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