Best divisional commanders

Sorry Roel but in the British military a one star general is a brigadier in charge of a brigade, then the two star generals are divisional commanders. This I believe to be the case in most other militaries.

However, if I am Wrong please let me know.

 

No, you are right of course. I made a confusing post. What I meant was that Dietrich was a commander of armies or at least Army Corps, so he was more than a divisional commander. A Lieutenant-General, or rather the comparable SS rank (Oberststurmbannführer).

 

IIRC, Roel, an Oberststurmbannfuhrer is an SS lieutenant colonel, not lieutenant general.

 

I think Dietrich ended as Oberstgruppenführer. Well, no matter, he commanded the Liebstandarte in most of the war, so he would qualify as a division commander! Funny thing about Dietrich, he's generally labeled as a idiot, but his men seemed to like him and he was apparently quite popular, and not alway a dimwit (in my book at least). Fx. he continued the attack at Dunkirk (with his then Liebstandarte regiment) even after the order to halt the advance.*

But the best division commander? It's actually quite difficult since one tend to remember corps and army commanders. Hmm, well. let's see. From the SS, Hausser or Steiner. From the Heer, Bayerlein. British? Hm, Urqhart. From the US, Vandergriff or Ridgeway (actually because he did som good later in Korea). France? DeTassigny(?) or Juin. Italy? Hm, Francissi(?). Can't think of any Soviets or Japanese division commanders right now.

Best regards!

- Bluenote.

*) To be frank, I'm not sure this is true, it could be just anothet good story, but it none the less says someting about the man!

 

Oops, I looked it up at an angle it seems. The correct one is indeed Obergruppenführer, I think, but now I can no longer be sure. :-? He was popular because he had courage and knew how to inspire his men; he was, however, tactically quite dim. He knew attack from defence but that's about it.

Among the Americans I'd count Cota as well.

 

I'm not sure I'd count Cota as a good divisional commander. His actions in the Hurtgen (and the Ardennes?) with the 28th Infantry Division weren't that impressive. He really shone as asissitant divisional commander with the 29th Infantry division.
Canadian Generals:
Lt-Genl Guy Simonds, 1st Canadian Division (Infantry)
Major-Genl Betram Hoffmeister, 5th Canadian Division (Armoured)
Major-Genl Christopher Vokes, 4th Canadian Division (Armoured)

For USA how about:
Genls Ridgeway & Taylor of the 82nd Airborne
Genl Maxwell Taylor of the 101st Airborne
Genl Genl Terry Allen of the 1st & 104th ID
Genl Clarence Hubener of the 1st ID
Genl John O'Daniel of the 3rd ID
Genl Leland Hobbs of the 30th ID
Genl Manton Eddy of the 9th ID
Genl Robert T. Fredrick of the 45th (also 1st SSF)
Genl James Van Fleet of the 90th ID
Genls Rose & Gaffey of the 4th AD
Genl Wood of the 3rd AD
Genl Orlando Ward of the 1st & 20th AD
Genl Ernie Harmon of the 1st & 2nd AD?

 

Gavin definitely needs to be on that list.

By the way, the actions of 28th infantry in the Ardennes were as close to legendary as anything will get. Separated into three regiments, heavily attacked from day one and outnumbered by three divisions for each regiment, they caused two days' delay on the German attack plan and numerous losses in German infantry. When the division finally broke and had to be pulled back to reorganize, it was the size of one depleted regiment.

 

How did I miss Gavin! (By listing Taylor twice. Gavin commanded the 82nd AB, Taylor the 101st AB.)
My reaction to Cota is mostly based on the Hurtgen fighting. The 28th did perform very well in the Ardennes, basically one division delaying the entire Fifth Panzer Army for crucial days. Even the seperated regiment joined up in the defense of St Vith with the surviving regiment of the 106th ID and other units, delaying the Sixth Panzer Army in the first days of the offensive. To be fair, if I'm going to blame Cota for the Hurtgen, I have to give him credit for the Bulge. Okay, he's on the list.

 

Thanks! By the way, no commander did well in the Hurtgenwald. The 1st, 4th, 8th, 9th, 28th, 78th infantry and 5th Armoured divisions all went in and came back out decimated but without accomplishing anything.

 

Yes, there should be a good lesson here. All the formations comitted in September, October and November were sent in peicemal and in were too small for the job. A full corps in October may have succeeded, a division was just so much meat.

 

I never would have sent my forces into a dense hilly forest covered by Westwall bunkers in the first place. Why not concentrate around Aachen or the Losheim Gap for a breakthrough if the intention is simply to end up south of the Ruhr area?

 

Bradley couldn't read a map perhaps? Good question. Did the dams have that big effect on operations downstream that they couldn't be ignored? Many British and Canadian sources fault the Americans for not realzing the full significance of the dams early enough, and that the Rhineland campaign couldn't kick off until the dams were captured and the water levels dropped.

 

My point is that whatever the objective, going through a forest stuffed with bunkers isn't the way to get there.

 

You are quite right. Hard to believe trained professionals couldn't see it.

 

Marshall von Rundstedt on marshall Rommel: "He's nothing more than a good divisional commander..."

 

SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Felix Steiner of 3th SS Panzer Corps, commanding the foreign volunteers at Narwa in 1944, and in Livonia/Kurland (Latvia) afterwards. He was a good general and an inspiring soldier, a true father to the foreign volunteers.

 

Obergruppenführer? That is so beyond divisional commander!

Wasn't this Felix Steiner the last man to hold a part of the Siegfried Line in March 1945?

 

What about General Major Otto Ernst Remer?

 

I'd say that Vandegrift was a great divisional commander.

 

I'm not so sure. His obsession with a Japanese counter landing left the 1st Marine Division's flanks in the air at Guadalcanal. The Raiders-Paras were put there for a rest and to cover the new location of the division CP, not from tactical genius. And it was only good luck that had the Raiders didn't run into the Marayuma's main Japanese force during their earlier raid. If they had they would have been slaughtered.
Still, luck is the most important thing a general can have going for him.