DVSentinel
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2011
- Messages
- 5,647
- Reaction score
- 1,579
- Location
- The Republic of Texas.
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Other
Patton as the greatest general in history? I'll grant you he was a good tactician, but he wasn't even in the top five greatest generals of the Second World War. I'd even put him as only the 3rd greatest American general of the Second World War.
Patton has been lionised and trumpeted, especially in Hollywood, because he was loud and proud, and that makes for a good story. But the statistics don't show he was anything more than an above average general operating in a war that made legends. At every turn, he was important, but not instrumental; decent, but not brilliant; successful, but not wildly. He didn't win the war in North Africa -- that was Montgomery. He didn't win the war on the Eastern Front -- that was Zhukov. He didn't win the war on the Western Front -- that was Eisenhower. He didn't take Paris -- that was de Gaulle. He didn't take Berlin -- Chuikov and Zhukov. He didn't sweep the Japanese out of Manchuria -- that was Vasilevsky. He didn't go island hopping all the way to the doors of Japan -- that was MacArthur.
I respect Patton immensely, as I respect any general who was successful, especially in such a war as the Second World War. But I can't abide the hero-worship that some people have for Patton, seemingly just because of an inaccurate Hollywood movie.
I see you know about as much about military leadership as you do about successful working economics.