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Top 10 Most Successful Military Commanders

Publius ventidius bessus,the most succesful roman commander vs the parthians.Probable expanded .

It would be interesting to learn why he was the most successful. What did he do specially? Or was he just lucky?
 
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I always seem to have an issue when Hitler is placed as a successful general in these rankings. After operation Barbarossa how can someone even consider putting him in a top ten list of histories greatest military commanders??? that's beyond me!
 
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^ Operation Barbarossa was very successful.
 
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^ Erm, i couldnt disagree more? Baku oilfields? not captured. Moscow? Not captured. Stalingrad? Not captured. The reasons the Germans were able make big gains early on was because firstly they had the surprise element, secondly they were better equipped, and thirdly hitler faced another lunatic in Stalin, the latter thinking that he should be on the offensive when it couldnt be more obvious that he should be on the defensive!
At the end Hitler had lost hundreds of thousands of German troops. It had given Britain the breathing space it so desperatly needed, and on top of that gave Britain a powerful ally to the east. Bismark had always feared the two front war and did all he could to avoid it. Hitler had no such sense, instead poking and waking up the Russian bear. What annoys me most is how man does not learn from history. Napoleon was a perfect example for Hitler of what happens to armies in the Russian winter.
 
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I always seem to have an issue when Hitler is placed as a successful general in these rankings. After operation Barbarossa how can someone even consider putting him in a top ten list of histories greatest military commanders??? that's beyond me!

^ Erm, i couldnt disagree more? Baku oilfields? not captured. Moscow? Not captured. Stalingrad? Not captured. The reasons the Germans were able make big gains early on was because firstly they had the surprise element, secondly they were better equipped, and thirdly hitler faced another lunatic in Stalin, the latter thinking that he should be on the offensive when it couldnt be more obvious that he should be on the defensive!
At the end Hitler had lost hundreds of thousands of German troops. It had given Britain the breathing space it so desperatly needed, and on top of that gave Britain a powerful ally to the east. Bismark had always feared the two front war and did all he could to avoid it. Hitler had no such sense, instead poking and waking up the Russian bear. What annoys me most is how man does not learn from history. Napoleon was a perfect example for Hitler of what happens to armies in the Russian winter.

+100

The second most annoying inclusion in these lists!
 
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lol funny looking dude

Wasn't he?

I remember how Niazi and his bunch were rolling on the floor laughing when they realised who Jagjit Arora's boss was, and what he looked like. They could hardly get them to the table or get them to hold their pens. Real fun, that day!
 
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^ Erm, i couldnt disagree more? Baku oilfields? not captured. Moscow? Not captured. Stalingrad? Not captured. The reasons the Germans were able make big gains early on was because firstly they had the surprise element, secondly they were better equipped, and thirdly hitler faced another lunatic in Stalin, the latter thinking that he should be on the offensive when it couldnt be more obvious that he should be on the defensive!
At the end Hitler had lost hundreds of thousands of German troops. It had given Britain the breathing space it so desperatly needed, and on top of that gave Britain a powerful ally to the east. Bismark had always feared the two front war and did all he could to avoid it. Hitler had no such sense, instead poking and waking up the Russian bear. What annoys me most is how man does not learn from history. Napoleon was a perfect example for Hitler of what happens to armies in the Russian winter.

Operation Barbarossa was a German success to a good extent. Germans captured over three million Soviet troops, inflicted a million Soviet casualties, etc. Axis powers made great advances inside Soviet territory. Now, Barbarossa overall strategic plan wasn't achieved, but it wasn't a tactical failure. Strategically it wasn't enough, but an operation that scored big can't be deemed an overall failure either.


Also, element of surprise doesn't fully explain Barbarossa's initial success, lack of training and preparation of Soviet soldiers is largely to blame for the initial collapse of the Red Army during Barbarossa. Hitler should have taken the advice of his Generals and concentrated the troop more and objectives on certain keys cities rather than wide-spread unattainable and difficult objectives, which stretched the Army too thin.
 
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Operation Barbarossa was a German success to a good extent. Germans captured over three million Soviet troops, inflicted a million Soviet casualties, etc. Axis powers made great advances inside Soviet territory. Now, Barbarossa overall strategic plan wasn't achieved, but it wasn't a tactical failure. Strategically it wasn't enough, but an operation that scored big can't be deemed an overall failure either.


Also, element of surprise doesn't fully explain Barbarossa's initial success, lack of training and preparation of Soviet soldiers is largely to blame for the initial collapse of the Red Army during Barbarossa. Hitler should have taken the advice of his Generals and concentrated the troop more and objectives on certain keys cities rather than wide-spread unattainable and difficult objectives, which stretched the Army too thin.

You say the achievements that the Germans made initially was more due to the incompetence of the red army than actual military genius from Hitler. I couldn't agree more. The great Stalin had just purged a large chuck of the red army of its generals and officers due to his own paranoia. Soviet troops were extremely ill equipped, their soldiers having to pick up rifles form dead comrades. Despite this Stalin was convinced that the Germans should be charged back out of the "motherland".
The implications of the failure of Operation Barbarossa were devastating for the Nazi army. Fighting two front wars whilst outnumbered is no easy task. We Pakistanis know this out of experience don't we? Fighting in East and West Pakistan against numerically larger India. However Hitler had the choice of limiting the war to one front. However his own crazy ideas of "lebensraum" and "Aryan" superiority pushed him in attempting to invade the largest country in the world whilst already occupying pretty much all of Europe.
 
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Barbarossa was a failure...mostly because of underestimation of soviet strength and tenacity....failed in its operational directives of taking leningrad ,minsk,kiev and moscow then pushing to archangelsk ,stalingrad and the caucasus.
Manekshaw is hero worshipped in india to a certain extent.
Hitler's inclusion was not a joke...it was a bad joke.

Now publius ventdius bessus.......winner in 3 straight pitched battles against the parthians, first roman to win vs the parthians after carrhae disaster.
His main genius was in deception,use of terrain and increased us eof slingers vs the parthian cavalry.
He is the first and only roman to celebrate a triumph over parthia.

Battle of the Cilician Gates - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Amanus Pass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Mount Gindarus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The three battles a general small summary.

Search google books with preview and full view on and u'll get some good mini reads.Of course there are other great sources but these are the free easy available ones.

If u want to read a REAL historic edge of the seat novel read colllen mccolluogh's Masters of rome series.
Go to ********* and type masters of rome torrent ,takes 5 mins to dload e book.It starts with marius and ends with augustus 7 books all gems.6 u have in torrent..antony and cleoptra u need to buy.[it does have a little caesar worship but altogether my all time favourite]
But before reading just read up a little on wiki on the spread of roman power and the situation of the world after rome's destruction of carthage and conquest of macedonia and the seleucid empire to visualize the situation.Also get a basic idea of roman legionary warfare.[pics of roman formations advancing]
Another great is THe currently ongoing rome series by robert harris imperium and lustrum 2 novels..based on cicero's life and roman poltics .Superb read here with caesar the antagonist.Contrasting but brilliant reads.Second one is incomplete so read masters of rome first.
The main characters are marius,sulla,sertorius,caesar,pompey,crassus,cicero,cato,lucullus,labeinus,Antony,agrippa,octavian and so many more.Just breathtaking.
Bassus btw was a subordinate of caesar and later follower of antony.
 
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Capturing Kargil sector from Indian army was a marvel of Pervaiz Musharraf, which changed indian defence text books.
 
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It would have been had he been able to keep them and cut off NH1.The plan was very good but fizzled out once the key peaks were reclaimed and NH1 secured.I see a lot of people talk about taking peaks...the main point is to secure NH1 not taking peaks.....a peak by itself is a barren hilltop in freezing terrain.
 
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