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 D-Day.

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 War

Hermann Goering • Top Nazi, a political mass-

murderer• 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 D-Day

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 RokossovskyUSSR

• 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