Who is the greatest military genius of all times?

I'm quoting this as a question, because I'm not very familar with this... Not arguing...

I read something about Pursians being allies with the British, and coming to Wellington's aid toward the end of the battle, by marching around some of Napoleon's force's instead of into them...

Acutally pulling Wellington out of the fire

 

Well not quite...

A VERY summed up account of the Waterloo campaign...

The Prussians under Blucher had been beaten at Ligny and the British had been beaten at Quatre Bras. THis had pushed the two Allied Armies apart. The British Allied FOrce (it included Hanoverian, Belgian and Dutch troops amongst others) then fought the pitched battle at Waterloo. There actions held the French Army until Blucher's Prussians could arrive to tip the numbers in the Allied favour.

Wellington never belittled the Prussian role of that day and stated that they played a key role in the victory and in finally defeating the French. Without them the chances of a French victory are still small, the battle would have likely been a bloody draw. Perhaps the real recognition for the days fighting should go to the troops who defended La Haye Sainte and the Hugoment against repeated heavy French attacks.

The whole idea of Wellington's was to hold NApoleon on the ridge and await the arrival of the Prussians. Thereby destroying his force in detail. It may have been different if Grouchy had arrived instead of the Prussians...

 

Pasted it. Being lazy lately.

 

Ahh, but taking advantage of the terrain is part of good generalship.

 

without a doubt Stefan. Wellington and the British troops had learned well while in Spain

 

I agree with you there… but I get a bit nostalgic by the surname Churchill and the fact of 'saving' Britain…

I don't. My list was partially written in a chronological way. My Namensbruder is one of my top favourites, over Malbourough.

Actually, by the time Von Blücher came, the Imperial Guard was already retreating. Napoléon's forces had been exhausted and neutralised by Wellington.

Indeed. As Hannibal did at Cannæ, Napoléon at Austerlitz or Malbourough at Blenheim.

 

By the way, I do not consider Genghis-Khan an extremely great general. It was not a matter of leadership as much as it was a matter of how the Mongols themselves were.

The Mongol war-machine was maybe the most perfect of all times because it had something unique, which made it possible to conquer the greatest land empire in History: the Mongol Army was the only Army in History which did not have supply lines nor did it need any supplies. The war machine supplied itself: tents were made out of horse fur, people ate horse milk and meat, arrows, axes and bows were made of horse's bones, fires were lit with horse's dung and the Mongols itself travelled thousands of kilometres on their horses.

If the Germans could have lived from their Panzers, maybe they could have beaten the USSR.

 

I don't. My list was partially written in a chronological way. My Namensbruder is one of my top favourites, over Malbourough.
[/QB]</font>[/QUOTE]Last year, you were of the contrary opinion.

 

But yet they didn't manage to conquer this empire before Genghis, so he might have played a little role in this.

And being able to travel without supply lines is an enormous advantage, but, you also need to win the battles.

Here you see his empire at her best:
... hey, why is parenthesis in HTML tag not allowed???

 

Damned…! I'll start to seem like John F. (for 'flip-flop') Kerry…

Well, Friedrich was indeed Great, and great as a person as well. But at the end of the Seven Years War Prussia was devastated, the Prussian Army was everything but Prussian and Berlin had been taken. It was only Piótr III of Russia who stopped the Allies from crushing him.

You're right. But I have to add something: what about Kublai-Khan and Tamerlán after him? Great generals at the head of the most perfect war-machine?

By the way, a very curious 'coincidence' of History you might be interested on. The mausoleums of Mongol kings were underground and thousands of horses were made to run over it so they couldn't ever be profained. That's why Genghis' tumb has never been found. Besides, there was a tradition of curses: the people of that who dared to profaine a Mongol king's tumb would suffer 'unspeakable and the most terrible horrors'.

This could be only a myth, BUT…

On June 22nd 1941 a couple of Soviet archælogists got into Tamerlán tumb in Khazakhstán or India —I don't remember— and we all know what happened to the USSR that very day…

 

I'm not sure whether he was THAT great as a person, but the rest is true. Still, why didn't the allies have managed to crush him until then? In fact, it is almost incredible - Friedrich should have been finished in 1760.

And here is Genghis Khan's empire 1206-1227:

 

Shouldnt that be 'here is a map of where Gengis Khan rode about'???

 

Poet, composer, soldier, botanist, writer, philosopher and statesman.

Maybe only Alexander, Piótr 'the Great' and Churchill can be compared to that!

 

Sub-discussion: Who were the greatest military geniuses who LOST in the end?

#1 is, without much debate, Napoleon.
#2 is IMHO Hannibal.

Then it gets tougher...

Lee?
Manstein?