Rommel or Guderian?

[techumseh]

How do you define "better general"? If you mean military theorist or someone in a staff role, by all means Guderian. If you mean someone who commands forces in battle, or who plans and leads campaigns, then I'm not so sure.

I've always considered von Manstein to be the German's best operational general in WWII.

[Dry]

On military ground Guderian, no doubt.
On human ground, that guy was a true arrogant prussian soldier.
I read his book about his campaigns, he looked at his men as you would look at your car or your horse: spare them, not because they are human beings, but because they will bring you further if you do.
He knew officers (yes, these are individuals with names) and units (units have names, men composing the units not).

[dannubis]

the difference between rommel and guderian is that the latter had several entire army corps under his command... rommel didn't ...

so with the means he had under his command, rommel did the best job ...

[Shogun Gunner]

Daddy Blitzkreig - vote to Guderian

[Cruddy]

As they are both dead, I voted Banana.

If you had asked "who WAS the better general"...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well the POLL question said 'Choose which WAS better', so Cruddy you got no excuse .

[Cruddy]

Re: Rommel or Guderian?

Originally posted by Lancer
Which is the better general?

Rommel whipped Patton it the recent poll, now he takes on his fellow countryman, Guderian! WooHoo!

Lancer's asking 2 different questions here, so if you're really miffed;-

1) Neither of them are worth spit as a general now, except perhaps to mediumistic ancestor worshipping troops who speak German.

2) At the time, Guderian was a strategist, (coming up with the ideas) and Rommel was the tactician (delivering the execution of the ideas).

[Shirt]

Guderian. Gotta be, the man wrote the book on modern mechanised warfare.

[nato]

I'm another vote for Guderian all the way.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by TheStinger
Was Manstein as good as Guderian, I assume people agrre he was better than Rommel

Von Manstein and Guderian can't be compared, because their spheres of expertise were so different. Guderian was a theoretician and doctrinal developer first and foremost, and his time (and level) of field command was cut drastically by his disagreements with Hitler. Von Manstein had a huge operations area, had to coordinate some real half-assed underequipped allied troops (Italians and Rumanians especially) and deal with both numerical and materiel disadvantages on a defensive front. At the Army Group / grand operational level, von Manstein was the best there was on any side.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Dry
On military ground Guderian, no doubt.
On human ground, that guy was a true arrogant prussian soldier.
I read his book about his campaigns, he looked at his men as you would look at your car or your horse: spare them, not because they are human beings, but because they will bring you further if you do.
He knew officers (yes, these are individuals with names) and units (units have names, men composing the units not).

And that's the way a commander has to be, in order to be successful. Caring too much for your troops will lead to you writing a lot more letters home to wives or parents, because you get paralyzed at making the necessary ugly decisions that are part of warfare.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by dannubis
the difference between rommel and guderian is that the latter had several entire army corps under his command... rommel didn't ...

so with the means he had under his command, rommel did the best job ...

Rommel had Panzerarmee Afrika, and the Germans and Italians lost a couple of hundred thousand prisoners in May of '43 when it surrendered, and on the western front, Rommel was a Heeresgruppe commander.

[Myrddin]

This would be more fun if it were for the WORST US general of WWII

[uh Clem]

Hitler. Okay, not a general.

Chiang Kai-shek?

Who was the Italian they called "Electric Whiskers"? He's a candidate.

Some of Stalin's drinking buddies would belong there too, untill Zhukov got them weeded out.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Didn't Myrddin say US General, uh Clem?