Top 10 Most Successful Military Commanders

[Mercenary]

The List is utter garbage. Sucessful Military commanders need to fight against the odds to be ranked among the best. Having a massive Army and then acieving victories is not a mark of a true military commander such as Zhukov, Saladin and Cyrus.

Here is my ranking:

1 - Genghis Khan - Created the largest Empire in the world.
Genghis Khan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2 - Alexander the Great - Defeated an adversary 10 times as large as his Army and marched half way across Asia.
Alexander the Great - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3 - Napoleon Bonaparte - Defeated powerful adversaries and created the largest continental Empire in Europe since Rome.
Napoleon I of France - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4 - Khalid ibn Al-Walid - Defeated the Persians, and conquered large parts of Byzantine Empire and un-defeated in his battles.
Khalid ibn al-Walid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5 - General Vo Nguyen Giap - Used brilliant tactics to overcome equipment and technological gaps to defeat the Japanese, French, Americans and then the Chinese.
Vo Nguyen Giap - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

6 - Hannibal Barca - Gave Rome its biggest defeat in history. Marched across the Alps with Elephants to attack the Romans from the rear.
Hannibal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

7 - Marshal Kutuzov - Defeated the bulk of Napolean's Army which ultimately led to Napolean's defeat.
Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

8 - General Flavius Belisarius - Re-conquered much of the Western Roman Empire for the Byzantine Empire. Only stopped because the Emperor grew Jealous of his success.
Belisarius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

9 - Heinz Guderian - Created and applied the concept of Blitzkreig which allowed Germany to inflict decesive defeats on its enemies in WWII.
Heinz Guderian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

10 - George Washington - Defeated the British Empire and gave independence to USA.
George Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Honorable Mention:
Julius Caesar - Emerged victorious from the Roman Civil War and expanded the boundaries of the Roman Empire.
Wellington - For defeating Napolean at Waterloo
Robert E. Lee - For keeping the South's chance in the Civil War and delaying Northern Victory.
Erwin Rommel - For brilliant tactics used in North Africa.
Douglas MacArthur - For his brilliant bypassing of Raboul, liberation of Philippines and decisive defeat of the initial North Korean attack in Korean War.

 

[Iron_Eagle_17]

Just for information Hanibals attacks on Romans were so catastrophic that it was the first time the word annihlation was used to describe a defeat.
Also King Leonidas of Sparta should be among them he was a game changer if it wasn,t for him and the other Greek general ( can't remember his name)who fought the naval battle against Xerexes the first world democracy would never have been existed long enough to put a everlasting impact on world.

 

[Mercenary]

Just for information Hanibals attacks on Romans were so catastrophic that it was the first time the word annihlation was used to describe a defeat.
Also King Leonidas of Sparta should be among them he was a game changer if it wasn,t for him and the other Greek general ( can't remember his name)who fought the naval battle against Xerexes the first world democracy would never have been existed long enough to put a everlasting impact on world.

I ranked Hannibal 6th. He inflicted a decesive defeat on the Romans on Cannae but I did not rank him higher because he failed to attack Rome.

As for Leonidas, the Spartans had a force of about 7,000 men vs 50,000 Persians. There were 300 Spartans who formed the tip of the spear of the Greek forces.

Their feat has been greatly exaggerated.

 

[Iron_Eagle_17]

I ranked Hannibal 6th. He inflicted a decesive defeat on the Romans on Cannae but I did not rank him higher because he failed to attack Rome.

As for Leonidas, the Spartans had a force of about 7,000 men vs 50,000 Persians. There were 300 Spartans who formed the tip of the spear of the Greek forces.

Their feat has been greatly exaggerated.

Yes I first read about hanibal at a classics lesson but I did further study because the guy appealed to me in a way. To understand his intellect we've got to knowthe situation and the environment he was fighting in absolutely marveling stratigic foresight.
Regarding leonidas you are very true in fanboy novels and cheap history books this guy is unbeatable and unbreakable but the fact is that his last stand was not with 300 Spartans , but 1300-1400 Greeks stayed with him to the end . It was actually Themsticles( I might have got the spellings wrong)who managed to hang onto a stalemate at the sea front. Xerxes had 600+ fleet against the athenians mere 200 it was this guy who gave leonidas the ability to fight knowing xerxes can't come from behind. But still leonidas had the ability to see things the way his fellows didn't his mission was to buy allied states some time to amass their armies. He sucesseded In that also he moraly left xerxes and his army in a bad shape which was great.

 

[Iron_Eagle_17]

Out of all german generals of world war 2 Heinz guderian is my favorite.

 

[Kompromat]

Sultan Sallahudin Ayobi known as As salladin.





The conquering sword of Yerushalam (Jarushalam )

 

[ejaz007]

It is upto the person who is preparing the list to decide what factors contribute while ranking the generals. However Khalid Bin Walid definitely deserves a place among the best 10. Salahuddin Ayubi should also have been there. He is the one who introuduced the commando style raiding techniques.

 

[garibnawaz]

When it comes to Post WWII commanders there is only 1 undisputed

Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw.

GB

 

[Mercenary]

Here is my list for the Great Post World War II Commanders:

1 - General Vo Nguyen Giap - Defeated the French, Americans and Chinese.
2 - Che Guevara - Led many campaigns to spread the Marxist revolution.
3 - Ahmad Shah Massoud - Defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan.
4 - Matthew Ridgeway - Stabilized the Korean War.
5 - Douglas MacArthur - Invaded Inchon which outflanked the North Koreans.
6 - Ariel Sharon - Instrumental in Israeli Wars, encircled the Egyptian 3rd Army in 1973 War.
7 - Creighton Abrams - Commanded US Troops in Vietnam after 1968. Succeeded in Vietnamization and defeated North Vietnamese counter-attacks.
8 - General David Petraeus - Stabilized Iraq by the Surge.
9 - Sarath Fonseka - Defeated the LTTE.
10 - Hassan Nasrallah - Leader of Hezbollah. Fought the Israelis for 20 years in Lebanon and defeated them 2006 war.

 

[garibnawaz]

Here is my list for the Great Post World War II Commanders:
3 - Ahmad Shah Massoud - Defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan.

I dont agree. He was not alone neither the sole commander of Mujahideen Forces.

However personally I have great respect for him.

9 - Sarath Fonseka - Defeated the LTTE.

He just finished something which was started long back.

LTTE defeat was inevitable with or withut him.

GB

 

[Khajur]

Most of these socalled " Successful Military Commanders " are mass murderers of innocent men.Expect for WWII professional Generals and freedom fighters who faught for their country as they had to ,other are way too ambitious and had heart to good on abnormal violence and atrocities
in the name of conquest.Thats why we see so few of them not because they are rare genious born once in centuries but its rare to find normal human inclination for that kind bloodshed and gore for the glory of conquest of foreign lands . While most are satisfied after few battles,but these socalled great military Commanders an insatiable senile hunger to go on and on e,g Alexander and Chengiz Khan etc


And it also depends on what kind of adversaries they faced ,take for instance ,once Napolean who after beating few ill prepared small states of Europe when reached Russia,he got routed into near oblivion .The English makes too much of Napolean as they defeated him at Waterloo ,but fact was that Napolean too weakened and commaded a feeble french army after his Russian misadventure.

 

[DaRk WaVe]

where the hell is Erwin Rommel

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Alexander The Great

 

[mjnaushad]

where the hell is Erwin Rommel

As far i know he killed himself (correct me if i am wrong). But when he was alive he really was a headache for British army.A great leader.

 

[Dawkins]

As far i know he killed himself (correct me if i am wrong). But when he was alive he really was a headache for British army.A great leader.

He was forced to kill himself since he was part of the unsuccessful plot to assassinate Hitler.

Hitler was a good orator and a pathetic military commander. The successes of his were attributed to weaker neighbours as well as the brilliance of field marshalls like Erich Von Manstein, Erwin Rommel & Valther Model. Von Manstein was particularly not happy with Hitler, often suggesting that he leave the war strategies to the military. The debacle of Stalingrad, the losses at Kursk and the loss in the battle of the bulge can be attributed mostly to Hitler's psychotic imagination about the racial superiority of his forces. BTW thats not bad, if he had allowed the field marshals their way, Britain could have been under German occupation and some of Russia as well.

No list can neglect Von Manstein and/or Rommel, atleast in the case of modern warfare.

Its hard to neglect Montgomery as well; El Alamein was all gone without his command. That was the first major British victory in WW II and changed the course of the war on the African front.