, capable and most importantly learnt valuable lessons from experience, none of them really came up with a revolutionary way of waging war like Napoleon did with his shift towards co-ordinating the actions of several armies in order to ensure complete destruction of his enemies, as opposed to following the existing rules of conduct and lining up for a set-piece battle where victory came by forcing withdrawal and not destruction.

Why this is could be down to any number of factors, but is most likely, I would posit, to be due to the technological stalemate and the political situation combining to make it impossible to find the resources, time or will to try anything revolutionary. Military revolutions in this war came from technology (the tank leaps to mind) and it took trial and error to work out the best way to use these new weapons.

Regarding Hitler (I saw a discussion in some earlier posts) I simply cannot see him as being either a military or political genius. Militarily speaking, he had no concept of what it meant to enact his grand sweeping gestures over a map. He was willing to stake everything on a grand scheme a la Bismarck, yet he then lacked the will to follow it through. If it was not for his generals, Fall Gelb could have gone very differently indeed. There is a reason that his generals called him the 'self-proclaimed world's greatest general'!