Soldiers Valhala

Wait so ney is overrated why?

Lucius

Well, if one wishes to investigate the subject of over-rated commanders in history, he would likely begin with those who have "the Great" appended to their names, right? Then he would check out those who had movies made about them.

I mean, what are we talking about here? Over-rated by whom? Other military professionals? The contemporary newspapers? High school history texts? The people on this message board?

Nobody likes a strutting martinet. But being possessed of that defect does not disqualify one from, uh, greatness. If I were a grunt, I wouldn't care about the general's thoughts regarding the aroma of his own excrement. But I would hold him in high esteem if he showed up at the front from time to time to do his job (dressed, of course, like everybody else, lest he bring smoke on my position).

A great commander leads from the front. No plan survives contact with the enemy. When the enemy puts in his "vote," you don't necessarily want some Captain hollering, "We have our orders! Keep charging!"

Lucius

sorry - double post

Jonathan4290

Ney was hot headed and was a man of extremes, either ignoring orders or clinging to them till the end had come and gone. Ney is largely blamed for Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. During the campaign he failed to take Quatre Bras early on, failed to halt Wellington's withdrawl afterwards (instead his men ate their soup) and then comitted the Guard piecemeal until it was completely mauled.

On a side note, for a general to be considered overrated, he usually has to be well-known and an attention whore. To say that MacArthur is overrated doesn't necessarily mean he's not a great general but only that his hype is larger than his accomplishments. I mean, no one's gonna say that Slim is an overrated general because there isn't a lot of hype about him.

Lucius

Slim was a very great general.

Lucius

Bumped up.

Hickdive

IIRC correctly USN signals security required the introduction of random phrases at the beginning and end of each message. The actual message begins at GG and ends at RR. By a strange coincidence the random phrase at the end of the above signal was 'The world wonders', which gave it a sarcastic tone that wasn't intended, although the RPT makes it clear Nimitz wasn't at all happy.

Galerius' Ghost

I'm gonna go with Attila the Hun. He was certainly a leader of some ability, and his impact on European culture cannot be denied, but he badly overreached during his western campaigns. His invasion of Gaul should have ended in the annihilation of his army, and his invasion of a famine and disease ridden Italy not only put his army in a dangerous situation, but more importantly left the Hunnic Empire open to attack from Marcian. These campaigns were highly risky and achieved virtually nothing. I'm not saying that he was worthless, but he is often portrayed in popular media as some kind of early version Temujin, which he was obviously not.

Lucius

I don't know about this "over-rated" thing. Over-rated by whom? Movie-goers? What do they know?

Maybe it would be better to speak of an over-promoted general? There is such a thing as the Peter Principle - "In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence."

Rommel was certainly one of the best armored corps commanders in any army in WWII. But a Field Marshal? Really? I don't think so.

I think Mountbatten might have been over-promoted. Maybe Omar Bradley; but how highly-rated is he really - I don't know.

Who is the most highly-rated general ever? HE is the most over-rated!

DIVUS IVLIVS

I've got a real axe to grind with Alexander the Great, but for now I'm going to put in a good word for MacArthur. I wouldn't say I admire him per se, but I think he was definitly a brilliant general. He blundered occaisonally, but far less than many of his detractors would have it, and in his best moments (Inchon, the Pacific Campaign post-Paupa New Guinea) he shone. Above and beyond even these one has to give him credit for a job well done in Japan.