100 Greatest Generals Of All Time

1. Zedong Mao

Self | Osvobozhdyonnyy Kitay

Tse-tung Mao, along with Yat-sen Sun and Kai-Shek Chiang, was one of the most important figures to modern Chinese history. Born to a peasant family--his father was a farmer--in Shaoshan, China, on December 26, 1893, Mao was raised in the grinding poverty of rural Hunan province, where he developed ...

2. Matthew B. Ridgway

Self | The Real Miss America

Matthew B. Ridgway was born on March 3, 1895 in Fort Monroe, Virginia, USA. He was married to Marjory Anthony Long, Margaret Wilson and Caroline Blount. He died on July 26, 1993 in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, USA.

3. Lewis B. Puller

Self | This Is Korea!

Lewis Puller was a United States Marine Corps officer who saw action in World War II as well as the Korean War. He got his nickname "chesty" because he had a barrel chest which he would stick out when he walked.

4. Harold G. Moore

Writer | We Were Soldiers

Harold G. Moore was born on February 13, 1922 in Bardstown, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for We Were Soldiers (2002), Small Town Boy, Real American Hero (2011) and Inside the Vietnam War (2008). He was married to Julia Compton. He died on February 10, 2017 in Auburn, Alabama, ...

5. Isoroku Yamamoto

Self | Price for Peace

Isoroku Yamamoto was born on April 4, 1884, in Nagoka, Japan, the last of seven children. His first name "Isoroku" translates into the number "56", which was his father's age when he was born. He lived near Nagaoka, entered the Imperial Naval School at age 16 and was an ensign on a cruiser during ...

6. Raymond A. Spruance

Self | USS Indianapolis: The Legacy

Raymond A. Spruance was born on July 3, 1886 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He died on December 13, 1969 in Monterey, California, USA.

7. Holland M. Smith

Self | Uncommon Valor

Holland M. Smith was born on April 20, 1882 in Seale, Alabama, USA. He is known for Uncommon Valor (1955) and With the Marines at Tarawa (1944). He was married to Ada B. Wilkinson. He died on January 12, 1967 in San Diego, California, USA.

8. William Slim

Self | Visnews

William Slim was born near Bristol, England in 1891. In 1903, he and his family moved to Birmingham where he was educated in a Roman Catholic school. Silm's craving for a life in the army persisted in which he entered the Birmingham Unversity Officer Training Center in 1912. At the start of World ...

9. Erwin Rommel

Self | Deutsche Soldaten in Afrika

Erwin Rommel, aka "The Desert Fox", was one of Adolf Hitler's most able generals during WWII. He joined the German army in 1910 and won awards for bravery in WW I. He was in the 7th Tank Division at the outbreak of WW II and headed the push to the English Channel. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant...

10. George S. Patton

Self | Nazi Concentration Camps

George S. Patton III was a highly successful and highly controversial general who held Corps- and Army-level commands during World War II. Because of his great competence as a battlefield commander, Patton might have led the American troops during the invasion of Normandy; however, his impolitic ...

11. Chester W. Nimitz

Self | The Secret Land

Chester William Nimitz (; February 24, 1885 - February 20, 1966) was a fleet admiral of the United States Navy. He played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet, and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, commanding Allied air, land, and sea ...

12. Bernard L. Montgomery

Self | Montgomery Speaks His Mind

Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein KG GCB DSO PC DL (17 November 1887 - 24 March 1976 Alton) was a British military officer during World War II sometimes referred to as "Monty". He attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He married Elizabeth Carver and had a son, ...

13. Erich von Manstein

Born Erich von Lewinski of Polish extraction, von Manstein was adopted by his mother's sister and her husband and took their family name. He passed out of the Cadet Corps in 1906 and saw some service in France on the Western front during World War I before going into the War Academy. From 1920 to ...

14. Douglas MacArthur

Self | Uppdrag i Korea

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 - 5 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s, and he played a prominent role in the ...

15. Curtis LeMay

The Pacific War in Color

Curtis LeMay was a US Air Force general credited with developing the strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese in World War II that greatly helped in bringing the war to n end. He was also credited with reorganizing the Strategic Air Command (SAC) into an effective force that became capable ...

16. Arthur Harris

Self | War

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet, GCB, OBE, AFC (13 April 1892 - 5 April 1984), commonly known as "Bomber" Harris by the press and often within the RAF as "Butch" Harris,[a] was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) RAF Bomber Command during the height of ...

17. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Self | Nazi Concentration Camps

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on Tuesday, October 14, 1890, as Dwight David Eisenhower, in Denison, Texas. He was the third of seven sons born to David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth Stover. Both of his parents were of German descent. Eisenhower studied at the West Point Military Academy from ...

18. Hugh Dowding

Self | The Battle for The Battle of Britain

Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, GCB, GCVO, CMG (24 April 1882 - 15 February 1970) was an officer in the Royal Air Force. He was Air Officer Commanding RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and is generally credited with playing a crucial role in ...

19. Karl Dönitz

Self | U-Boote westwärts!

Karl Dönitz (16 September 1891 - 24 December 1980) was a German admiral who briefly succeeded Adolf Hitler as head of state in May 1945, holding the position until the dissolution of the Flensburg Government following Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies days later. As Supreme Commander ...

20. John J. Pershing

Self | France in Arms

Pershing was born on a farm near Laclede, Missouri, to businessman John Fletcher Pershing and homemaker Ann Elizabeth Thompson. Pershing's great-great-grandfather, Frederick Pershing, whose name originally was Pfersching, emigrated from Alsace, leaving Amsterdam on the ship Jacob, and arriving in ...

21. T.E. Lawrence

Writer | Sabaton: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

T.E. Lawrence was born on August 16, 1888 in Tremadoc, Caernarvonshire, Wales, UK. He was a writer, known for Sabaton: Seven Pillars of Wisdom (2019), With Lawrence in Arabia (1927) and T. E. Lawrence 1888-1935 (1962). He died on May 19, 1935 in Clouds Hill, Dorset, England, UK.

22. Ferdinand Foch

Self | La femme française pendant la guerre

Ferdinand Foch was born on October 2, 1851 in Tarbes, France. He died on March 20, 1929 in Paris, France.

23. Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as Secretary of War. Later, as president,...

24. Napoléon Bonaparte

Writer | Le mémorial de Sainte-Hélène

Napoleon, also Napoleon Bonaparte and later known by his name Napoleon I, was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the DE factor leader of the French Republic as First ...

25. George Washington

Writer | In the Words of the Framers: The Creation of the Constitution

George Washington was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army, Washington led the Patriot forces to victory in the American ...

26. Frederick the Great

Soundtrack | Barry Lyndon

Frederick the Great was born on January 24, 1712 in Berlin, Germany. He died on August 17, 1786 in Potsdam, Germany.

27. Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of the Mongol steppe and being proclaimed the universal ruler of the Mongols, or Genghis ...