Why is he rated so highly?

Why is he rated so highly?

Because Rommel is the desert fox because he defeated the english army in egypt

No, he was defeated in egypt, he did beat them in Libya though,and kicked the US army about at Kesserine pass

Probably because of how humanly he treated POWs and the like. Apparently he was just a generally good person who could outsmart most English and American commanders who didn't do any more than give their men general orders and not really do any leading, unlike Rommel who was constantly at the front directing.

>What's up fellow Non-Jews?

You guys do realize that's a picture of Manstein, not Rommel, right?

Some of it is exaggeration; for a long time, the only major source of Manstein's campaigning were Manstein's own memoirs, and the guy was a huge believer that he was the greatest general of the war, and one of the leading proponents of "We could have won the war if only Hitler wasn't an idiot tying our hands".

That being said, he was a very good general, if not the infallible military genius he presents himself as. His campaigning espeically in the close of winter and spring of 1943 managed to stabilize a front that had been in the process of collapse and even regain the initiative at points. He was a highly, highly skilled general in what was probably the single biggest and most intense period of the war. He also came up with a lot of the planning for Fall Gelb, and that was a huge success.

This. He was a great operational commander, probably the best in the war, if not then one of the best. He wasnt perfect though, and like all commanders he made mistakes. If im not mistaken he was at least partially responsible for citadels failure. That being said he is leagues better than Rommel, one of the most overrated commanders ever. Being humane doesnt make you good.

Guderian was the greatest general of the war.

The Nazis owe much of their early success to him.

Not him, but not really. Guderian was an amazing military theoretician, but as a field commander he was above average at best, and fairly erratic. He also was possibly even more self-aggrandizing than Manstein was, exaggerating his accomplishments hugely (first to the Atlantic, my ass.)

Manstein deserves a hell of a lot more credit for France than Guderian does.

I think manstein had a lot more say in fall gelb than guderian did. I agree that guderian was one of the better commanders in the war, just not better than manstein.

Maybe the greatest German general of the war. Zhukov is undoubtedly the greatest general of the war.

Zhukov wasn't even the best Soviet general of the war.

Indeed, no other General managed to neutralize more Russian soldiers.

Kharkov alone should be the reason for Manstein's fame. He managed to halt two Soviet offensives while heavily outnumbered.

And thus the circle of meme history begins anew.

Not an argument

>gets held up for 3 days by 700 Poles in a few half built bunkers

>If im not mistaken he was at least partially responsible for citadels failure.

Not really, there was no possible way the offensive could have succeeded. He recommended attacking in April but hitler refused and pushed the day back to July. Though even if they attacked in April the German forces most likely would have lost anyway, they were to exhausted after the 3rd battle of Kharkov and low on supplies to be effective. He was never a propenent of the offensive himself, it was mostly hitler and his boot licker kietel that pushed for it.

>Halder wants to sacrifice 1 million troops in 1940 just to throw the french back a few km like in 1914
>Hitler tells Halder he's a fucktard
>Manstein proposes a big push to split the enemy in two and cut them off
>Guderian suggests doing it with an armored charge without infantry support
>Manstein likes the idea, scrubs guderians name off it
>Halder likes Manstein's idea, scrubs manstein's name off it
>Everyone things it wont work, tells Halder he's a fucktard (again)
>Halder puts Manstein's name back on it
>it turns out to be a miracle

Honestly Guderian deserves more credit than Manstein but Guderian pissed off pretty much everyone. Manstein lived longer and got to pump his reputation, but Manstein also fucked up Operation Citadel bigly, even though Guderian and Hitler both didn't want it to go ahead.

if it wasn't for Guderian's armored push idea, Case Yellow would have been a fucking disaster worse than the Ardennes Offensive and Germany would have been finished before summer 1940

>if it wasn't for Guderian's armored push idea


It wasn't Guderian's idea though, it was Manstein's idea to break through at the Sedan and rapidly exploit with mobile elements.

Guderian's contribution to Fall Gelb was to propose that the tanks, once having broken through, would separate from the infantry to move faster over a short distance; which did ultimatley make it into the plan, but it's hardly clear how decisive that decision was, the situation after they broke through Sedan was pretty bad from the french point of view.

>but Manstein also fucked up Operation Citadel bigly, even though Guderian and Hitler both didn't want it to go ahead.

Da fuck? No, that's wrong. Hitler did want it to go ahead, Manstein thought all the delays were killing the operation and it was worthless post May, and Guderian wasn't even on active service by that point.

>even though Guderian and Hitler both didn't want it to go ahead.

I agree with almost everything in your post, but hitler was a huge propenent of operation citadel. It was his idea for a major offensive instead of static defense like manstein wanted. He admitted to Guderian right before the launch date that he was unsure if the offensive would work, but if he really didn't want it he could have canceled it at any time. I think it's unfair to blame manstein for the defeat at Kursk. No general would have been able to win that battle, it's like blaming a general for not being able to hold the Vistula in 1945. There was just no way they could have won with the resources staked against them.

Okay, we've established that both Guderian and Mannstein were probably the best German commanders (if you count out Rundstend and Model) but why do people consider Patton to be above them?

Guderian was in charge of rebuilding tank forces and he reported directly to hitler very often.

>Okay, we've established that both Guderian and Mannstein were probably the best German commanders

Why no Kesselring?

> but why do people consider Patton to be above them?

Because people are stupid. Same as with Rommel. Most casualfags don't understand military matters at all.

I'm currently reading "Where the Iron Crosses Grow" by Rober Forczyk. Apparently Manstein had the tendency to skip over unpleasant memories in his memoirs.

>He could have easily seized Sevastopol with a swift coup, but he allowed Petrov's Coastal Army to escape.
>Didn't include the fresh Romanian 1st Mountain Brigade in his first attack because he thought the Romanians were useless, even though his own forces were exhausted. This resulted in him not being able to capture Balaklava even though it would have been a walk in the park.

Thoughts on this flag?

>English army

Wrong thread