Who do you think was the greatest general of all time?

Think I'd have to plump for someone like Belisarius.

One of histories lesser known military figures, but no less a military genius for it.


Regards,

Tim.

General Zod. Escaped from the Phantom Zone and conquered Earth in a day. Pretty impressive. Or General Lee, as in THE General Lee, outwitted evil at every dust track.

On a more serious note, Sun Tzu gets my vote, won't bother going into it, he's been covered already.

Sendran.

Jesus??

Okay, okay Sun Tzu of course, no question about that. I don't think unless you're a military officer, you can appreciate Sun Tzu's art of war.

If you're talking about great conquerors, there's only one guy, I'm not crazy about him though, and it's not Alexander, it's Khan.

the swiss, they never been invaded, they never invade, they not got terrorism, they must be doin somet right

National loyalties aside...

One of the best military commanders of all time was...

Viscount Slim

He took a broken British and Commonwealth force in India from demoralisation and retreat, rewrote the book on war and defeated the Japanese in Burma in a fluid and complicated war which led to the domination of utter defeat of the Japanese armies in Burma.

History concentrates on the US fight against the Japanese in the Pacific and has airbrushed out the contribution of other nations (yes, the Royal Navy had ships at Okinawa), but whereas the US were able to defeat the Pacific Islands by dint of massed arms and concentrated firepower, the British Fourteenth Army (et al) defeated the Japanese through adapted tactics and the leadership of Slim.


I would also give a credit to Boudicca who taught the Romans that you can actually win by being utterly defeated. She may also be the first woman mentioned in this thread so far!

Regards

GENERAL BLACK JACK PERSHING-

Ok all you movie buffs, scoot over and let me introduce to a general you
may never have heard of:Born 13th Sept,1860 near Laclede MS. Died July 15th,1948. High lights of his life are as follows;
1891 Prof.of Military Science & Tactics Nebraska-U
1898 Serves in the Spanish -American War
1901 Awarded rank of Captain
1906 Promoted to Brigagier General
1909 Military Govenor-Moro, Province,Phillippines
1916 Appoint Major General
1919 Promoted to General of the Armies
1921 Appointed Chief of Staff
1924 Retires from active duty.West point

NOW FOR THE GOOD PART- Just before world war -1
There were a number of terrorists attacks on the United States Forces in the Phillippines by Muslim Extremists. So........General Pershing captured 50 terrorists and had them tied to a post to be executed by a firing squad.He then had his men bring in two pigs and slaughter them in front of the horrified terrorists. Muslims detest pork because they believe pigs are filthy animals. To them touching a pig, it's meat or any by-product of a pig or it's blood will cause them to be instantly barred from Paradice ( and all those Virgins) and to be doomed to Hell forever. The Soldiers soaked there bullets in the pigs blood before executing 49 of the terrorist. The soldeirs then dug a very large hole and threw the dead terrorist save one, into the hole. They covered the Muslim terrorist with Pig Blood and pig entrails. They turned to the 50th terrorist and told him to go that he was free. That Muslim Terrorist went back to the other Mulim Terrorist and told them what happened- Was there an immediate counter attack from the terrorist-no! as a matter of record, there was no single muslim terrorist attack on American Soldiers anywhere in the world- for the following 42 years.
Where's Black Jack when we really need him? how come there are no black Jack Pershings today???????????...............KMG

[edit on 22-7-2010 by kissmygrits]

[edit on 22-7-2010 by kissmygrits]

[edit on 22-7-2010 by kissmygrits]

[edit on 22-7-2010 by kissmygrits]

[edit on 22-7-2010 by kissmygrits]

You guys are all nuts. Subutai is hands down the best general in the history of warfare. He was a tactical genius, and likely if it werent for him the mongolian empire would never have spanned as far as it did.

Subutai

This man literally won 2 battles one day apart hundreds of miles away from each other

[edit on 22-7-2010 by TheDebunkMachine]

reply to post by thegreatestone


Yes they are doing something right, I may stand corrected on this but I believe that it is a law that every house hold that has a male member in it above a certain age must own a rifle and know how to use it.
When a government fears the power of the people the people are free and when the people fear the government then that people lives in fear of oppression from that government.

At this point in time-THE U.S.A. is somewhere in the middle- There are approximately 200,000,000 million firearms owned by private citizens in the U.S. Now please make note that I said that there are two hundred million guns own not that 200,000,000 people own one gun each. in reality there are more than a few unregistered weapons in the U.S. If I had to make an educated guess I would say that there is at least one gun for every adult person in the U.S. The progressive have been trying to take them away from us for a long time. Hillary has just present the UN gun ban bill. I do not think it will fly because how will they enforce it ? When California past it's assault weapon ban there were approximately 895,000 Assault weapon in the Hands of Californian's and as I recall about 150 of them were surrendered.

The next thing to happen, Strictly in my opinion, is for the roits to start then we will all go to Guns then the foreign troops waiting in the shadows ,who are already here on U.S. soil, will take over the fight at the direction of the government under the guise of NATO peace keepers and there will be a short but bloody war on u.s soil when they drive in the tanks and self propelled cannons, these weapons along with Air strike to our own military who has taken the civilian side to fight for their country.

We will win but not until a very bloody battle has taken place.
God Bless America ..KMG

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Alexander.
He would certainly have been placed top in any opinion poll taken before about 1800.

Gabriel, ummm just sayen!

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

According to the best authority, Gabriel was subordinate to Michael;

"Go, Michael, of celestial armies prince,
And thou, in military prowess next,
Gabriel..."
Paradise Lost Book 6 ll44-46



[edit on 23-7-2010 by DISRAELI]

reply to post by DISRAELI


You are in the same mindstate as I so I appreciate the correction I just mixed up the General with the Lieutenant General

[edit on 7/23/10 by Ophiuchus 13]

Alexander.

At least up until the point where his obsession made him make fatal mistakes.

Boudica.

Interesting, the first woman suggested in this list, so far.

Managed to oh-so-nearly run the Romans out of Britain. Forced them to flee and sack London and St Albans.

She completely destroyed the infantry of Quintus Petillius Cerialis at Colchester as well.

Nero came very, very close to withdrawing all Roman garrisons from Britain.

One tough Lady.

I cant believe im the only one thats mentioned subutai so far,does anybody here know mongolian history?

Originally posted by TheDebunkMachine
You guys are all nuts. Subutai is hands down the best general in the history of warfare. He was a tactical genius, and likely if it werent for him the mongolian empire would never have spanned as far as it did.

He would have conquered all of Europe if not for an untimely death of a Khan which forced the whole Horde to stop and head back home for consul. Pretty hard to argue with Subutai or Alexander the Great. Both racked up impressive tallies.

reply to post by pavil


So true, if it wasnt for that tradition we all would be mongolian right now

I believe the greatest military general of all time was Gregory Zhukov. He brought the Soviet Union to military might with his tactics and was one of the only people brave enought to stand up to Stalin but that was his downfall as Stalin dismissed him as a general and people in Russia still wonder today what he could've done if it wasn't for Stalin getting in his way. So he gets my vote.

General John Blackjack Pershing.... or John Conner, he wasn't a real General

No one can go wrong with Julius Caesar.
Julius Caeser took absolute control of the Roman Republic and it’s armies. He defeated the optimates led by Pompey in a Civil War, and defeated the Gauls at the battle of Alecia during the Gallics Wars, led by Vercingetorix who had united them against the Romans. He was ultimately murdered by Brutus.