Pick three favorite officers from history, and say why you picked them.

[Al B. Sure!]

oops forget to say why i picked them.

Hannibal Barca- do I really need to say?

Belisarius- one of the greatest conquerors in history and yet he received no recognition. Savior of Byzantium who kept being exiled then recalled to save the Empire again only to end his life as a poor begger.

Khalid ibn al-Walid- "The Sword of Allah" conqueror of Syria and Iraq during the Arab conquests. Later recalled and demoted to a mere soldier, similar to Belisarius.

[Donegeal]

Napolean - Conqured almost all of Europe, including Moscow. Returned from exile to capture France again without firing a single shot. Forced the entire civilsed world to join to beat him.

Ghengis Khan - Conqured almost all of Asia... with nothing but mongals. Used fear better than anyone (imho).

Alexander - Eh.. not really sure if he belongs here, but is worth the mention. Everything was set up for him (or any number of people) to succeed.

[edit: forgot to say why I picked who I picked]

[SlowwHand]

Tom Landry - Born in Mission, Texas in 1924, Landry joined the Army Air Corps, and served as a co-pilot and gunner in a B-17. He flew 30 missions over Europe and survived a crash landing.

James Longstreet - As a general, Longstreet showed a talent for defensive fighting, preferring to position his troops in strong defensive positions and compel the enemy to attack him. Once the enemy had worn itself down, then and only then would Longstreet contemplate an attack of his own. In fact, troops under his command never lost a defensive position during the war. Lee referred to Longstreet affectionately as his Old War Horse. (Longstreet's friends generally called him Pete.) His record as an offensive tactician was mixed, however, and he often clashed with the highly aggressive Lee on the subject of the proper tactics to employ in battle.

David Crockett.

[Lancer]

I would have thought our Germans might mention Von Luck, served in every theater and last man out of africa, or Hans Ulrich Rudel, the stuka guy that had so many decorations personally stabbed into his chest by Hitler that if he wore them all his plane couldn't get off the ground.
Ended the war with both legs amputated, still flying iirc. Killed over 500 Russian tanks. Helped pioneer the tank buster Stuka with two huge auto cannons bolted to the undercarriage.

I'm enjoying learning about the older and ancient officers you guys are posting. Keep it up!

[Lancer]

"By the time of his posting to France in the late spring of 1944 following the Allied D-Day invasion, Wittmann held the oakleaves to the Knight's Cross as well as the rank of SS-Obersturmführer. Perhaps his most famous exploit during the Normandy campaign was at the Battle of Villers-Bocage on June 13, 1944, where Wittmann's tank fought nearly single-handedly against a much larger enemy force, inflicting heavy losses on the British and bringing the advance of the entire 7th Armoured Division to a standstill. For his part in this famous action Wittmann was awarded the swords to the Knight's Cross, and was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmführer."

Amazing effort.

I'm feeling guilty for not posting American officers, exceprt for Lee. Does he count?

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Lancer
I'm feeling guilty for not posting American officers, exceprt for Lee. Does he count?

I would think you'd have George Washington on your list.

[Lancer]

Yes, Washington was exceptional. Did he win so many battles though? The war he won, the battles... He whopped the Hessians pretty good.

Also on Von Luck, he commanded Rommel's recon to the south. He employed chivalry. Had 'private' prisoner swaps, exchanged iodine for water with his British counterpart, decent fellow. Got captured in Russia and survived the work camps.

[Lancer]

Patton was a great American officer of course. I wonder though if his competition with Montgomery cost the lives of some of his soldiers.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Lancer
I'm feeling guilty for not posting American officers, except for Lee. Does he count?

Sure. He was Winfield Scott's chief of engineers during the War with Mexico.

I'm having a terrible time narrowing it down to only three. Finally, I insert the requirement that they did very well in impossible or nearly impossible situations:

Napolean -- giving up the high ground to a superior force at Austerlich and then whipping their collective asses, completely destroying the Austian Army in the process.

Leonidas -- With his bodyguard of 300 Spartans, plus a few thousand other Greeks, holding the pass at Thermopolae against a reported 500,000 Persians for several days as he waited for promised reinforcements which never came...then betrayed by one of the locals.

Washington -- put together a rag-tag army of colonials and didn't lose to the most powerful army in the world. (BTW: The British Army that landing on Long Island to attack him was the largest expeditionary British force at that time. )

Lee's defense of Richmond during McClelland's Peninsula Campaign was astonishing.

...That's three, isn't it?

[Lancer]

Zkrib, you're allowed a fourth, what the heck.

[MRT144]

Picard, Vader, Gordon

[PLATO]

Lt. Dan

[Lancer]

[Zkribbler]

[Zkribbler enters, wearing a false moustache so no one realizes he's posting for a second time. ]

(1) Moshe Dayan -- although no longer a general at the time but rather Minister of Defense -- masterminds the 6-Day War. No one I knew thought the Israelis were going to win that one. Egypt, Syria and Jordan had vowed to combine forces and destroy Israel. The arabs had more planes, more tanks and outnumbered the Israeli Army 42-1. Yet it six days, the Israelis pulled off the biggest upset since the Battle of Marathon and have been thee military power in the region ever since.

(2) Sun Tzu -- although rarely serving a general, his book on military theory The Art of War is still used today. It is credited with the Japanese routing of the Brits on the Malay Peninsula in the early days of WWII.

(3) Adm. Nelson -- I can't even figure out what this guy was doing. At the Battle of the Nile and again at the Battle of Trafalgar, he purposedly "crossed his own T," which by all rights should have led to the destruction of his command. Instead, he scored two of the most lobsided victories in naval history. Don't ask my how he did it.

[Hueij]

crossed his own T

I've come across this expression a couple of times now and I never understood what it meant. Would you care to explain it in simple English? Thanks...