Nicest Leader of WW2

Maxwell Taylor commanded 101st Airborne during overlord and after.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Taylor

 

Thanks

 

and to remain airborne, what about Gavin?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Gavin

 

hell lets toss Cole in here. (won a MoH)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Cole

 

The problem with being a leader in times of war is that sooner or later you will have to order people to do something that will likely get them killed. It is kinda hard to be 'nice' under such circumstances.

 

All good leaders never place their men in situations, where they themselves would not be prepared to go.

 

post subject

That is a rubbish statement, I nearly said 'bull****! Leaders take orders, which often results in putting 'their men' in impossible situations.

 

Sikorski was notably a nice man except if you got in an argument with him you would end up thinking what he told you to think. Too bad he died in Gibraltar he was the only hope of getting the government in exile back in power after the war.

 

military command is almost never about being nice , in fact being nice is akin to being soft which is not a quality which ordinary young soldiers tend to admire .

 

I agree!

 

"I would rather convince a men to fight for me rather than scare him into fighting for me, as if I persuade him to fight he will fight till the end, if I scare him into fighting for me he will only stay as long as he is scared"

More of a paraphrase of an American General from WWII. Probably Eisenhower... not sure though.

 

That is a really good quote!

 

As Xenophon put it when comparing Greek troops to Persians, "Willing obedience always beats forced obedience." Of course a leader will be forced to risk his men's lives and does not always have time or opportunity for niceties, but if he can give his soldiers a positive impression of him, they will be more eager to put their life on the line if he orders them to. Which he inevitably will.

 

Patton wasnt liked, he was "tolerated"

Mainly cause he won battles often at surprisngly low cost. Men thought they had the best chnace of survival with him, and somewhat forgoed his shitty personality.

The commander of the Graf Spree was known to be rather merciful to the crews of ships he sunk.

 

"nice " is good for moms ,babysiters and preschool teachers .i had an engklish lit teacher who was nice but after school he was the football coach and he was not so nice . he was a martinet who ran us ragged and screamed at us when we fekked up ,he was not loved but he was feared and respected and he did lead us to victory ,smashing the airforce and navy kids to become island champs .then he became loved , sort of , but still feared .

nice is not important for leaders of men ,winning is important ..in the usa an old saying goes "nice guys finish last ".ironically , this phrase is most often used to describe how women resond to the efforts of nice guys in romantic contests for their afections . ie .for men , NICE equals weak ..

 

Yeah I guess so.

 

Highest level Roosevelt He even believed that Stalin was a nice guy.

Altogether Ike was massively Popular .

Of Germans Göring was amazingly Populär.And Rommel of course.

 

For the Allies I would put forward two senior commanders for the British that pass the "niceness" test.

The first was Brian Horrocks.
The other would be Richard O'Connor.

For the Americans, "niceness" is not something we usually associate with American generals, but I would like to put forward the name of Gen. Mark Clark, or "Markus Clarkus" as he was known. A fine story demonstrates his affability.
During the "Torch" landings, Mark Clark's port objective ( I forget which one it was) was held by Vichy troops. Markus attempted to track down the local Harbour master with the help of a young boy as a guide. The boy didn't know what Markus wanted at first, and attempted to line up his sister for Markus to enjoy.
When informed by the interpreter that Markus, "wanted the harbour master", the young guide chuckled, and told the interpreter that "yes, he COULD get the harbour master for Markus, but that would certainly cost him extra as his sister was much easier to "arrange", and he didn't know quite what the harbour master charged an hour, but it was bound to be more expensive than his sister!

One can imagine Markus rolling his eyes at that one, and wishing fervently that he was back in ancient times

 

sorry, I have no meaning to " nicest". The soldiers love General s who are clever, save soldier lives and make fast vicories. I think Rommel was one and although Monty always wanted overpower the enemy, he won although Caen was D+1 he finally got there.Ike was always smiling and propably talked to soldiers.

 

If we are talking about "general who cares about his soldiers" and/or "general who is loved by the troops" (which is usually a direct result of the former), then I'd nominate Erwin Rommel and William Slim.