Any opinions?

For the Germans, I would say Von Choltitz the commanding general of Paris who previously had never lost a battle. Then I would say Gotthard Heinrici, who is somewhat unknown depending on how much reading you do.

For the USA, I would say General Stillwell.

For the Russians, Konev.

For the British, the chap in command of singapore, I forget his name.

For the Poles, General Sosoboski.

For the French, Georges Duloc.

Sorry, I couldnt limit it to just one from one country.

It's hard to say who the most underrated General is but I would definitely have to say Konev.

Hehe! A general who's name you don't remember must truly be underrated.

I feel the Soviet Generals are underated as a whole, and Konev was probably the most underrated of them all.

Dear Otto: Thanks for the laugh ha ha. Actually I was thinking of the brigadier who was very popular with his men and was in Singapore or Burma? He was killed in a plane accident. He is known but not very well and for the life of me, I cannot think of his name. Its annoying! I can picture him--beard and all but, no name comes to mind. Also I think he was one of the if not THE youngest brigadier in the British Army. There was a long story about him in an issue of either Military History or WW2 magazines and that was about 12 years ago. I no longer have the magazine with the story because I loaned most of my collection out to someone who never returned them. Grrrrr.....

[This message has been edited by C.Evans (edited 12 March 2001).]

it's a persons decision there isn't a paper that says so and so was the best gerenal...

General Stillwell of the US for sure. He didn't get much of any of the credit he deserved.

Another link dredged up from the bottom of the pond !

Carl, were you thinking of Lt Gen William Henry Ewart 'Strafer' Gott ? Apparently a very popular officer, he was tragically killed on his way to take over 8th Army in the Desert. And thus, Monty's career took off.....

As for 'most underrated', I'd go for General Sir Richard O'Connor, the victor of Beda Fomm. OK , it was the Italians and not the DAK, but as pure Generalship it was quite an achievement.

Both battle and General are now almost unknown in this country.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Carl,

If it is Singapore and Burma you are thinking about,and a guy with a beard,it could be Ord Wingate the Commander of the Chindits.

Paul [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Nikto ne Zabyt . Nichto ne Zabyto.

Let no one forget . Let nothing be forgotten.

Hallo, gentlemen!

Paul, you are right, Brigadier General Ord Wingate, commander of the Chindits is surely the one Carl is talking about, because he was very young, he was killed when his aeroplane was shot down and he had a beard, beside all his charm and professionality. He is certainly underrated, because he created the best troops in the British Army. Before him, British troops were only tourists in the rainforest, after him, they were bloody Tarzans! Another British general is sir Claude Auchinleck, which was a much better commander than Montgomery, he was actually the man who put the roots of the VIII army which won at El Alamein. He was just discharged because stubborn Churchill did not like him.

I think that general William Donovan is very underrated. He did not lead troops into combat during WWII, but he created the most important intelligence agency of the world! And that contributed a lot to USA's final victory. Perhaps I am wrong but I listened that the man won the Medal of Honour three times! Is that posssible?

And from Germany I am thinking on many, many generals, which my topic of "Qualify this officers" showed that they are very underrated... You, bad boys! I can think now on Wilhelm von Leeb, perhaps one of the best German commanders of the war, the best deffensive tactician and king of the artillery. He took the Maginot line alone, with only infantry and artillery, and that is almost never mentioned in the books about the fall of France! He drove his troops into the Baltic countries and put Leningrad under siege. But he is not very well remembered...

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Danke mein herrn, he was indeed Orde Wingate.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Of course, Major-General Orde Wingate.

A deeply complex and controversial character, aligning himself strongly with the Zionist cause in Palestine. He also suffered from manic depression. Distrusted by the 'establishment', he was 'sidelined' partly due to his personality and partly to avoid diplomatic upsets with Middle Eastern countries. Killed in a 'plane crash on 14/4/44, his remains ( which could not be identified ) are buried in Arlington Cemetery, Va.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Martin,

Have you got any idea why he was buried in Arlington, Va? I take it he was British....

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"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!" - Homer Simpson

This surprised me, too.

Wingate and his ADC were the only British on the plane which was also carrying a number of Americans. The actual remains from the site ( which couldn't be individually identified ) were originally placed in a mass grave at Imphal, Burma by the British War Graves Commission.
An agreement had been entered into by the British and American Governments stating that mass grave remains could be transferred to the USA if more American than British remains were involved. That's what happened, post-war, in this case.

Wingate's family were deeply unhappy and the matter was taken up on their behalf by Winston Churchill himself, to no avail.

( Arlington has its own website where you can read about this and see the grave. I can't get the link to work here for some reason ; try putting 'Orde Wingate' into a search engine & you should find it. )

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

I saw a post in a WW II forum last year, in which it was implied that Wingate actually commited suicide, and the plane crash story was a cover-up. Dont know if there is any truth in it.

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Ain't no rocket scientists in the firehall

For my money, I think Sir Bbbrian Horrocks was an excellent commander

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Ain't no rocket scientists in the firehall

Whaaaat? Orde Wingate in Arlington?? I thought he was buried with some of his men in Burma??

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

For the Brits I think; Jumbo Wilson. He survived until the end of the war, even his evacuation of Greece was skilful.

I also think Devers is all too often forgotten. Dragoon was well executed and well led.

Jumbo

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"Capital! We're nearly out of ammunition! Now we can get at them with the bayonet!" General Paddy Gough, 1st Sikh War

I personally have started to like this man....

Vasily Chuikov - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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do the isralis not have a day off on wingates birthday or something similar.i reckon the u.s 9th army c.o simpson,was brilliant.lee.

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fair,balanced and unafraid.thanks,4th wilts..

For the Americans Id say Alexander patch commander of the 7th army... he wsnt glamorous like patton but his stats as a general speak for themselves

I would say Stillwell, Ridgeway, Walker (36th) because he had to work under Clark, but still a 1st rate Infantryman's General.

Would anyone think Kesselring? He made Clark look like a silly brat while fighting defensive battles..

He operated under a very long shadow, cast by the the 3rd Army commander.
Smiling Al, yes I would agree. You can't argue with success.

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Best Regards,
JW

also admire a couple Colonels.. Colonel William Orlando Darby... THe father of the modern US army rangers... And AND YES HE was a NAZI scumbag Otto Skorzeny....Still as far as speical operations old Otto knew his stuff