General Discussion 9

[campy]

Time for a new general discussion thread. Or maybe a thread to discuss generals. Who's your favorite general from World War II? I like Alexander Archer Vandegrift, who commanded the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal.

[David Falkayn]

I gotta go with Ike. The man had to cope with the egos of men like Patton, Montgomery, de Gaulle, and Churchill while at the same time pleasing his boss, FDR, and fight a war.

[jeriddian]

Sorry, I got to go with ol Blood'n'Guts, George S Patton. Despite his faults, he was the best they had.

[campy]

MacArthur had his moments too. Glad he never made it to the oval office, though.

[David Falkayn]

Sorry, but I think MacArthur was over-rated. He literally sidelined the world's best jungle-fighting light infantry because he refused to bring the Australians into his major campaigns--he didn't want them taking away from his glory. I don't think he succeeded that well in the Philippines either--Yama****a ran rings around him. The Philippines could have just as easily been isolated and bypassed like Truk and Rabaul, Big Mac's reason for going back in the Philippines was pure ego. (As you can tell, I am not a big fan of MacArthur.) I agree with you also in that it would have been a disaster had he gotten into the Oval Office.

{ETA} Got censored even though I was not swearing when I wrote the Japanese general's name. It just so happens that his name has a certain four letter word in it.

[campy]

Guy had style, though. The parts of W. E. B. Griffin's The Corps novels he figures in are some of the most interesting passages.

[David Falkayn]

Guy had style, though. The parts of W. E. B. Griffin's The Corps novels he figures in are some of the most interesting passages.

I'll agree with that. The man knew how to play to an audience. And not all of his actions were bad. He actually did a good job handling the occupation of Japan--got to give credit where credit's due.

[jeriddian]

There's an interesting story that during the battle for the Ardennes in WWI, the Americans were making a successful charge against the German trenches at one part of the battle. They were scurrying along hiding behind what cover they could, but they were able to advance against the Germans despite withering machine gun fire. They crawled and stayed low to the ground as they advanced except for two officers who, appearing to be throwing all caution to the wind, simply walked boldly across the battle field upright, exhorting the troops forward. One of them was Lieutenant Colonel Douglas MacArthur. The other was Major George S Patton. Both were well known to believe it was never their destiny to die on the battlefield.

[campy]

Tomorrow is slated to be an historic day: the final payment in the loan for my 2018 Volvo SUV will go to the lender. No more car loan payments! (Mrs. campy's Volvo was purchased with cash.)

[David Falkayn]

The final payment on a car or house is always a historic day that calls for celebration.