Worst generals

didnt patton hit/slap a soldier

 

This one was bound to appear. Yes, in his days in Italy Patton slapped a soldier in a field hospital because he was suffering from shell shock, not anything physical and apparently Patton didn't see psychological wounds as injuries at all. So he judged the soldier to be a coward, faking serious injury to get clear of the front, even though shell shock is a very serious mental wound that requires intensive personal treatment or never heals.

But the greatest problem at this incident was the fact that the press blew it up to enormous proportions, even though it wouldn't have had any effect had news of it remained confined to the hospital itself. Now Patton was suddenly the brute.

 

I wonder what would have happened if the soldier instinctively slapped Patton back as some kind of quick reaction? The firing squad? Surely that would not be fair?

 

In reading The Patton Papers, Patton's biggest problem wasn't that the guy was suffering from shell-shock (though Patton had little sympathy for it). He didn't want the soldiers suffering from shell-shock housed with the soldiers who had physical wounds. He felt they had gotten their wounds in an "honorable" manner while the shell-shocked had not. He had told the doctors this once before (in a minor slapping incident that was hushed up) and they ignored him.

I'm not saying what he did was right but it was indeed blown out-of-proportion. The Germans assumed it must be some kind of trick, because they couldn't believe the Americans would even think of sacking their best general over a slapping incident. Think of all the lives lost from D-Day until Cobra, some unnecessarily due to mediocre generalship, that might have been saved over one man getting slapped!

 

Yes, sometimes the guard dog of democracy grows out of all proportion and interferes where it most certainly shouldn't. A lesson which any American general should learn before he slaps a soldier

 

Acctually the Germans had some very strict rules about officers manhandling those of lesser rank.

Hitler (as a former corporal) was apparently very keen on ensuring that high-rankers were held responsible.

 

As opposed to the Japanese, where officers slapped enlisted men (and non-Japanese civilians, too) constantly and thought nothing of it. That habit got a lot of Filipinos mad at them.

 

I remember hearing a story (it may not be true!) about a western chappie visiting Japan (before WW2!). He saw a bunch of kids who decided to play soldiers. One said "I'm the sargeant", so the others lined up, and he wandered down the line, slapping all the kids in the face.

 

If you want to read about how the Japanese military would abuse even their lower officers, you should read "Samurai" by Martin Caidin and Saburo Sakai. Definitely a different culture.

 

Also, I would suggest Shogun (I can't remember the author.) Decapitation in the streets for not bowing long enough, commiting suicide off a cliff to get your commander's attention.

 

I would like to emphasize this sentence before the thread turns into some Japanese-bashing free-for-all with pictures of whatever shows you can find on Japanese telivision and whatnot. Please, try to maintain respect for other cultures!

 

No offense to Japanese culture intended, in fact my 19 year-old son loves studying it. Our points are that very few cultures in the 20th Century would have considered it acceptable.

 

Claude Auchinleck : First some victorys but then only loses. And also Robert Ghormley, worse general of US Marines.

 

Agree with claude as a very poor General.

 

The North African campaign surely bled the British arsenal of commanders white... Wavell removed, O'connor captured, Gott killed etc etc... No wonder they put men like Auchinleck in command as a last resort. Maybe they thought the position as commander of the British forces there was jinxed...

 

You've got a point there. :-?

 

Robert Ghormley was an admiral in the US Navy, not a Marine general. He was unsuccessful as COMSOPAC in the Solomons because he believed (and continued to believe) the the Guadalcanal offensive was premature, unwise, and doomed to failure. His attitude almost caused that to happen.

As for Auchinleck, just what series of disasters gave you such a low opinion of the man? It was he who stopped Rommel at El Alamein, not Montgomery. And Monty's successful offensive at the same place was due laregely to the preparations Auchinleck had made previously. The Auk's problem was that he had managed to get Churchill mad at him by refusing to go into battle prematurely (in other words, when Churchill wanted him to do so, not when it was the right time).

 

I thought it was him who surrendered singapore, but that was Wavell and percival.

 

Ok then Walter Model because when started operation market garden he said that anybody can't destroyed bridge.

 

Seriously, Walther Model is one of the best commanders of the war. Hitler's fire brigade knew how to turn every rout into an orderly retreat, then into a new defence line, then into an active defence.