Best defender of ww2

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the 900 days siege , the first winter , the deadliest ,close to a million people died of starvation ,
the russian commander was voroshilov , briefly joukov then the stupid melkis , no great defending general there

every U.S. marine will agree on general Kuribayashi , commander of iwo jima ,
he conducted a near perfect defence , a textbook classic .

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i double that one.

in an attempt to slow the american island hopping kuribayashi did a great defendang Iwo Jima..

afcourse Iwo Jima isn't that hard to defend, so i would say and even score between kesselring and Kuribayashi both were great defenders.

 

Yamashita would have be near the top of teh list of compatent Japanese generals.

 

wtf is Yamashita dont know this exotic name :smok:

 

Wotan:
Reference is to Lt. General Tomoyuki Yamashita, known as the "Tiger of Malaya" and in command of IPA forces (25th Army) who captured Singapore in '42.
He was later hanged as a war criminal in Manila 23rd of Feb. 1946... as Commander of all Japanese forces in the Phillipines at wars' end he was held personally responsible for atrocities against civilians in Manila.

Tim

 

hmm but the european theatre is better

 

Kuribayashi would have to be the best defender of WW II, Kesselring lacked the common knowlege like Kuribayshi and the postion wasn't the easiest too defend, but i wouldn't say it was perfect if they had bombing, they would of cracked it like a egg.

 

Do you think the Japanese positions on Iwo Jima were not bombed from the air?

 

How about von Senger und Etterlin? He deserves a lot of the German credit for the defense of Italy.

 

I know they were but they should have been bombed alot more, and by more powerful bomb's too, but i have to admit the Japanese positions and commanders were all strong.

 

Interesting point. How would the Iwo Jima defences have stood up to a Tallboy raid?

 

stalin was no general... though he did kill a great many soviet generals and colonels and majors ...which ,in his own parinoid thinking was a defence of sorts...henricis defence of the indefenceble would be hard to duplicate kesslerings defence was masterfull but he had always a great advantage of terrain..

 

I take it the Tallboy's a plane?

 

No, a 12,000lb penetration bomb. It leaves a creater that looks like this:

 

they use tallboys on the tirpitz if i am not mistaken

 

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I believe so , AFAIK they were developed to get through the concrete of the sub pen in lorient and st nazaire , i'll be curious to get more info ,
those were some firecrackers !!




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Many believe that both Yamashita and Homma were tried, convicted, and executed for the crime of defeating Douglas MacArthur. I'm not sure that I totally disagree with that assessment.

 

There is more than a little evidence to support the notion that Yamashita was actually one of the more humane Japanese commanders and went to the gallows for MacArthurs ego.

 

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I second that one ,
by imperial army standard he was downright normal
he also was part of the last wartime government , taking the place of his old enemy tojo , a proponent of war to the ( litteraly ) last man ,
yamashita was classified as a closet peacenik , willing to accept pretty much any terms


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My favorite defender is Sir William Slim. Stopping the Japanese invasion of India was a nice piece of work, efven if the Japanese really didn't have enough troops for such an offensive to actually succeed, long term.