Important Military Leaders
Allied Military Leaders
George Patton
Educated at West Point, George S. Patton began his military career leading cavalry troops against Mexican forces, and Patton became the first officer assigned to the new U.S. Army Tank Corps during WWI. Patton reached the high point of his career during World War II, when he led the U.S. 7th Army in its invasion of Sicily and swept across northern France at the head of the 3rd Army in the summer of 1944. During the same year, Patton’s forces played a key role in defeating the German counterattack in the Battle of the Bulge, after which he led them across the Rhine River and into Germany. Patton captured over 10,000 miles of territory and liberated the country from the Nazis. Patton died in Germany in December 1945 of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Western Europe during WWII. Dwight D. Eisenhower led the massive invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe, Normandy. The invasion of Normandy, known as D-Day, was on June 6, 1944.
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Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur was an American general who commanded the Southwest Pacific in WWII. Douglas oversaw the successful Allied occupation of postwar Japan and led United Nations forces in the Korean War. Douglas graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1903, and helped lead the 42nd Division in France during WWI. Douglas went on to serve as superintendent of West Point, chief of staff of the Army and field marshal of the Philippines, where he helped organize a military. During WWII, he famously returned to liberate the Philippines in 1944 after it had fallen to the Japanese.
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Chester Nimitz
Chester Nimitz was born in Texas in 1885, and served in WWI as chief of staff to the commander of the U.S. In 1939, Chester was appointed chief of the Bureau of Navigation of the U.S. Navy. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Chester was promoted to commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. In 1944, he was promoted to fleet admiral.
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Charles de Gaulle
George C. Marshall
George C. Marshall was one of the most decorated military leaders in American history. George was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, was a WWII staff officer, and later became assistant commandant at the U.S. Infantry School. Named chief of staff when WWII began in 1939, Marshall was responsible for exponentially increasing the size of the U.S. Army, and he helped devise Operation Overlord in 1944.
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Bernard Montgomery
Bernard Montgomery was a British Field Marshall, and was among the most decorated military leaders of WWII. Bernard took command of the Eighth Army, he earned renown for his part in the first major Allied land victory at El Alamein, Egypt, in 1942. Montgomery became ground commander under Dwight D. Eisenhower, and his insistence that invasion forces be increased from three to eight divisions was essential to the Allies’ success on D-Day in 1944.
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Omar Bradley
Omar Nelson Bradley was an American military leader. After serving as an infantry school instructor, the West Point graduate took charge of the Eighty-second and Twenty-eighth Divisions during WWII. Omar commanded the Second Corps in the Tunisia and Sicilian campaigns, and as commander of the First Army, he was instrumental to the success of the Normandy campaign. Omar was appointed to head the Veterans Administration after the war, and at the end of his career he became a five-star general and the first-ever chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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Axis Military Leaders
Adolf Hitler
Heinrich Himmler
Joseph Goebbels
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel was a German WWII Field Marshal. Erwin Rommel gained immortality in the North African campaign of 1941 through 1943. Erwin was sent with a small German force to help the Axis against the British after the Italians had suffered severe defeat. Rommel reached Tripoli in February 1941. For two years the opposing forces alternately advanced or withdrew over the desert, and Rommel’s name became legendary. Rommel became a master of mobile operations who was rapid, courageous, and audacious.
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Rudolf Hess
Hermann Goering
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco was the general and dictator who ruled over Spain from 1939 until his death. Francisco rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. His Nationalist forces overthrew the elected Second Republic. Francisco adopted the title of “El Caudillo,” meaning the leader. Francisco persecuted political opponents, and repressed the culture and language of Spain’s Basque and Catalan regions. Francisco censured the media and otherwise exerted absolute control over the country. Some of these restrictions gradually eased as Franco got older, and upon his death the country transitioned to democracy.
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Benito Mussolini
Emperor Hirohito
Hirohito was the emperor of Japan from 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito took over at the time of rising democratic sentiment. His country soon turned toward ultra-nationalism and militarism. During WWII, Japan attacked nearly all of its Asian neighbors, allied itself with Nazi Germany, and launched a surprise assault on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. Though Hirohito later portrayed himself as a virtually powerless constitutional monarch After Japan’s surrender in 1945, he became a figurehead with no political power.
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Hideki Tojo
History.com Staff. "Axis Military Leaders." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 13 May 2015.
History.com Staff. "Allied Military Leaders." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 13 May 2015.
History.com Staff. "Allied Military Leaders." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 13 May 2015.
Last Updated: May 13, 2015