| War Leaders |
| WW II General, George S. Patton b. Nov. 11, 1885, San Gabriel, Calif., U.S. d. Dec. 21, 1945, Heidelberg, Ger. U.S. Army officer who was an outstanding practitioner of mobile tank warfare in the European and Mediterranean theatres during World War II. His strict discipline, toughness, and self-sacrifice elicited exceptional pride within his ranks, and the general was colourfully referred to as "Old Blood-and-Guts" by his men. After serving with the U.S. Tank Corps in World War I, Patton became a vigorous proponent of tank warfare. He took part in the North African Campaign. And in December 1944 his forces played a strategic role in defending Bastogne in the massive Battle of the Bulge General, Dwight David Eisenhower b. Oct. 14, 1890, Denison, Texas, U.S. d. March 28, 1969, Washington, D.C. DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER 34th president of the United States (1953-61), who had been supreme commander of the Allied forces in western Europe during World War II. In March 1941 Dwight D. Eisenhower became a full colonel. Three months later he was given command of the 3rd Army and soon won the attention of army chief of staff General George C. Marshall for his role in planning war games involving almost 500,000 troops. In January 1944 Eisenhower became supreme Allied commander. After their Invasion if Normandy in June 1944, the Allies moved rapidly across northern France into Belgium during the summer, but lost momentum in the autumn. In mid-December, Allied commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's 48 divisions, distributed along a 600-mile front between the North Sea and Switzerland, were caught unprepared by a German counterthrust in the hilly and wooded Ardennes region of southern Belgium. Field Marshal, Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (byname THE DESERT FOX, German DER W�STENFUCHS) b. Nov. 15, 1891, Heidenheim an der Brentz, W�rttemberg, Ger. d. Oct. 14, 1944, Herrlingen, near Ulm. German field marshal, who became the most popular general at home and gained the open respect of his enemies with his spectacular victories as commander of the Afrika Korps in World War II. To oversee defensive preparation i Frances, Hitler appointed Rommel as inspector of coastal defenses "Atlantic wall" and then as commander of Army Group B, occupying the threatened Channel coast. Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt b. Dec. 12, 1875, Aschersleben, near Magdeburg, Prussia [now in Germany d. Feb. 24, 1953, Hannover, W.Ger. German field marshal who was one of Adolf Hitler's ablest leaders during World War II. He held commands on both the Eastern and Western fronts, played a major role in defeating France in 1940, and led much of the opposition to the Allied offensive in the West in 1944-45. During the invasion of the Soviet Union "Operation Barbarossa", beginning in June 1941, he commanded the German southern wing, which overran almost all of Ukraine before winter. When a Soviet counteroffensive forced a retreat, Hitler dismissed the aged field marshal. Returning to duty in July 1942, Rundstedt became commander in chief in western Europe and fortified France against an expected Allied invasion. Unable to defeat the Anglo-American invasion forces in 1944, he was replaced in July but returned in September to direct the Ardennes offensive (Battle of the Bulge) that disrupted the military timetable of the Western Allies for several months Rundstedt's opponents recognized his considerable military talents, which were displayed in a career that spanned a half-century. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called him the ablest of the German generals of World War II. |
| WWI |
| 20th Century |