The History Buff's Guide to World War II (36 page)

Overall, those who liked flash and bravado tended to dislike Eisenhower’s steady and diplomatic methods. But Eisenhower knew better than anyone else that cavalier charges did not win battles.
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Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the largest American assault force ever assembled, was raised by parents who were pacifists.

5
. KONSTANTIN ROKOSSOVSKY (USSR, 1896–1968)

Konstantin Rokossovsky was brilliant and humble, clever and levelheaded. In 1937 he was a Red Army corps commander when he was arrested during Stalin’s military purges. Enduring torture and imprisonment, he avoided probable execution by deftly dismantling evidence brought against him. Released after nearly three years, he returned to his command.
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During the initial phases of the 1941 German invasion, Rokossovsky led fierce but futile opposition against the southern wing of the attack. Redeployed to the center in front of Moscow, Rokossovsky’s mechanized infantry corps again threw themselves against the Germans and greatly blunted the momentum of the assault. His troops also took part in the counteroffensive that failed to destroy the German advance but succeeded in driving it away from Moscow.

In the battle for S
TALINGRAD
, Rokossovsky’s men led a wide northern sweep that encircled and eventually crushed the German Sixth Army. At Kursk, he commanded the successful defense of the critical salient’s northern side. In the final advance on Berlin, the general led the push through Poland and secured the right wing of the Soviet assault, eventually meeting up with U.S. troops two hundred miles northeast of the German capital.

On the whole, Rokossovsky preferred maneuver to Zhukov’s brutish pounding and counterattack to frontal assault. Considerate of the needs of his men and generally humane to captives, Rokossovsky demanded a greater level of professionalism than most commanders. Officers and enlisted respected him equally, as well as a good number of his opponents, many of whom considered him the finest general in the Red Army.
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Konstantin Rokossovsky became momentarily famous in the United States on August 23, 1943. He was on the cover of
Time
magazine.

6
. JOSIP BROZ TITO (YUGOSLAVIA, 1892–1981)

In 1939, Josip Broz Tito became general secretary of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, yet the title was almost meaningless. At the time the Communists were a small, illegal outfit in the constitutional monarchy. No one—including Tito (an alias he took as his permanent name in 1934)—believed he would soon be the most powerful man in the country.

Though energetic and charismatic, Tito had only four years of primary education, was born a Catholic Croat in an Orthodox Serb–dominated state, possessed only a few weapons at the start of the war, and had at most five thousand loyal party members. He would fight not one but several enemies: the Germans who invaded in 1941 and the Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Italians who helped occupy the country. Internally, he faced a pro-Nazi puppet state in Croatia, guerrillas loyal to the Serb crown, and ethnic and religious separatists. Yet it was this fractured, chaotic environment that allowed his courage and leadership to shine.

Personally heading guerrilla sabotage operations with a few thousand supporters, Tito learned quickly to replace Communist rhetoric with a more patriotic message. As the region disintegrated into bloody civil war, Tito preached unity against the Axis and its collaborators, inviting people of all religions and ethnicities to join his “People’s Liberation Movement.” By 1943 he counted twenty thousand under his command. Recognizing his rising status as the one potential leader in Yugoslavia, both the Soviet Union and the Western Allies began lending political and material support. Tito soon had enough armor and artillery to equip several divisions.

With the help of the Red Army, Tito’s partisans liberated most of Yugoslavia by the end of 1944. He was also the head of a provisional government and commanded more than one hundred thousand troops. Yet Marshal Tito saved his strongest move for last.

Citing Red Army atrocities against his people (many Soviet soldiers were fond of murder and pillaging), Tito began to break with Moscow. Rejecting London’s support of the old royalist government, he held elections in which nearly every name on the ballot was Communist. He became prime minister, defense minister, and supreme commander of the army and began to ruthlessly hunt down potential adversaries. Years later he would declare himself “president for life,” a position he held until almost his ninetieth birthday.
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In 1944, several British special operations commandos parachuted into Yugoslavia to assist Tito’s headquarter operations. One of the officers was Randolph Churchill, son of the British prime minister.

7
. CHESTER W. NIMITZ (U.S., 1885–1966)

Above Chester Nimitz was the hard-drinking, womanizing (although brilliant) Adm. Ernest King. Beneath him was a tough school of seadogs, including brash Adm. William “Bull” Halsey, the tantrum-prone Adm. Richmond Turner, and the aptly nicknamed marine, Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith. Before him was a smoldering Oahu, a victorious Japanese navy, and millions of square miles of Pacific Ocean. Somehow the affable and soft-spoken Nimitz took it all in stride.

Immediately named Adm. Husband Kimmel’s replacement at P
EARL
H
ARBOR
, Nimitz first set about rebuilding morale and assessing damage. He kept Kimmel’s able staff and noted that much of the naval base was either intact or salvageable, including the submarine base he helped create in the 1920s. The installation recovered quickly under his direction.
⁴⁵

A submariner from his early days, Nimitz instructed his modest undersea force to target merchant shipping, which nearly eliminated Japan’s surface lifelines by 1945. He understood the primacy of carriers in modern war, and many of his victories came by way of flattops. Nimitz also paid close attention to
INTELLIGENCE
, unlike some commanders (such as MacArthur), which enabled him to plan the attack on G
UADALCANAL
, stage the pivotal victory at M
IDWAY
against superior forces, and shoot down his adversary, Yamamoto Isoroku, the following year.

Like J
OHN
C. M
ARSHALL
, he refused to write memoirs or sing his own praises. Like D
WIGHT
D. E
ISENHOWER
, he pressed for calm assessment and steadfast unanimity, a necessity when many of his operations (such as O
KINAWA
) involved army, navy, and marine personnel. Unlike many commanders, Nimitz was able to win nearly every engagement he entered.
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Studious and disciplined, Chester Nimitz was accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy at the age of fifteen.

8
. FREDERICH ERICH VON MANSTEIN (GERMANY, 1887–1973)

A general’s general, Erich Manstein was a slim, astute, dignified Prussian with a military pedigree and a talent for modern tactics. Born the tenth child of an officer, Erich was adopted by his uncle, also an officer, and entered military school in his teens. He would grow to be one of the most respected commanders in the German army.

His sharp mind was the root of his visible confidence. But he also had a vicious emotional side, which he tried to control his whole life. His orders were clear and calculated. He believed in staying adaptable in a fire fight, which endeared him to his officers. He also hated frontal assaults and refused to be trapped or overcommitted, which won the trust of his men.
⁴⁷

Manstein is best known for an alteration. Hitler’s initial plan for invading France involved going through Belgium and then southwest to Paris, retracing Germany’s path in the First World War. A staff officer at the time, Manstein suggested going through the heavily forested A
RDENNES
, catching the French by surprise, and heading northwest to cut their defenses in half. The idea appealed to Hitler, and the attack transpired nearly as Manstein suggested.
⁴⁸

Obviously a gifted strategist, Manstein achieved most of his victories as a tank commander on the eastern front. Assigned to take the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea, he succeeded, thus becoming the only German general to achieve a major objective against the Soviet Union. He also scored one of the last German victories anywhere by retaking the rail hub of Kharkov in March 1943, stemming a gradual collapse of the southern front.

By 1944 Manstein staged a series of steady withdrawals, which cost the attacking Soviets heavily and saved his own ranks from annihilation. But increasing disagreement with Hitler over battle plans eventually cost him his job, and he was permanently relieved of command in March 1944.

The Western view of Manstein is highly polished. His true image is less than gentlemanly. He heartily endorsed the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria, used Russian POWs to clear land mines, and sent thousands of prisoners to Germany as slave labor. Concerning the popular litmus test applied to all German generals, Manstein was indeed critical of Hitler, but his most adamant opposition came after 1945. During the war he was one of the most able and effective commanders at Hitler’s disposal.
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In 1949, a British tribunal sentenced Erich von Manstein to eighteen years’ imprisonment for war crimes, of which he served four. In 1956, the West German government hired him as a military adviser.

9
. GEORGE S. PATTON JR. (U.S., 1885–1945)

Most of the flamboyance was for show—the ivory-handled revolvers, the vulgarity, the self-promotion. As a rule, George S. Patton ran an orderly and efficient headquarters, encouraged input from his subordinates, and planned his operations studiously. A firm believer in destiny, he shared many traits with Confederate Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson in that he was extremely pious and eccentric, a devout believer in discipline, unloved but respected by his men, and the most successful field commander of his country.
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