Leadership.

[Ron Bleac]

Who's your favourite military leader? Feel free to post in this thread.

Let me tell you a story about a righteous asskicker.

Fuck that noise.

- Gaius Marius, upon seeing two of his cohorts flee from a Germanian barbarian horde.

Gaius, goddamn, Marius. Probably the best asskicker and leader that the Roman military had ever seen. He put together countless reforms that enabled the Empire to withstand attack after attack, not just when he was in command, but where-ever Roman troops set foot. And he did it all by pretty much teabagging every opponent he ever faced with his two personal legions. That's right, this guy had a personal legion. Not just one, but two. Gaius Marius was born to a pretty well off Roman family in 157 BC at a pretty little town called Rome. He lived somewhere outside of it. During his childhood, Gaius did what pretty much every male child has done at some point: Play war. With sticks and shit. He was pretty good at it, too. From an early age, Marius had developed a nick for pretty much beating the shit out of anyone who got in his way and tried to screw with him. When he reached adulthood, he did what pretty much every Roman of his class did: Join the goddamn Roman military. Within the next 12 years, Marius went from a wee little Enlistedman to a goddamn junior officer, which was extraordinary for that time period. Nobody's really sure of what rank he really was, but he had a unique leadership method that pretty much none of the pansy ass skirt wearing Roman officers during that time had:

He ate with his men.

He fought with his men.

He slept in the same barracks as his men.

And he lead from the front.

And when I say from the front, I mean it literally. He was in the front ranks, where all the action was taking place. Fighting a life and death battle with countless of barbarian hordes whilst barking orders to his runners and aides. Essentially, this guy was like George S. Patton, in frighteningly similar ways. However, what made him so revolutionary is how he used his troops. They were men at his disposal, soldiers who had signed the papers and given their life away to God and Country. Or uh, Toga and daily games. He wasn't afraid of throwing his troops into the grinder, but he would make damn sure that he was with them when he did. And he was constantly drilling the hell out of his men.

"This gave Marius time to toughen the bodies of his men and improve their morale and – most important of all – to make them understand what sort of man he was himself. That fierce manner of his in command and his inflexibility in imposing punishments seemed to them, once they got the habit of discipline and obedience, not only right and proper but a positive advantage. His angry temper, rough voice and that forbidding expression with which they gradually grew familiar, seemed more terrible to the enemy than to themselves."

-Plutarch

Essentially, he took young men and molded them into fighting machine with a proper training regime, but also a pretty righteous attitude. He was tough as hell, but fair in judgement and a good man at heart. He wasn't afraid of socializing with his dudes, and above all, always made sure that they had whatever they needed. Footwear, protection, shelter, food, weapons, access to surgeons (this was a pretty holyshit kind of thing back in the day), and that their spirits were high. He'd often times take guard duty as a junior officer and let his enlistedmen sleep and get some rest for the coming day, he took responsibility for screw ups too. What made Marius such a kickass commander wasn't the fact that he was tough, it was his general attitude towards everything. He didn't give a rats ass about discipline on slow days or when at camp, but in battle he was a heartless, concentrated killing machine. He kept his troops in line.

Later on, he proved to be a pretty cool dude when it came to politics as well. He was elected Consul 7 times, a record breaker in the Roman empire. To give you an idea of what a Consul is, it's pretty much the equivalent to our Legates, directly under the emperor. Which is funny, considering his political campaign pretty much consisted of "look at my abs. Show me your abs. My abs are harder and flatter than yours, you are a pussy. See, this is the entry wound of a javelin. Do you have javelin entry wounds or other battle scars? I don't think you do." Marius's running mates eventually just gave up, but they did respect the man, immensely. Marius was pretty much universally recognized as a political and military juggernaut who was virtually unstoppable.

Then after being elected Consul for the 7th time, he promptly fell over and died because he was just that over the top.

Marius, after militarily humping the crap out of barbarian hordes attacking Rome and Italy.

[Hollowmenphobia]

Erwin Rommel, a man of principle.

Edited December 17, 2010 by Hollowmengitus Yifu

[Trinity Heckroth]

You can do better, Hollow Menanin.

[RazorFox]

Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming "Mad Jack" Churchill

Where to even start with this guy.

Jack Churchill might not fit into this thread that well. He wasn't exactly a grand strategist or a general or anything of that sort. He was merely second in command of the No. 3 Commando unit in the British Royal Army during the second world war. But he was enough of a warrior in the purest sense of the word that I think he bears mentioning.

Jack Churchill signed up for the Commandos after fighting at Dunkirk (and surviving being shot in the neck by a German machine gun no less), not really knowing what the Commandos did, but doing so because it "sounded dangerous."

During his career as a Commando he basically spent several years of the war riding into battle on a horse armed with naught but a Scottish claymore (the basket hilt kind, not the two-handed Braveheart kind), a longbow (being a champion archer), and a set of fucking bagpipes, which he played regularly. During his career, he led countless Commando raids against German strongholds, leading a string of successful operations, the spirit of which were perhaps best captured in this telegram received by British High Command roughly two hours after a Commando raid on Maaloy Island:

Maaloy battery and island captured. Casualties slight. Demolitions in progress. Churchill."

On one particular night, Churchill singlehandedly took 42 German prisoners. By himself. With a sword. When questioned about the incident, he responded:

"I maintain that, as long as you tell a German loudly and clearly what to do, if you are senior to him he will cry 'jawohl' and get on with it enthusiastically and efficiently whatever the situation."

During a campaign in Yugoslavia, Churchill was captured by the Germans and placed in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, which he escaped from by crawling under the fence and hopping a train. Then he walked his ass a ways out before being recaptured again and taken to a prison camp in Austria, which he also escaped from. After marching 150 fucking miles, he met up with an American armored battallion.

So after that, he attempted to go fight the Japanese in Burma, but the war had ended by the time he got there, much to his disappointment. So he went to Israel to fight the Arabs.

Then he got into surfing.

[Ron Bleac]

George Mayow

"We advanced down a gradual descent of more than three-quarters of a mile, with the batteries vomiting forth upon us shells and shot, round and grape, with one battery on our right flank and another on the left, and all the intermediate ground covered with the Russian riflemen; so that when we came to within a distance of fifty yards from the mouths of the artillery which had been hurling destruction upon us, we were, in fact, surrounded and encircled by a blaze of fire, in addition to the fire of the riflemen upon our flanks."

George Mayow is a hardcore asskicker from the Crimean War. He's a pretty decent warrior for a man of his age and has some experience under his belt for fighting in the short days previous to the engagement in which his name was lifted amongst the legends of hardcore asskickery. He's pretty much responsible for kicking the Imperial Russian army in their Faberge eggs at the battle of Balaclava, now popularized by the song "The Trooper" performed by English metal band Iron Maiden. On the morning of the 25th of October, 1854, George Mayow and his comrades would be faced with an insurmountable obstacle: Three Russian artillery batteries surrounding them from three sides, supported by 2000 Russian infantry, Cossacks and Cavalry. How many were George and his friends? 657. How long is the valley? Oh, let's say.. nearly 2 miles.

After a Turkish artillery battery on the Allied right flank had caved in due to pressure from Russian ass-stabbing infantry, George Mayow and his brigade was ordered to re-take the guns. Mind you, since the guns weren't spiked before the Turks routed, they had now been turned around to face the English cavalry (George and his boys.) From point 1, George pretty much recognized that this was the end. He wouldn't make it out of this battle, much less would his brigade. It was essentially suicide.

Above, a battle map displaying English and French positions against Russian troops. The English cavalry was in the valley, surrounded on all sides by super-pissed Russians.

This is jacked up, totally jacked up, thought George. But what did he do? He obeyed the order to form up the brigade in the center and prepare to attack. Without questioning his orders, George and his superior launched into the charge against Russian positions. And they got fucked up pretty bad. With ball of cannon and musket shot everywhere, the Light brigade ran up the Valley like the Knight Rider and Kit into a group of Mexican drug smugglers. "Charge the guns! Charge the guns! Stay in formation!" He screamed, leading the charge from the point of attack (the second man of the formation) and effectively holding the Brigade together. They took immense casualties. Cannon fire whipped through their ranks, splattering English dead and horse against the dry, rocky earth. But they were pretty much so jacked the fuck up on adrenaline, they kept going. The charge didn't break, nor did it falter. Through thick and thin, George lead his men right into the mouth of hell.

And survived to tell the tale.

George's cavalry smashed into the Russian guns at the end of the valley and utterly destroyed their position. The Russian gunners, having just witnessed how this group of British hardasses smashed through everything in their way to spike just a few guns, turned and ran. Only to be cut down by English cavalry who *kept going* despite already destroying the guns. On the way through the battery, George rallied the surviving men by whipping his sabre in the air and screaming like a football Hooligan at a European stadium. He whooped, he screamed, he bucked his horse and rallied 27 men who were within earshot. The rest were either dead, or still fighting elsewhere along the line. From his flank a group of 300 Russian cossacks was approaching at full gallop, with the intent of driving the British back to their starting positions: Or entirely whiping them out. This didn't really fly too well with George, who promptly ordered his short of 30 group of agro'd as fuck cavalry to meet the Russian charge. The Russians, impressed by the Englishmen's ability to fight after taking such horrendous casualties, hurried the attack and lowered their lance and sabre towards the English in a threatening gesture. Here it is, a group of 30 men against 10 to 1 odds charging into the pit. Again, and again. After a short few minutes of screaming like a madman, George and his fellows crashed into the Cossacks and routed them again.

It was time to retreat, there was nothing more that could be done. They had completed their objectives and it was time to pull back. But instead of turning and running, George ordered his men to gallop in a three ranked line BACKT THROUGH the valley STILL OCCUPIED by Russian artillery. There is a saying about going in through Satan's mouth and slipping out of his ass, but George decided to ram right back through the defense line to get back to his original position. On the way, he was confronted by roughly 500 Russian cossacks who were cutting from behind in an attempt to intercept the English withdrawal. Well that shit didn't fly either, George smashed right through them at full gallop.

Whilst George was crashing through the Russian defenses AGAIN, this time in reverse, French infantry on his flank supported his retreat. Charging into the previously occupied Turkish positions, French infantry bayoneted and shot Russian gun crews on the hill and drove them back despite facing immense resistance from forces that had dug themselves tooth and nail into the bedrock. Whilst taking immense casualties, French infantry and cavalry demonstrated great valor and determination in the face of a numerically superior foe. They bought valuable time for the English by preventing the guns on the flank from firing and then slowly performed a fighting withdrawal back to their original positions, after inflicting terrible casualties in both wounded and dead on the Russian force, and unspeakable material destruction.

So basically, this one dude, super pumped the hell up, rammed the shit out of the Russian army with 657 men against roughly 2000 and survived. For his efforts and the efforts of his men, a new award for British military valor was created. It was called the Victoria cross, originally melted and created out of Bronze from destroyed Russian cannon.

"The English fought with astounding bravery, and when we approached their dismounted and wounded men, even these refused to surrender and continued to fight till the ground was soaked with their blood."

- Lieutenant Koribut Kubitovich, Imperial Russian Army

[media

]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTaD9cd8hvw

[Arokh Takakura]

Amazing. <3~

[Pat Vinciolo]

Colonel Bigeard. very little known to the public but had a great homme.Ces men mourned his recent death, so that he was loved by them. Has always lived among these men and fought on the front line with them

/>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Bigeard

[Agares Tretiak]

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General Nathanael Greene

Greene seen here sporting an impressive lack of a chin, but sports an even more impressive reputation for kicking ass.

"It had been happy for me if I could have lived a private life in peace and plenty, enjoying all the happiness that results from a well-tempered society founded on mutual esteem. But the injury done my country, and the chains of slavery forging for all posterity, calls me forth to defend our common rights, and repel the bold invaders of the sons of freedom." - Nathanael Greene to his wife, Catharine Littlefield Greene.

An incredible general, who was very possibly Washington's superior in terms of strategic acumen and battlefield leadership.

During the American War for Independence, he began as a private and worked his way up to be a general of great repute and skill. HE organized a local militia, the Kentish Guard and trained with despite a pronounced limp. He also was entirely self-taught on the subject of military tactics and was known for his scholarly knowledge and practical execution of said knowledge.

In 1780, the forces of General Cornwallis (pictured below) in the Colonial South had shattered all the Congressionally appointed commanders and the cities they tried to defend, dispersing the Amercian forces there completely. Things were rather grim for the revolution. Without control of the South and the harbors, the American forces of the North faced getting battered between two fronts and vastly superior numbers.

General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquis of Cornwallis

General Cornwallis, circa 1795, also lacking a chin, a fashionable thing of the era it would seem.

Cornwallis was sitting pretty, at the time, when the choice of a new commander in the south was handed to General Washington. He immediately chose Nathanael Greene, issuing a letter on day after recieving the congressional resolution stating to Greene "It is my wish to appoint You."

Greene, solid Quaker that he was, immediately set about using the mandate given to him by Congress and Washington. Despite the mandate of authority he held, Greene's forces were inferior in arms, numbers, and in many cases, training to the crack British forces he was facing. He realized there was only one reasonable course of action: a carefully staged retreat. By splitting his forces, he could also then divide the British, who would predictably give chase. Greene relied on this split to create a strategic interplay between his forces and letting him cope with smaller, more easily managed armies sent out to hunt him down. With his forces split, there came the unprecedented victory that was The Battle for King's mountain, the American forces lead directly by the fiery William Campbell. The astounding result of the battle was the entire British force being killed or captured and marked a turning point in the war. This victory was followed by a similar victory at Cowpens, executed by General Daniel Morgan.

With 800 prisoners, Nathaniel Greene reunified continued to retreat North, drawing the English behind them. After deciding to make a dash for the Dan River, Greene ordered a "light" contingent of men to harass and slow the pursuing British forces, letting the bulk of his force to advance uncontested. Upon reaching the river, he proceeded to cross it, taking with him all the boats he could and keeping them on the opposite shore to further slow the British advance. After reinforcing, he recrossed the river and engaged Cornwallis head on. Though defeated, Greene inflicted heavy casualties on Cornwallis, and withdrew again rapidly, and with the casualties inflicted, Cornwallis had to pull his forces back to Wilmington, North Carolina. Greene then waited until Cornwallis moved North, to Virginia, to advance deeper into the South, hoping to draw Cornwallis towards him, and tire his forces out with a long march into difficult terrain. When Cornwallis did not turn South, Greene to the opportunity to systematically weaken British garrisons in South Carolina, in the hope of forcing a withdrawal to Charleston. To that end, he distracted smaller, dispersed British forces who were hunting for partisans and raiding parties while using his main force to engage the main British line at Camden. Though the result was considered a tactical victory for the British, the larger casualties suffered by the smaller British force were sufficient to force an eventual retreat towards the area around the more defensible and well equipped Charleston, than to wait for reinforcements and supplies to travel through territory that allowed easy ambushes and guerrilla tactics from Greene and the militias.

"We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again."

- Nathanael Greene

Following this, Greene led an unsuccessful but extended siege on the town of Ninety-Six (yes, that's the name) which further reduced the British presence in South Carolina, and made the British commanders fall back further towards Charleston. After engaging British forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart at Eutaw Springs in a battle that was considered a draw, the British had suffered so many setbacks and casualties to force a full withdrawal of their forces to Charleston, where Greene laid siege and penned them in until the end of the war.

Though he did not attain many tactical victories, his ability to continually throw the British off balance, divide, evade, and cripple them, allowed for the campaign in the North to continue without interference from the South, and contributed greatly to the eventual American victory.

:( I'm not as good as Ron is at writing up awesome info spreads.

I'll see if I can do one on Simon Bolivar in the future.