Transcript military commanders of world war ii

MILITARY
COMMANDERS OF
WORLD WAR II
ALLIED AND AXIS
Major General Harold Alexander
British Expeditionary Force
• LAST BRITISH
SOLDIER TO
LEAVE THE
SHORES OF
DUNKIRK
• Commander in
Chief Middle
East
• Was the
overseer of the
allied victory at
El Alamein
• Eisenhower
wanted him to
command DDay.
Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr
(US)
• His father was Confederate
General Simon Bolivar Buckner,
SR.
– He had surrendered to Grant in the
Civil war
– He was a HUGE RACIST
• Alaskan Campaign
• Commanded10th Army
– Okinawa
– Highest ranking American to
have been killed during the
Hermann Goering
• Top Nazi, a political massmurderer
• Hitler's deputy
• Goering the highest military
rank of Reichsmarshal
• Signed the Nazi plan for "The
final solution of the Jewish
problem
Admiral Isoroku
Yamamoto
• Studied English in
Harvard University
• Planned Pearl
Harbor
• Yamamoto lost in
the Battle of
Midway
• Dies in plane crash
Otto Skorzeny
• "The most dangerous
man in Europe"
• Hitler's commando
leader
• SS Special Unit
Friedenthal
• Operation Greif
(Griffin)
General Mark Wayne Clark
• Deputy Commander
for Operation Torch,
the Allied invasion of
North Africa
• Clark was the
youngest officer to
become Lt. General
in 1943
• December 1944 he
assumed command
of the 15th and British
and US Armies,
putting him in
command of all
ground troops in Italy
General Dwight D.
Eisenhower
• Supreme
Commander of
Allied Forces In
Europe
• Given Rank
General of the
Army
• Although he had
never seen action
himself, he won
the respect of
front-line
commanders
Heinz Guderian
“Hurrying Heinz”
• XIX Army Corps
• Panzergruppe
Guderian during
Barbarossa
• Chief of OKH
• Hitler dismissed
him on 28 March
1945
• Pioneered the “Blitzkrieg”
concept
• Took Poland 1940
• Very successful in France
• Captured 600,000 Soviet
Troops
• Abilities crushed by Hilter
Douglas MacArthur
• Supreme
Commander of
Allied Forces in
the Southwest
Pacific
• “I shall Return”
• Oversaw
Invasion forces
of Philippines
• “Island
Hopping”
• Not a good
Politician.
• Accepted
Japanese
Surrender
Bernard Law “Monty”
Montgomery
• British
Expeditionary
Force
• Commanded 8th
Army in North
Africa against
Rommell
• Victory at El
Alamein
• Butted heads with
American
Commanders
during Invasion of
Sicily and Italy
• Commander at DDay
Chester Nimitz
• Commander in Chief
of Pacific Forces for
the United States and
Allied forces
• Carried out the Island
Hopping campaign
that leads through Iwo
and Saipan and
eventually on to
Japan
• Drank A LOT
• Commaned Admiral
William “Bull” Halsey and
the Marine known as
“Howlin Mad” Holland
Smith
• Started as a Submariner
• Won nearly every
engagements he was
involved in
Georgi Zhukov
• Hard Core and
Cruel
• Lucky and
Skilled
• Great Leader
and teacher
• Defeated
Japanese in only
Real attempt on
USSR
• Saved
Leningrad,
Stalingrad
• Drafted women
and children to
save Moscow
• Was 1st to reach
Berlin
George C. Marshall
• Humorless, Cold ,
and Formal
• He transformed the
US Army from and
force of 200,000 to 2
million
• Formulated assault
on France
• Finest Soldier I have
ever known
– Stimson, SOW
Konstantin Rokossovsky
USSR
• He was the Hero
of Stalingrad
• Crushed the 6th
German Army
• Commander at
KURSK
• Finest General in
the Red Army
Frederich Erich Von Manstien
• Most Repsected
of the German
Officers
• Clear and
Calculating
• Altered Hilter’s
plans for invasion
of France by
going through the
Ardennes
• Most successful as a tank
commander
• Only German to achieve a
major victory against the
Soviets
–Taking the Black Sea
Peninsula
–Credited with Last German
victory of the war at
Kharkov Rail station
George S. Patton
• Flamboyant and
charismatic
• Believer in
Destiny
• Unloved but
respected
• Took Casablanca
in 42’
• North Africa with
3rd Armored
• Sicily Trouble
• A TRUE
WARRIOR
• Headed 3rd in
Ardennes at
Battle of Bulge
• Most successful
in territory
– 1000 miles in less
than a year
Bertram Ramsay
• Evacuated Dunkirk
• Transports of US troops to the war
• In charge of naval Operations for
OVERLORD (Operation Neptune)
– 4000 ships
– Delivered 5 divisions to the shores of
Normandy
Irwin
Rommel
• “Desert Fox”
• Faster than any
before in France
• Afrika Corps
• Captured Tobruk
• Defeated at 2nd
El Alamein
• Great?????
• Failed at
Normandy
• Suicided for Plot
against Hitler
Wilhelm Keitel
• Appointed Chief of Staff of
German High Command & in
charge of all military strategy
• Nazi PYSCHO
• “ANY ACT OF MERCY IS A
CRAIME AGAINST GERMANY”
Friedrich Paulus
• Commander of the German
Sixth Army in January 1942
and led the drive on
Stalingrad.
• Russian-sponsored National
Committee for a Free
Germany
Albert Kesselring
• Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff.
• Almost defeated British at BOB
• Commanded German Forces in all of
Italy
– “Soft Underbelly” 20 months
• Germany as Commander in Chief
West in March 1945