We explain who were the main military leaders of World War II and what was their participation in this armed conflict.
What was World War II?
World War II was A military conflict that faced allies (Headed by the United Kingdom, France until 1940, China and, from 1941, the Soviet Union and the United States) and axis powers (Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and the Empire of Japan). It began in September 1939 and ended between May 1945 (surrender of Germany) and September 1945 (Rendyment of Japan). It was the greatest armed confrontation of the twentieth century and its victims exceeded those caused by World War I (1914-1918).
The development of the war depended on both the decisions of the political leaders and the actions of the soldiers and the tactics and strategies designed and implemented by the main military bosses. Figures like those of Bernard Law Montgomery, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower or Georgy Zhukov (between the allies) and Friedrich Paulus, Erwin Rommel or Isoroku Yamamoto (between the axis powers) had a prominent role in the planning and command of military operations during the war.
During the first years, the war was favorable to the powers of the axis. Shortly after the Soviet Union and the United States entered the war in 1941, The balance began to bow in favor of the allies, who won the war after the surrender of Germany in May 1945 and Japan in September 1945.
See also: Military Chiefs of World War I
Bernard Law Montgomery (1887-1976)
Bernard Law Montgomery was The most famous British military during World War II. He had fought in World War I (1914-1918) and promoted to the Brigade General Rank in 1938. When World War II began, he was sent to France at the head of a division, where he participated in the withdrawal of Dunkerque of May and June 1940 that allowed to repatriate much of the British expeditionary force before the successful German progress.
In August 1942, before the hits of Afrika Korps of the German Marshal Erwin Rommel, Montgomery was appointed head of the VIII British Army in North Africa. In November 1942 defeated Rommel in the battle of El Alamein, one of the key moments of war.
The British prime minister, Winston Churchill, sounded the bells throughout the United Kingdom and, later, said: “Before the Alamein we had never defeated, after the Alamein we were never defeated.” On May 11, 1943, axis troops surrendered in Tunisia.
Montgomery He directed the British armies in the invasion of Sicily In July 1943 and the Italian Peninsula in September 1943, under the command of the Commander in Chief of the Allied forces, the American general Dwight D. Eisenhower. Participated in the Normandy invasion In June 1944 and publicly maintained his strategic differences with Eisenhower.
He was promoted to Mariscal de Campo and He continued at the head of his troops during the victorious advance in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern Germany. Shortly before the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht that occurred on May 7 and 8, 1945, he obtained the surrender of the German armies of the north on May 4, 1945.
After the war, despite being publicly admonished by Winston Churchill for having exposed his differences with Eisenhower, he was recognized with the title of Viscount Montgomery of El Alamein. Subsequently, he occupied some military positions and wrote his memoirs.
Erwin Rommel (1891-1944)
Erwin Rommel was a German field marshal and one of the most prominent military in World War II. Before performing in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, it served in the German army during World War I and in the period of the Weimar Republic.
When World War II began, Rommel stood out under the command of an armored Division of Panzer tanks in the invasion of France in May 1940. However, it was when He was in charge of Afrika Korps in North Africa campaigns As of February 1941 when it was distinguished and He received the appellation of “Desert Fox.”
His victories about the English made him very popular in the Arab world, where he was seen as a kind of “liberator” of the British colonial yoke. His popularity in Germany was also huge. Adolf Hitler promoted him to Mariscal de Campo and German propaganda began to call him “Mariscal del Pueblo.”
However, The Afrika Korps was finally defeated in the battle of El Alameinbetween October and November 1942, and in March 1943 Rommel returned to Germany. In 1944, Hitler commissioned the organization of the defense of the French Atlantic coast Given the imminent ally invasion, but their opinions were often dodged by the Führer.
Rommel’s conviction that the defeat against the allied powers was inevitable led him to have some contact with the German opposition against Hitler. On July 17, 1944 he was injured in the context of the allied invasion and, shortly afterhis name came to light after the failed attack against Hitler which took place on July 20.
The Führer did not want a trial against the popular “Marshal of the People” and, on the other hand, offered him to commit suicide in exchange for the security and good name of his family. On October 14, 1944, Rommel took the poison that two generals brought to Hitler. He was buried with great military honors.
Friedrich Paulus (1890-1957)
Friedrich Paulus was a German military who, after entering the infantry weapon, participated in the First World War as a subaltern officer and amounted to the captain’s range. During the interwar period, it served in the Army of the Republic of Weimar, decimated by the Treaty of Versailles (1919). After the German rearme, decreed by Hitler in 1935, he put himself in charge of the armored and motorized troops. In May 1939 he was promoted to Major General
When World War II began, Paulus intervened in the campaigns of Poland and France and He collaborated in the preparation of the Barbarroja operation to invade the Soviet Union. After being promoted to Lieutenant General and briefly passing through North Africa, where he met Erwin Rommel, he was promoted to General and in 1942 he was sent to the Russian South Front under the command of the VI German Army.
After arduous fighting he managed to conquer the emblematic city of Stalingrad but failed to avoid the fence maneuver of the Soviet general Georgy Zhukov in the winter of 1942. Despite being promoted to the range of field marshal, He was forced to surrender to the Red Army On February 2, 1943. He was taken prisoner and, after the war, was able to return to Eastern Germany (the German Democratic Republic), where he died in 1957.
Georgy Zhukov (1896-1974)
Georgy Zhukov began his military career as a conscript of the Russian Imperial Army during World War I. In 1918 He joined the Red Army formed by the Bolshevik government. He was a cavalry commander during the Russian Civil War and, subsequently, studied Military Sciences in Russia and Germany. In 1939 he successfully directed a counteroffensive against the Japanese in border conflicts in Manchuria.
During the winter war against Finland (1939-1940), at the beginning of World War II, he served as Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army and was promoted to General. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, initiated in June 1941, He stood out in Leningrad’s defense and was appointed commander in chief of the Western Front. With that position, He successfully defended the city of Moscow.
In August 1942, Zhukov was appointed Deputy Department of Defense and, from now on, became a next counselor of the Soviet leader Iosif Stalin, so he had a key role in the rest of the war. After defeating Marshal Friedrich Paulus in the battle of StalingradZhukov was appointed Marshal of the Soviet Union. He directed the Soviet troops in the battle of Kursk, between July and August 1943, and in his subsequent advance towards Germany.
After the victory allied in the war in 1945, Stalin destined it to minor positions, possibly to perceive his popularity as a threat. After Stalin’s death in 1953, Zhukov supported Nikita Jrushchov and, as a reward, was appointed Minister of Defense (1955-1957) and member of the presidium of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (PCUS), although he was dismissed in 1957 for his insistence on granting greater autonomy to the Army. He received Lenin’s order in 1966.
Chester Nimitz (1885-1966)
Admiral Charles Nimitz was Commander of the United States Pacific Fleet during World War II. He had begun his career in the Navy at the beginning of the 20th century and, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was in charge of the Pacific Maritime and Terrestrial Forces.
He was responsible for allied victories In the battles of the Coral and Midway Sea in 1942, and other successful campaigns such as those of the Solomon Islands (1942-1943), Philippines (1944), Iwo Jima and Okinawa (1945). On September 2, 1945, the representatives of the Empire of Japan signed the surrender aboard the USss Missouri, in Tokyo Bay, and Nimitz signed the act as representative of the United States.
George Patton (1885-1945)
General George Patton stood out in World War II as commander of the first armored body of the United States Army, which in July 1943 became the VII United States Army. Patton He was very skilled in the tank war, both in the front of the Mediterranean and in Europe.
In North Africa he successfully directed the II Army Corps and, in July 1943, commanded the VII Army in Sicily’s invasion. With its armored strength He achieved the conquest of Palermo and Messina. Before the allied landing in Normandy in 1944, Patton directed a fictional army, known as Fusag (First Us Army Group), as part of a strategy to mislead the Germans.
After the Normandy landing, Patton directed the III United States Army for France and approached Germany, although he had to stop the march due to the lack of fuel and German resistance. After the German offensive of the Ardenas, in December 1944, Patton maneuvered rapidly, without consulting the high allied command, and managed to recover the advantage. In February 1945 the Germans undertook the withdrawal. The German surrender was signed in May 1945.
Patton He was especially known for his hardness and discipline, so his men nicknamed him “general blood and guts”. His character and attitude with troops were also a reason for criticism and controversies. On December 9, 1945, a few months after the war ended, Patton suffered a car accident and died a few days later.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)
During World War I, the American Dwight D. Eisenhower served as director of a Personnel Training Center for tanks. In 1933 he was assistant to the Chief of the General Staff of the United States Army, Douglas MacArthur, under whose orders he served in the Philippines between 1935 and 1939.
When the United States entered World War II, Eisenhower was assigned to the General Staff and then was appointed Commander in Chief of the US expeditionary forces in Europe. In November 1942 he successfully directed the allied landing in North Africa and in 1943 the invasion of Sicily and the landing in the Italian Peninsula.
With the general range and the position of Supreme Commander of the Allied forces, Eisenhower He directed the Normandy landing in June 1944. Paris was released in August 1944 and Eisenhower was promoted to the Army (with a five -star rank) in December 1944.
After the German surrender in May 1945, Eisenhower was a military governor of the American occupation zone in Germany and then head of the General Staff of the Army. In 1948 he resigned from active duty and in 1952 he presented himself to the presidential elections of the United States. He was president of the United States during two mandatesbetween 1953 and 1961.
Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)
The figure of Douglas MacArthur stood out on the Pacific Front. This American military had served in the Philippines in the twenties and had been head of the General Staff of the United States Army in the thirties. He returned to the Philippines between 1935 and 1941 and, when the United States entered the Second World War due to the Japanese attack to Pearl Harbor in December 1941, He was appointed supreme commander of the allied forces in the Pacific.
He was responsible for the reconquest of Pacific areas such as the Philippines and the definitive defeat of the Empire of Japan. In 1944 he was promoted to the army (a five -star military range). He was present at the USS Missouri during the signing of the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 and signed the Act of surrender in his capacity as Supreme Allied Commander. He was a military governor of Japan during the US occupation from 1945 to 1951.
Isoroku Yamamoto (1884-1943)
Isoroku Yamamoto He was an officer of the Japanese Imperial Navy who stood out for planning the attack on the American Base of Pearl Harbor, which caused the entrance of the United States in World War II.
Yamamoto had military and naval experience. In the interwar period he visited the United States, where he observed the characteristics of the US Navy. Upon his return in Japan, he acquired experience as an aviator and was assigned to the technological division of the Naval Air Corps, from where promoted the development of fast combat aircraft to be transported on aircraft carriers. From this development the “Zero” hunt emerged.
In 1939, Yamamoto was appointed commander in chief of the combined fleet and replaced the use of battleships for the use of aircraft carriers. He convinced Emperor Hirohito of the convenience of attacking by surprise the American naval base of Pearl Harbor. While he was aware that this was going to precipitate the entry of the United States in the war, Yamamoto supposed that The attack on Pearl Harbor would serve to weaken the American naval force and force his government to agree on a negotiated peace with Japan that will leave the free terrain to the Japanese expansion by Asia and the Pacific.
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941. The Yamamoto plan seemed to be successful at the beginning but the United States was not willing to negotiate peace and, on the other hand, redoubled the military effort. From the Japanese defeat in the battle of Midway in June 1942, the balance in favor of the United States in the Pacific Front began to bow. On April 18, 1943, Yamamoto died when the plane in which he was traveling was demolished by a squad of US fighters About the island of Bougainville.
Iván Konev (1897-1973)
General Iván Konev had a prominent role in the Red Army during World War II. When the German Wehrmacht invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Konev He directed the Soviet troops who managed to stop and then expel the Germans. In December 1941 he arrested the tanks division of General Heinz Guderian who was heading towards Moscow and, in the winter of 1942, he stopped a reinforcement of German troops that was heading to Stalingrad.
In March 1944 he received the Marshal rank of the Soviet Union and in August 1944 he was the first Soviet general who advanced beyond the Soviet Union and reached the German territory. In April 1945 He entered Berlin together with the Marshal Army Georgy Zhukov And, shortly after, his troops joined those of the American general Courtney H. Hodges in Torgau. When the war ended, Konev was appointed military governor of the Soviet occupation zone in Austria and, in 1946, commander in chief of the Soviet army.
Heinz Guderian (1888-1954)
Heinz Guderian was a German military who served as officer of the General Staff during World War I. In the interwar period He defended the creation of armored divisions that would have the support of the infantry and aviation to favor mobility and rapid advance in enemy territory.
When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, he decided to implement the ideas of Guderian, who was appointed commander of the II Panzer Division and, in 1938, head of a motorized body. Guderian It was one of the main promoters of the Blitzkrieg (lightning war) which guaranteed German victories at the beginning of World War II, especially in France.
The German withdrawal during the Soviet counteroffensive caused its dismissal in 1942. In 1943 it was assigned to the general inspection of armored bodies and, after the failed attack against Hitler’s life in July 1944, he was appointed chief of the General Staff of the Army. He continued in office until March 1945 and, after German surrender in May 1945, managed to avoid being tried for war crimes In the Nuremberg processes. In 1950 he published his memoir, entitled Memories of a soldier.
Konstantin Rokossovski (1896-1968)
Konstantin Rokossovski was a Soviet officer born in Warsaw (in the current Poland). During the First World War it served in the Russian Imperial Army and, after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, joined the Red Army and participated in the Russian Civil War. In 1938 He was taken prisoner by the IoSif Stalin regimebut was released in 1940 and, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, commanded motorized divisions.
Rokossovski He stood out in Moscow’s battles (1941), Stalingrad (1942-1943) and Kursk (1943), and in the offensives of Belarus (1944), Prussia Oriental (1945) and Pomerania (1945). He was promoted to the Marshal range of the Soviet Union.
When the war ended, Rokossovski was appointed Minister of Defense of the Popular Republic of Poland. Dismissed in 1956, returned to the Soviet Union and held military positions such as Vice Minister of Defense until 1962.
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References
- Beevor, A. (2012). World War II. Past and present.
- Hughes, Ta & Royde-Smith, JG (2022). World War II. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
- Stone, N. (2013). Brief history of World War II. Ariel.
