The Commanders: The Best of the Rest
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Have you been enjoying my podcast and now want even more history? Sign up to History and watch the world's best history documentaries on subjects like how William conquered England, what it was like to live in the Georgian era, and you can even hear the voice of Richard III. We've got hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, and there's always something more to discover. Sign up to join us in historic locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyhit.com slash subscribe. Hey folks, welcome to Dan Snow's History here. The Great Commanders of World War II series has come to an end. But lots of you got in touch to howl at me and demand explanation and why this or that person was not on the list, why they're not included.
Where is Yamashita? Where's Slim, Guderian, Manstein? Where are so many others? So by popular demand really, here is a podcast in which we'll shout out a few other commanders. Sadly, this still won't be comprehensive, but at least it gives us a chance to get a few others out. The ones that we feel really do deserve a mention. Now, there's only one man I could think of to help me with this. That is Jonathan Bratton, long-time contributor to this podcast. You'll have heard him on here before. We talked about the great commanders of history a couple of years ago. But he's also, he's accompanied me around battlefields, the French-Indian War, the Seven Years' War in North America, the and the American Revolutionary Wars.
We were recently in Lexington Concord together. He has written books, excellent books. He's taught the next generation of US Army leaders. He thinks about this stuff while the rest of us are fast asleep. So here's our list of alternative great commanders. Some you might not have heard of. Some you certainly will have done. And it's actually got rather a surprising conclusion that surprised both of us. Enjoy. Enjoy.
Jonathan Bratton, good to have you back on the pod, buddy.
Which commanders were left out and why is this episode a 'best of the rest'?
Oh, this is one of my favorite places to be. Hey, man. Thanks, dude.
Let's jump in. So we focused in this big series in this season on history here on some of the great commanders. Of course, as we're doing so, you just think there's so many other guys who should get a mention in World War II. And on the Eastern Front, there's Rokossovsky and Chuikov. And we talked about Yamamoto in the Pacific, who we decided was not a great commander. But I mean, the Americans certainly did have... a surfeit of very high-performing senior commanders in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Which one draws your attention?
I mean, I'm biased. You know I love an underdog story, and that story is Walter Kruger, who's just this absolutely unknown individual in the American military experience. Two reasons. One, he's not American-born, born in Prussia in 1881. And two, he's serving under MacArthur. And so if you want to have any type of career, you have to not be under MacArthur's thumb. And Kruger is just this great experience of one of those guys who does really basic stuff really well. And that's, you know, I think if you look at sort of what makes a good commander is Can you get stuff and people to the right point at the right time? That's really sort of what it takes. And I hate to boil it down and simplify it like that, but that's really what it is.
It's very, very difficult now to do all those things. So when you see it done really well, you're like, oh, wow. And Kruger is one of these guys who's just consistently getting it done.
Is this just a point about World War II, modern industrial, but perhaps it was true of the Carthaginians and the Romans as well, but In some ways, it's not super glamorous. I mean, this is not Napoleon riding up and down his lines night for Austerlitz, leading the final charge of the Imperial Guard. This is just crushing logistics, right? He's just, as you say, just getting a lot of stuff into the right place and then just changing the facts on the ground. You've got a lot more gear than the other guy.
Yeah. And Kruger's got this sort of – he comes up in this American army that's rapidly changing, you know, getting some first experience in the Spanish-American War, which is just a logistical catastrophe.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:03
2
Which commanders were left out and why is this episode a 'best of the rest'?
2:03–10:35
3
Why is Walter Krueger an underrated Pacific theater commander?
10:35–15:32
4
How did logistics and landing craft shape success in the Pacific campaigns?
15:32–41:24
5
What leadership qualities made Admiral 'Bull' Halsey decisive at sea?
41:24–43:38