Why great generals win

MacArthur has to fight the Joint Chiefs of Staff to get approval for a brilliant landing at Inchon that brings about the abrupt defeat of North Korean invaders in The principles of strategy have remained unchanged for millennia. Although the rules are simple, their application requires much care, skill, and caution. Chapter summarizes the most important rules of warfare. Click here to purchase from Amazon. For each battle, the general receives a weighted WAR score, a negative score for a loss.

Kutuzov gets a -. The more battles a commander fights and wins, the more opportunities to raise their scores. There were some surprises in the model, like the apparent failures of generals like Robert E. Lee and more modern generals. For the more modern generals like Patton, that can be attributed to the relatively small number of battles commanded. Arsht does acknowledge his shortcomings, so check those out, too.

As previously mentioned, Alexander was a great strategist, but since his life was cut short and he had only nine battles from which to draw data, it leaves the model very little to work with.

Still, the conqueror of the known world is ranked much higher than other leaders with similar numbers, including the Japanese Shogun Tokugawa, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and Confederate General J. Robert E. Lee: Lee is an American military icon. Until his defeat at Gettysburg , his operational brilliance gave the Confederacy its greatest chance for Civil War victory.

William T. It has often been cited as a precursor to the blitzkrieg warfare of a generation later. Ferdinand Foch: Although Foch earned his pre-World War I reputation as a tactician, his greatest contribution to Allied victory was as supreme commander of French, British and American forces His influential books on irregular warfare are still read today by those seeking insight on insurgencies.

Henri Petain: Petain was a master of defensive tactics. John J. Pershing: As American Expeditionary Force commander 19 , Pershing insisted that his 3 million-man army fight under U.

Later, the Soviet commander was instrumental in the tactical fight that captured Berlin Dwight D. He rolled over France but was stopped at Moscow He achieved remarkable success in the Pacific Theater despite his inadequate supplies and limited numbers of troops and ships.

From the disjointed reports he had been given, he put together a coherent picture of the terrain of an area new to him, and of the vast confused array of men who contended for it.

Besides, he possessed an almost intuitive knowledge of topography, and never became confused as to the points of the compass.

In the Eastern Theater, which he studied for only eight weeks, Grant revealed a thorough grasp of the strategic situation. He decided to leave executive command of the Army of the Potomac to George G. Meade in order to give himself time to manage an extensive area of operations stretching from New England to New Mexico, from Minnesota to Mississippi.

Grant Waged His Greatest Battle. For Grant, who as a young man had fought in the Mexican War, a conflict in which he did not believe, the Civil War was a war of principle. Elizabeth D. She is a professor of English at West Point. This essay does not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense or the U.

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