Erich von Manstein (November 24, 1887-June 10, 1973) served the German military as a lifelong professional soldier. Von Manstein rose to become one of the most promiment commanders of Germany's Armed Forces (Wehrmacht). During
World War II, he attained the rank of
Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall), despite the fact that he was not a member of the Nazi party. Many historians accredit von Manstein with helping (along with
Heinz Guderian) concoct the plan to conquer
France. He was eventually given command of Army Group South during the invasion of Russia (
Operation Barbarossa). While in command, von Manstein brought about one of the greatest victories in modern warfare. Von Manstein became famous for standing up to
Hitler on various issues. Although this behavior would have normally led to his swift removal from command, von Manstein remained one of the very few generals who had repeatedly proved themselves in Hitler's eyes. In 1944, Hitler dismissed von Manstein over a question of strategy. Von Manstein was subsequently surrendered to the British and was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment, although he only served four years. Following his imprisonment, von Manstein served as senior adviser to the West German government; helped shape the new Bundeswehr; and became the Bundeswehr honorary Chief of Staff. Von Manstein died on June 10, 1973, becoming one of the very few German World War II Generals to be honored with full military honors.
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein,
KG,
GCB,
DSO,
PC (
17 November 1887–
24 March 1976), often referred to as "Monty", was a
British Army officer. He successfully commanded Allied forces at the
Battle of El Alamein, a major turning point in
World War II, and troops under his command were largely responsible for the expulsion of
Axis forces from North Africa. He was later a prominent commander in Italy and North-West Europe, where he was in command of all Allied ground forces during
Operation Overlord until after the
Battle of Normandy.
George Smith Patton Jr. (
November 11,
1885 –
December 21,
1945) was a leading
U.S. Army general in
World War II. In his 36-year Army career, he was Cadet Adjutant at
West Point, finished in Fifth Place in the
Modern Pentathlon at the 1912
Olympic Games in
Stockholm,
Sweden; Graduate Student at the Cavalry School at
Saumur,
France in 1912 and 1913; the designated military member of
The American Committee for the Sixth Olympiad, which was scheduled to be held in Berlin, Germany in 1916, advocate of
armored warfare and commanded major units of
North Africa,
Sicily, and the
European Theater of Operations. Many have viewed Patton as a pure, ruthless and ferocious warrior, known by the nickname "Old Blood and Guts", a name given to him after a reporter misquoted his statement that it takes blood and
brains to win a war. But history has left the image of a brilliant military leader whose record was also marred by
insubordination and some periods of apparent instability. Patton was also a member of Kappa Alpha Order.
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (listen (help·info)) (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was one of the most distinguished German field marshals of World War II. He was the commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps and also became known by the nickname “The Desert Fox” (Wüstenfuchs, listen (help·info)) for the skillful military campaigns he waged on behalf of the German Army in North Africa. He was later in command of the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion at Normandy.
Rommel is often remembered not only for his remarkable military prowess, but also for his reputation for
chivalry towards his adversaries - being one of the German commanders who disobeyed the infamous
Commando Order. He is also noted for possibly having taken part in
a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, for which he was forced to commit suicide before the war's end.
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (Васи́лий Ива́нович Чуйко́в) (
February 12,
1900 -
March 18,
1982) was a
lieutenant general in the
Soviet Red Army during
World War II, two times
Hero of the Soviet Union (1944, 1945), who after the war became a
Marshal of the Soviet Union. Born into a peasant family, he joined the Red Army during the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and later attended the
Frunze Military Academy. Chuikov served in the Soviet occupation of eastern
Poland in
1939 and in the
Russo-Finnish War of
1940. He was then sent to
China as an advisor to
Chiang Kai-shek. In May
1942 the USSR recalled their military advisor, according to Chuikov's memoirs this was due to Nationalist China claiming the USSR was providing military aid as part of an attempt to draw the USSR into the
Second Sino-Japanese War. On returning to Moscow, Chuikov was placed in command of the 64th Army, on the West bank of the Don river. The 64th Army took part in the fighting withdrawal to Stalingrad, and shortly before the
Battle of Stalingrad itself began, Chuikov was made commander of the more important 62nd Army, which was to hold Stalingrad itself, with the 64th on its Southern flank. After the victory there, the 62nd Army was promoted into the
Soviet 8th Guards Army. Chuikov then commanded the 8th Guards as part of
1st Belorussian Front and led its advance through Poland, finally heading the Soviet offensive which captured
Berlin in April
1945.
Curtis Emerson LeMay (15 November 1906–3 October 1990) was a general in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of independent candidate George C. Wallace in 1968.
He is credited with designing and implementing an effective systematic strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. After the war, he headed the Berlin airlift, then reorganized the Strategic Air Command (SAC) into an effective means of conducting nuclear war.
Critics have characterized him as a belligerent warmonger (even nicknaming him "Bombs Away LeMay") whose aggressiveness threatened to inflame tense
Cold War situations (such as the
Cuban Missile Crisis) into open war between the
United States and the
Soviet Union. LeMay is perhaps most famous for suggesting in a 1965 book that the United States should escalate its bombing of North Vietnam: "My solution to the problem would be to tell them frankly that they’ve got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression, or we’re going to bomb them back into the Stone Age."
Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese: 山本五十六, Yamamoto Isoroku?) (4 April 1884 – 18 April 1943) was a Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II, graduate of Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and alumnus of U.S. Naval War College and Harvard University (1919 - 1921).
Yamamoto is considered to be one of Imperial Japanese Navy's most talented and most influential naval
strategists and
tacticians and is highly respected in
Japan. In the
United States he is widely regarded as a clever, intelligent and dangerous opponent who resisted going to war, but once the decision was made did his utmost for his country. However, some American survivors of the war maintain their condemnation of him for the surprise character of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He died during an inspection tour of forward positions in the
Solomon Islands when his transport aircraft was ambushed by American
P-38 Lightning fighter planes. He held several important posts in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and undertook many of its changes and reorganizations. His death was a major blow to Japanese military
morale during World War II.
Adolf Hitler (
April 20,
1889-
April 30,
1945) was
Chancellor of Germany from
1933, and
Führer (Leader) of
Germany from
1934 until his death. He was leader of the
National Socialist German Workers Party (
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), better known as the
Nazi Party. Hitler gained power in a Germany facing crisis after
World War I. Using
propaganda and
charismatic oratory, he was able to appeal to the economic need of the
lower and
middle classes, while sounding resonant chords of
nationalism,
anti-Semitism and
anti-communism. With the establishment of a
restructured economy, a rearmed
military, and a
totalitarian and
fascist regime, Hitler pursued an aggressive
foreign policy with the intention of
expanding German
Lebensraum ("living space"), which triggered
World War II when Germany
annexed Austria, the
Czech lands, and
invaded Poland, much of which was also annexed to form the "Greater German Reich" (
Großdeutsches Reich). In the final days of the war, Hitler, along with his new wife,
Eva Braun,
committed suicide in
his underground bunker in
Berlin, as the city was
being overrun by the
Red Army of the
Soviet Union.
General Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor KT, GCB, DSO & Bar, MC, ADC (21 August 1889 – 17 June 1981) was a British Army general who commanded the Western Desert Force in the early years of World War II. He was the field commander for Operation Compass, in which his forces completely destroyed a much larger Italian army — a victory which nearly drove the Axis from Africa entirely, and in turn, led Adolf Hitler to send the German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel to try and reverse the situation. O'Connor was captured by a German reconnaissance patrol during the night of 7 April 1941, and spent over two years in an Italian prisoner of war camp. He eventually escaped in December 1943, and in 1944 commanded VIII Corps in Normandy and later during Operation Market Garden. In 1945 he was General Officer in Command of the Eastern Command in India and then in the closing days of British rule in the subcontinent headed Northern Command. His final job in the army was Adjutant-General to the Forces in London in charge of the British Army's administration, personnel and organisation.
In honour of his war service, O'Connor was recognised with the highest level of
knighthood in two different
orders of chivalry. He was also awarded the
Distinguished Service Order (twice),
Military Cross,
French Croix de Guerre and
Legion of Honour and served as
Aide-de-camp to
King George VI. He was also
mentioned in dispatches nine times for actions in
World War I, once in
Palestine in 1939 and three times in
World War II.
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa (* January 27, 1920 – † October 26, 1944) was an ace pilot of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force during World War II. It is possible he was the most successful Japanese fighter ace of the war; he personally claimed to have had 87 aerial victories at the time of his death. Some uncertainty is due to the Japanese habit of recording victories for the pilot's air group rather than the individual after 1941, and the often wildly exaggerated claims of aerial kills that were frequently accepted on all sides. Some sources credit Nishizawa with over one hundred victories.
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