Early life
Patton was born in San Gabriel, California to an affluent family. He came from a long line of soldiers who fought and often died in many conflicts, including the American Revolution and, in particular, the Confederate side in the American Civil War. The confederate cavalry hero John Mosby was a friend of the family, and Patton grew up hearing Mosby's stories of military glory. From an early age, the young Patton sought to become a general and hero.

He attended Virginia Military Institute for one year, then transferred to and graduated from West Point.

Patton had been an intelligent child, intensively studying classical literature and military history from a young age, but likely suffered from an undiagnosed case of dyslexia, the consequences of which would haunt him throughout his schooling. He learned to read at a very late age as a child, and never learned basic skills such as proper spelling. Because of these difficulties, it took him five years to graduate from West Point, although he did rise to become Adjutant of the Corps of Cadets.

While at West Point, Patton renewed his acquaintance with childhood friend Beatrice Ayer, the daughter of a wealthy textile baron. The two were married shortly after Patton's graduation.

After graduating from West Point, Patton participated in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, representing the United States in the first-ever Modern Pentathlon. Patton finished fifth in the event. He was leading before the shooting competition, in which his second shot appeared to miss the target. Patton claimed his second bullet went through the hole made by his first.

Patton, along with many other members of his family, often claimed to have seen vivid, lifelike visions of his ancestors. He was a staunch believer in reincarnation, and much anecdotal evidence indicates that he held himself to be the reincarnation of the Carthaginian General Hannibal, a Roman legionnaire, a Napoleonic field marshal, and various other historic military figures.

Early military career
During the Mexican Border Campaign of 1916, Patton, while assigned to the 13th Cavalry Regiment in Texas, accompanied then-Brigadier General John J. Pershing as his aide during the Punitive Expedition into Mexico in his pursuit of Pancho Villa. During his service, Patton, accompanied by ten soldiers of the 6th Infantry Regiment, killed General Julio Cardenas, commander of Villa's personal bodyguard. For this action, Pershing called him his 'Bandito'. Patton's success in this regard gained him a level of notoriety back in the United States.

World War I
At the onset of the Americans joining the fighting of World War I, General Pershing promoted Patton to the rank of Captain. While in France, Patton requested that he be given a combat command and Pershing assigned him command within the newly-formed U.S. Tank Corps. Depending on the source, he either led the U.S. Tank Corps., led the British or was an observer at the Battle of Cambrai, the first battle where tanks were used in a significant force. As the U.S. Tank Corps did not take part in this battle and it is extremely unlikely that a U.S. officer would have commanded British troops, the role of observer is the most likely. From his successes (and the organization of a training school for American tankers in Langres, France), Patton was promoted twice to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was placed in charge of the U.S. Tank Corps, which was part of the American Expeditionary Force and then the First U.S. Army. He took part in the St. Mihiel offensive of September 1918 and was wounded by machine gun fire as he sought assistance for tanks that were mired in the mud.

For his service in the Meuse-Argonne operations, Patton received a Purple Heart, a Distinguished Service Cross and was given a battlefield promotion to a full colonel. While Patton was recuperating from his wounds, hostilities ended.


The interwar years
While on duty in Washington in 1919, Patton met and became close friends with Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would play an enormous role in Patton's future career. In the early 1920s, Patton petitioned the US Congress to appropriate funding for an armored force, but had little luck doing so. Patton also wrote professional articles on tank and armored car tactics, suggesting new methods to use these weapons. He also continued working on improvements to tanks, coming up with innovations in radio communication and tank mounts. However, with little money in the peacetime military for innovation, Patton eventually transferred back to the cavalry—still a horse-borne force in this era—for career advancement.

In July 1932, Patton served under Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur as a major leading the cavalry against the Bonus Army.

Patton served in Hawaii before returning to Washington to once again ask Congress to allocate funding for armored units. In the late 1930s, Patton was assigned command of Fort Myer, Virginia. Shortly after Germany's blitzkrieg attacks in Europe, Patton was able to finally convince Congress of the need for armored divisions. Shortly after its approval, Patton was promoted to brigadier general and put in command of the armored brigade.

The brigade eventually grew into the US 2nd Armored Division and Patton was promoted to major general.

World War II
During the buildup of the American Army prior to its entry into World War II, Patton established the Desert Training Center in Indio, California. He also commanded one of the two wargaming armies in the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1941. Fort Benning, Georgia is well known for General Patton's presence.

North African campaign
In 1942, Major General Patton commanded the 1st U.S. Armored Corps of the U.S. Army, which landed on the coast of Morocco in Operation Torch. Patton and his staff arrived in Morocco aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) which came under fire from the French battleship Jean Bart while entering the harbor of Casablanca. Following the defeat of the U.S. Army by the German Afrika Corps at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in 1943, Patton was made lieutenant general and placed in command of II Corps. Although tough in his training, he was generally considered fair and very well-liked by his troops. The discipline paid off, however, as by March, the counteroffensive was pushing the Germans east while British troops commanded by Gen. Bernard Montgomery in Egypt were simultaneously pushing the Germans west, effectively squeezing the Germans out of North Africa.


Italian campaign
As a result of his accomplishments in North Africa, Patton was given command of the Seventh Army in preparation for the 1943 invasion of Sicily. Patton was charged with liberating the western half of the island, while Gen. Montgomery's 8th British Army was to liberate the east.

Never one to allow his rival Montgomery to get the glory, Patton quickly pushed through western Sicily, liberating Palermo and then swiftly driving on east to Messina ahead of Montgomery.

Patton's bloodthirsty speeches resulted in controversy when it was claimed one inspired the Biscari Massacre in which American troops killed seventy-six Prisoners of War. Patton's career nearly ended in August of 1943. While visiting hospitals and commending wounded soldiers, he slapped and verbally abused Pvts. Paul G. Bennet and Charles H. Kuhl, who he thought were exhibiting cowardly behavior. The soldiers were suffering from various forms of battle fatigue or shell-shock, and had no visible wounds (though one was subsequently found to have dysentery). Because of this action, Patton was kept out of public view for some time and secretly ordered to apologize to the soldiers. When news of Patton's acts was made public, there were calls from some that Patton should either resign or be fired from his position. Patton also was relieved of command of the Seventh Army prior to its operations in Italy.

However, while Patton was temporarily relieved of his duty, the Germans continued to fear him more than any other Allied general. Patton's prolonged stay in Sicily was interpreted by the Germans to be indicative of an upcoming invasion of southern France and later, a stay in Cairo was interpreted as an upcoming invasion through the Balkans. The fear of General Patton helped to tie up many German troops and would be an important factor in the months to come.


Normandy
In the period leading to the Normandy invasion, Patton gave public talks as commander of the (fictional) First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG), which was supposedly intending to invade France by way of Calais. This was part of a sophisticated Allied campaign of military deception, Operation Fortitude.

Following the Normandy invasion, Patton was placed in command of the US Third Army, which was on the extreme right (west) of the Allied land forces. He led this army during Operation Cobra, the breakout from earlier slow fighting in the Norman system of planting hedgerows, besieged Cherbourg, and then moved south and east, assisting in trapping several hundred thousand German soldiers in the Chambois pocket, near Falaise. Patton used Germany's own blitzkrieg tactics against them, covering 600 miles in just two weeks. Patton's forces freed the bulk of northern France, but was controversially ordered by Eisenhower to halt at the outskirts of Paris, in order to give French Marshal Philippe de Hauteclocque ("Leclerc") the honor of entering the city.

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Lorraine
Patton's offensive, however, came to a screeching halt on August 31, 1944 as the army simply ran out of gasoline near the Meuse river just outside of Metz, France. The time needed to resupply was just enough to give the Germans the time they needed to further fortify the fortress of Metz. In October and November, the Third Army was mired in a near-stalemate with the Germans, inflicting heavy casualties on one another. By November 23, however, Metz had finally fallen to the Americans, the first time the city had fallen since the Franco-Prussian War.


Ardennes offensive

Bradley, Eisenhower, and PattonBy late 1944, the German army made a last-ditch offensive across the Netherlands, Luxembourg and northeastern France. The Ardennes Offensive (better known as the Battle of the Bulge), was the final offensive of the German army in World War II. On December 16, 1944, the German army threw 29 divisions (totalling some 250,000 men) at a weak point in the Allied lines and made massive headway towards the Meuse river during one of the worst winters in Europe in years.

Patton abruptly turned the Third Army north (a considerable tactical and logistical achievement), disengaging from the front line to relieve the surrounded and besieged 101st Airborne Division trapped in Bastogne. It is believed by many that no other general and no other army in history could have performed this feat. By February, the Germans were once again in full retreat and Patton moved into the Saar Basin of Germany. Patton was planning to take Prague, Czechoslovakia, when the forward movement of American forces was halted. Nevertheless, his troops liberated Pilsen and most of West Bohemia.


After the German Surrender
In the aftermath of the victory in Europe, Patton was disappointed by the Army's refusal to give him another combat command in the Pacific. Unhappy in his role as the military governor of Bavaria and depressed by his belief that he would never fight in another war, Patton's behavior and statements became increasingly erratic.

Carlo D'Este, in Patton: A Genius for War, writes that "it seems virtually inevitable . . . that Patton experienced some type of brain damage from too many head injuries" from a lifetime of numerous auto- and horse-related accidents, especially one suffered while playing polo in 1936.

Whatever the cause, Patton found himself once again in trouble with his superiors and the American people. While speaking to a group of reporters, he compared the Nazis to losers in American political elections. Patton was soon relieved of his Third Army command and transferred to the Fifteenth Army, a paper command preparing a history of the war.

Bitter and intending to soon resign from the Army, in October 1945 General Patton assumed control of the Fifteenth Army. However, on December 9 he suffered serious injuries from an auto accident. Many conspiracy theorists believe that the drivers that were operating the car were ordered to hit him because of the belief that he was going to run for President when he came back to the United States, or because of his quarrels with occupation policies such as the Morgenthau Plan.[1] (http://rense.com/general63/patton.htm) Patton died on December 21, 1945 and was buried in the American War Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg.


Dates of rank
The following is the promotion history of General Patton:

Second Lieutenant, United States Army: June 11, 1909
First Lieutenant,United States Army: May 23, 1916
Captain, United States Army: May 15, 1917
Major, National Army: January 26, 1918
Lieutenant Colonel, National Army: March 30, 1918
Colonel, National Army: October 17, 1918
Captain, Regular Army : June 30, 1920 (reverted to permanent rank)
Major, Regular Army: July 1, 1920
Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: March 1, 1934
Colonel, Regular Army: July 1, 1938
Brigadier General, Regular Army: October 1, 1940 (made permanent September 1, 1943)
Major General, Regular Army: April 4, 1941 (made permanent September 2, 1943)
Lieutenant General, Army of the United States: March 12, 1943
General, Army of the United States: April 14, 1945
Notes regarding components:

United States Army: U.S. Army components prior to World War I
National Army: Combined conscript and regular forces during World War I
Regular Army: Peacetime forces prior to World War II. During World War II, considered the "career" soldiers.
Army of the United States: Combined draft and regular forces during World War II. AUS officers held temporary rank for the duration of the conflict.
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Awards and decorations
At the time of General Patton's death, he was authorized the following awards and decorations.

Distinguished Service Cross with one oak leaf cluster
Distinguished Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters
Silver Star with one oak leaf cluster
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star Medal
Purple Heart
Silver Lifesaving Medal
World War I Victory Medal with five battle clasps
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one silver and two bronze service stars
Mexican Service Medal
American Defense Service Medal
World War II Victory Medal
British Order of the Bath
Order of the British Empire
Belgian Order of Leopold
Belgian Croix de Guerre
French Legion of Honor
French Croix de Guerre
French Liberation Medal
Luxemburg War Cross
Grand Cross of Ouissam Alaouite of French Morocco
Order of the White Lion of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakian Military Cross
Grand Luxemburg Cross of the Order of Adolphe of Nassau
In 1955, the U.S. Army posthumously presented General Patton with the Army of Occupation Medal for service as the first occupation commander of Bavaria. General Patton was also awarded numerous commemorative medals, badges, and pins that were not meant for display on a military uniform or were not considered official military decorations.

Hannibal Barca (247 BC – 182 BC) was a military commander of ancient Carthage, best known for his achievements in the Second Punic War in marching an army from Spain over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy and defeating the Romans at the Battles of the river Trebia (218 BC), Lake Trasimene (217 BC) and Cannae (216 BC). After Cannae, the Romans refused to fight him in pitched battles, and gradually captured the cities that had gone over to Hanibal in southern Italy. An invasion of Africa by the Romans under Scipio Africanus in 204 BC forced Hannibal to return to Africa, where Scipio defeated him at Zama (202 BC).

Following the end of the war, Hannibal led Carthage for several years, helping it to recover from the devastation of the war, until the Romans forced him into exile in 195 BC. He went to live at the court of Antiochus III of the Seleucid Kingdom. In 189 BC the Romans, having defeated Antiochus in a war, demanded that he turn Hannibal over to them and the general fled again, this time to the court of King Prusias I of Bithynia. When the Romans demanded that Prusias surrender him in 182 BC, Hannibal committed suicide rather than submit.

Hannibal is often ranked as one of the best military commanders in history alongside Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Frederick the Great and Napoleon.


Biography
Hannibal ("mercy or favor of Baal"), son of Hamilcar Barca, was born in 247 BC. After Carthage's defeat in the First Punic War, Hamilcar set about the task of improving Cathage's fortunes. To do this, Hamilcar began the subjugation of the tribes of Spain. Carthage at the time was in such a poor state that its navy was unable to ferry his army to Spain; instead, he had to march it to the Pillars of Hercules and cross there. According to a story he later told at the court of Antiochus, Hannibal came upon his father while he was making a sacrifice to the gods before leaving for Spain. Hannibal, then quite young, begged to go with him. Hamilcar agreed and made Hannibal swear that as long as he lived he would never be a friend of Rome.

Hannibal's father went about the conquest of Spain with all the skills given to military men. When he was killed in a battle, Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal succeeded to command of the army. Hasdrubal pursued a policy of consolidation of Carthage's Spanish interests, even signing a treaty with Rome whereby Carthage would not expand past the Ebro River, so long as Rome did not expand south of it. Upon the death of his brother-in-law (221 BC) Hannibal was acclaimed commander-in-chief by the army and confirmed in his appointment by the Carthaginian government. After two years spent completing the conquest of Spain south of the Ebro, he began what he felt to be his life task, the conquest and humiliation of Rome. Accordingly in 219 BC he used a pretext for attacking the town of Saguntum, which stood under the special protection of Rome. Disregarding the protests of Roman envoys, he stormed it after an eight-month siege. As Carthaginian government, in view of Hannibal's great popularity, did not venture to repudiate this action, the war he sought was declared at the end of the year.


March on Italy
Of the large army of Libyan and Spanish mercenaries that he had at his disposal, Hannibal selected the most trustworthy and devoted contingents and determined to carry the war into the heart of Italy by a rapid march through Spain and Gaul. Starting in the spring of 218 BC, he easily fought his way through the northern tribes to the Pyrenees and, by conciliating the Gaulish chiefs on his passage, contrived to reach the Rhone before the Romans could take any measures to bar his advance. After outmaneuvering the natives, who endeavored to prevent his crossing, Hannibal evaded a Roman force sent to operate against him in Gaul; he proceeded up the valley of one of the tributaries of the Rhone (Isre or, more probably, Durance) and by autumn arrived at the foot of the Alps. His passage over the mountain chain was one of the most memorable achievements of any military force of ancient times. He had arrived, however, with only half the forces he set out with. Adrian Goldsworthy (The Fall of Carthage) is sceptical of the explanation that Hannibal had left forces in Gaul to maintain his line of communications for Hannibal. Hannibal from the first seems to have calculated that he would have to operate without aid from Spain. On the other hand the figures for the amount of troops he had when he left Spain are less reliable. Nonetheless Goldsworthy thinks that due to the opposition of the natives and the difficulties of ground and climate the cost of Hannibal's march were considerable.

Hannibal's perilous march brought him directly into Roman territory and entirely frustrated the attempts of the enemy to fight out the main issue on foreign ground. His sudden appearance among the Gauls, moreover, enabled him to detach most of the tribes from their new allegiance to the Romans before the latter could take steps to check rebellion. After allowing his soldiers a brief rest to recover from their exertions Hannibal first secured his rear by subduing the hostile tribe of the Taurini (modern Turin), and moving down the Po valley forced the Romans by virtue of his superior cavalry to evacuate the plain of Lombardy. In December of the same year he had an opportunity to show his superior military skill when the Roman commander attacked him on the river Trebia near Placentia; after wearing down the excellent Roman infantry he cut it to pieces by a surprise attack from an ambush in the flank.

Having secured his position in north Italy by this victory, he quartered his troops for the winter on the Gauls, whose zeal in his cause thereupon began to abate. Accordingly, in spring 217 BC Hannibal decided to find a more trustworthy base of operations farther south. He crossed the Apennines without opposition, but in the marshy lowlands of the Arno he lost a large part of his force through disease and himself became blind in one eye. Advancing through the uplands of Etruria he provoked the main Roman army to a hasty pursuit, and catching it in a defile on the shore of Lake Trasimenus destroyed it in the waters or on the adjoining slopes (see Battle of Lake Trasimene). He had now disposed of the only field force which could check his advance upon Rome, but, realizing that without siege engines he could not hope to take the capital, he preferred to exploit his victory by passing into central and southern Italy and exciting a general revolt against the sovereign power. Though closely watched by a force under Fabius Maximus Cunctator, he was able to ravage far and wide through Italy: on one occasion he was entrapped in the lowlands of Campania but set himself free by a stratagem which completely befuddled his opponent. For the winter, he found comfortable quarters in the Apulian plain, into which the Romans dared not descend.

In the campaign of 217 BC Hannibal had failed to obtain a following among the Italians; in the following year he had an opportunity to turn the tide in his favor. A large Roman army advanced into Apulia in order to crush him and accepted battle at Cannae. Thanks mainly to brilliant cavalry tactics, Hannibal, with much inferior numbers, managed to surround and cut to pieces the whole of this force; moreover, the moral effect of this victory was such that all the south of Italy joined his cause. Had Hannibal now received proper material reinforcements from his countrymen at Carthage he might have made a direct attack upon Rome; for the present he had to content himself with subduing the fortresses which still held out against him, and the only other notable event of 216 BC was the defection of Capua, the second largest city of Italy, which Hannibal made his new base.

In the next few years Hannibal was reduced to minor operations which centred mainly round the cities of Campania. He failed to draw his opponents into a pitched battle, and in some slighter engagements suffered reverses. As the forces detached under his lieutenants were generally unable to hold their own, and neither his home government nor his new ally Philip V of Macedon helped to make good his losses, his position in south Italy became increasingly difficult and his chance of ultimately conquering Rome grew ever more remote. In 212 BC he gained an important success by capturing Tarentum, but in the same year he lost his hold upon Campania, where he failed to prevent the concentration of three Roman armies round Capua. Hannibal attacked the besieging armies with his full force in 211 BC and attempted to entice them away by a sudden march through Samnium that brought him within 3 kilometres of Rome but caused more alarm than real danger to the city.

But the siege continued, and the town fell in the same year. In 210 BC Hannibal again proved his superiority in tactics by a severe defeat inflicted at Herdoniac (modern Ordona) in Apulia upon a proconsular army, and in 208 BC destroyed a Roman force engaged in the siege of Locri Epizephyrii. But with the loss of Tarentum in 209 BC and the gradual reconquest by the Romans of Samnium and Lucania his hold on south Italy was almost lost. In 207 BC he succeeded in making his way again into Apulia, where he waited to concert measures for a combined march upon Rome with his brother Hasdrubal. On hearing, however, of his brother's defeat and death at the Metaurus he retired into the mountain fastnesses of Bruttium, where he maintained himself for the ensuing years. With the failure of his brother Mago in Liguria (205 BC - 203 BC) and of his own negotiations with Philip of Macedon, the last hope of recovering his ascendancy in Italy was lost.

Return to Africa
In 203 BC, when Scipio was carrying all before him in Africa and the Carthaginian peace party were arranging an armistice, Hannibal was recalled from Italy by the war party at Carthage. After leaving a record of his expedition engraved in Punic and Greek upon brazen tablets in the temple of Juno at Crotona, he sailed back to Africa. His arrival immediately restored the predominance of the war party, who placed him in command of a combined force of African levies and his mercenaries from Italy. In 202 BC Hannibal, after meeting Scipio in a fruitless peace conference, engaged him in a decisive battle at Zama. Unable to cope against the well-trained and confident Roman soldiers with his own indifferent troops, he experienced a crushing defeat that put an end to all resistance on the part of Carthage.


Peacetime Carthage
Hannibal was still only in his forty-sixth year. He soon showed that he could be a statesman as well as a soldier. Following the conclusion of a peace that left Carthage stripped of its formerly mighty empire, he was appointed suffet, or chief magistrate. The office had become rather insignificant, but Hannibal restored its power and authority. The oligarchy, always jealous of him, had even charged him with having betrayed the interests of his country while in Italy, for neglecting to take Rome when he might have done so. The dishonesty and incompetence of these men had brought the finances of Carthage into grievous disorder. So effectively did Hannibal reform abuses that the heavy tribute imposed by Rome could be paid by installments without additional and extraordinary taxation. He also reformed the Council of 100, stipulating that its membership be chosen by direct election rather than co-option.


Exile and Death
Seven years after the victory of Zama, the Romans, alarmed at this new prosperity, demanded Hannibal's surrender. Hannibal thereupon went into voluntary exile. First he journeyed to Tyre, the mother-city of Carthage, and thence to Ephesus, where he was honorably received by Antiochus III of Syria, who was preparing for war with Rome. Hannibal soon saw that the king's army was no match for the Romans. He advised him to equip a fleet and land a body of troops in the south of Italy, offering to take command himself. But he could not make much impression on Antiochus, who listened more willingly to courtiers and flatterers and would not entrust Hannibal with any important charge. In 190 BC he was placed in command of a Phoenician fleet but was defeated in a battle off the river Eurymedon.

From the court of Antiochus, who seemed prepared to surrender him to the Romans, Hannibal fled to Crete, but he soon went back to Asia and sought refuge with Prusias I of Bithynia. Once more the Romans were determined to hunt him down, and they sent Flaminius to insist on his surrender. Prusias agreed to give him up, but Hannibal determined not to fall into his enemies' hands. At Libyssa, on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmora, he took poison, which, it was said, he had long carried about with him in a ring. The precise year of his death is a matter of controversy. If, as Livy seems to imply, it was 183 BC, he died in the same year as Scipio Africanus.

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Controversy
The only sources left to us about Hannibal are Romans, who considered him the greatest enemy they had ever faced. Livy gives us the idea that he was extremely cruel. Even Cicero, when he talked of Rome and her two great enemies, spoke of the "honorable" Pyrrhus and the "cruel" Hannibal. Yet when Hannibal's successes had brought about the death of two Roman consuls, he searched vainly for one on the shores of Lake Trasimene, and he sent Marcellus' ashes back to his family in Rome. By contrast, when Nero had accomplished his wonderful march back and forth to and from the Metaurus he flung the head of Hannibal's brother into Hannibal's camp.

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Place in History
Hannibal's name is commonplace in popular culture, an objective measure of his influence on Western European history. The author of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article praises Hannibal in these words:

"As to the transcendent military genius of Hannibal there cannot be two opinions. The man who for fifteen years could hold his ground in a hostile country against several powerful armies and a succession of able generals must have been a commander and a tactician of supreme capacity. In the use of stratagems and ambuscades he certainly surpassed all other generals of antiquity. Wonderful as his achievements were, we must marvel the more when we take into account the grudging support he received from Carthage. As his veterans melted away, he had to organize fresh levies on the spot. We never hear of a mutiny in his army, composed though it was of Africans, Spaniards and Gauls. Again, all we know of him comes for the most part from hostile sources. The Romans feared and hated him so much that they could not do him justice. Livy speaks of his great qualities, but he adds that his vices were equally great, among which he singles out his more than Punic perfidy and an inhuman cruelty. For the first there would seem to be no further justification than that he was consummately skilful in the use of ambuscades. For the latter there is, we believe, no more ground than that at certain crises he acted in the general spirit of ancient warfare. Sometimes he contrasts most favorably with his enemy. No such brutality stains his name as that perpetrated by Claudius Nero on the vanquished Hasdrubal. Polybius merely says that he was accused of cruelty by the Romans and of avarice by the Carthaginians. He had indeed bitter enemies, and his life was one continuous struggle against destiny. For steadfastness of purpose, for organizing capacity and a mastery of military science he has perhaps never had an equal."

Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American Civil War general and the 18th (1869–1877) president of the United States.

Grant won many important battles, rose to become general-in-chief of all Union armies, and is credited with winning the war. But although he was a successful general, he is considered by historians to be one of America's worst presidents, who led an administration plagued by severe scandal and corruption. Historians agree that Grant was not personally corrupt; it was his subordinates in the executive branch who were at fault. He is instead mostly criticized for not taking a strong stance against the corruption, and not acting to stop it. More recent treatments have emphasized the accomplishments of his administration, including his struggle to preserve Reconstruction, and looked with more understanding upon its shortcomings.


Biography
Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant) was born in Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, 25 miles (40 km) above Cincinnati on the Ohio River, to Jesse R. Grant and Hannah Simpson. His father and his mother were born in Pennsylvania. His father was a tanner. In the fall of 1823 they moved to the village of Georgetown in Brown County, Ohio, where Grant spent most of his time until he was 17.

At the age of 17, he received a cadetship to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York through his Congressman. The Congressman erroneously registered him as Ulysses Simpson Grant, but Grant took such a liking to his new name that he kept it. He graduated from West Point in 1843, No. 21 in a class of 39.

He married Julia Boggs Dent (1826–1902) on August 22, 1848 and they had four children: Frederick Dent, Ulysses Simpson, Jr., Ellen Wrenshall, and Jesse Root (son).


Military career

Photo of General Grant by Mathew Brady in 1864Grant served in the Mexican-American War under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, taking part in the battles of Resaca de la Palma, Palo Alto, Monterrey, and Veracruz. He was twice breveted for bravery: at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. On July 31, 1854, he resigned from the army. Seven years of civilian life following, in which he was a farmer, a real estate agent in St. Louis, and finally an assistant at the leather business owned by his father and brother.

On April 24, 1861, ten days after the fall of Fort Sumter, Captain Grant arrived in Springfield, Illinois, with a company of men he had raised. The governor felt that a West Point man could be put to better use and appointed him colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry (effective June 17, 1861). On August 7 he was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers.

Grant gave the Union Army its first major victory of the American Civil War by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee, on February 6, 1862, followed by Fort Donelson, where he demanded the famous terms of "unconditional surrender" and captured a Confederate army. Later in 1862 he was surprised by Albert Sidney Johnston at the Battle of Shiloh, but with grim determination and timely reinforcements, turned a serious reverse into a victory in the second day of battle. His strategy in the campaign to capture the river fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1863 is considered one of the most masterful in military history and it split the Confederacy in two; and it represented the second major Confederate army to surrender to Grant. He was the savior of Union forces besieged in Chattanooga, Tennessee, decisively beating Braxton Bragg and opening an avenue to Atlanta, Georgia and the heart of the Confederacy. His willingness to fight and ability to win impressed President Abraham Lincoln, who appointed him lieutenant general—a new rank recently authorized by the U.S. Congress with Grant in mind—on March 2, 1864, and on March 12 Grant became Commander-in-Chief of all of the armies of the United States.


Statue of Grant at Vicksburg, MississippiGrant's fighting style was what one fellow general called "that of a bulldog". Although a master of combat by out-maneuvering his opponent (such as at Vicksburg and in the Overland Campaign against Robert E. Lee), Grant was not afraid to order direct assaults or tight sieges against Confederate forces, often when the Confederates were themselves launching offensives against him. Once an offensive or a siege began, Grant refused to stop the attack until the enemy surrendered or was driven from the field. Such tactics often resulted in heavy casualties for Grant's men, but they wore down the Confederate forces proportionately even more and inflicted irreplaceable losses. Grant has been described as a "butcher" for his strategy, particularly in 1864, but he was able to achieve objectives that his predecessor generals had not, even though they suffered similar casualties over time.

In March 1864 Grant put Major General William T. Sherman in immediate command of all forces in the west and moved his headquarters to Virginia where he turned his attention to the long-frustrated Union effort to destroy the army of Robert E. Lee; his secondary objective was to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, but Grant knew that the latter would happen automatically once the former was accomplished. He devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of Confederacy from multiple directions: Grant, George G. Meade, and Benjamin Butler against Lee near Richmond; Franz Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman to invade Georgia, defeat Joseph E. Johnston, and capture Atlanta; George Crook and William W. Averell to operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; Nathaniel Banks to capture Mobile, Alabama. Grant was the first general to attempt such a coordinated strategy in the war and the first to understand the concepts of total war, in which the destruction of an enemy's economic infrastructure that supplied its armies was as important as tactical victories on the battlefield.

The Overland Campaign pitted Grant against Lee, starting in May, 1864. Despite heavy losses, the Army of the Potomac kept up a relentless pursuit of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He battled Lee to a draw in the Battle of the Wilderness, had no more than a draw at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, and lost with horrible casualties at Cold Harbor. Unfortunately for Grant's coordinated strategy, only Sherman's advance into Georgia was making progress. All of the other generals were imposed upon Grant for political reasons and they bogged down without much success.

Despite the heavy losses, Grant did not retreat as his predecessors had done following their setbacks. Finally, he slipped his troops across the James River, fooling Lee, and, failing to capture the rail junctions at Petersburg, Virginia, settled in to a nine-month siege of Lee's army in the city. He dispatched Philip Sheridan to the Shenandoah Valley to defeat the army of Jubal A. Early and destroy the farms supplying Lee. His relentless pressure finally forced Lee to evacuate Richmond and surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Grant offered generous terms that did much to ease the tensions between the armies and preserve some semblance of Southern pride, which would be needed to reconcile the warring sides. Within a few weeks, the American Civil War was effectively over, although minor actions would continue until Kirby Smith surrendered his forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2, 1865. But immediately after Lee's surrender, Grant had the sad honor of serving as a pall bearer at the funeral of his greatest champion, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had been quoted after the massive losses at Shiloh, "I can't spare this general. He fights." It was a two-word description that completely caught the essence of Ulysses S. Grant.

After the war, the Congress authorized Grant the newly created rank of General of the Army (the equivalent of a four-star, "full" general rank in the modern Army) and he was appointed as such by President Andrew Johnson on July 25, 1866.

Robert Edward Lee, as a U.S. Army Colonel before the warRobert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a career army officer and the most successful general of the Confederate forces during the American Civil War. He eventually commanded all Confederate armies as general-in-chief. Like Hannibal and Rommel, his victories against superior forces in a losing cause made him famous. As a result, he is more widely-known than Ulysses S. Grant, the general who defeated him.

Early life and career
Lee was born at Stratford, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the fourth child of Revolutionary War hero Henry Lee ("Lighthorse Harry") and Ann Hill Carter Lee. He entered the United States Military Academy in 1825. When he graduated (second in his class of 46) in 1829 he had not only attained the top academic record but was the first cadet (and so far the only) to graduate the Academy without a single demerit. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.

Lee served for seventeen months at Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island, Georgia. In 1831, he was transferred to Fort Monroe, Virginia, as assistant engineer. While he was stationed there, he married Mary Anna Randolph Custis, the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. They lived in the Custis mansion, located on the banks of the Potomac River in Arlington, just across from Washington, D.C.. They eventually had three sons and four daughters: George Washington Custis, William H. Fitzhugh, Robert Edward, Mary, Agnes, Annie, and Mildred.


Engineering
Lee served as an assistant in the chief engineer's office in Washington from 1834 to 1837, but spent the summer of 1835 helping to lay out the state line between Ohio and Michigan. In 1837, he got his first important command. As a first lieutenant of engineers, he supervised the engineering work for St. Louis harbour and for the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. His work there earned him a promotion to captain. In 1841, he was transferred to Fort Hamilton in New York Harbor, where he took charge of building fortifications.


Mexican War, West Point, and Texas
Lee distinguished himself in the Mexican War (1846–1848). He was one of Winfield Scott's chief aides in the march from Veracruz to Mexico City. He was instrumental in several American victories through his personal reconnaissance as a staff officer; he found routes of attack that the Mexicans had not defended because they thought the terrain was impassable.

He was promoted to major after the Battle of Cerro Gordo in April, 1847. He also fought at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec, and was wounded at the latter. By the end of the war he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel.

After the Mexican War, he spent three years at Fort Carrol in Baltimore harbor, after which he became the superintendent of West Point in 1852. During his three years at West Point, he improved the buildings, the courses, and spent a lot of time with the cadets.

In 1855, Lee became lieutenant colonel of the Second Cavalry and was sent to the Texas frontier. There he helped protect settlers from attacks by the Apache and the Comanche.

These were not happy years for Lee as he did not like to be away from his family for long periods of time, especially as his wife was becoming increasingly ill. Lee came home to see her as often as he could.

He happened to be in Washington at the time of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859, and was sent there to arrest Brown and to restore order. He did this very quickly and then returned to his regiment in Texas. When Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, Lee was called to Washington, DC to wait for further orders.


Civil War
On April 18, 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, through Secretary of War Simon Cameron, offered Lee command of the United States Army (Union Army) through an intermediary, a publicist named Francis Blair, at the home of Blair's son in Washington. There was little doubt as to Lee's sentiments. He was opposed to secession. However his loyalty to his native Virginia led him to join the Confederacy.

At the outbreak of war he was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, and then as one of the first five full generals of Confederate forces. Lee, however, refused to wear the insignia of a Confederate General stating that, in honor to his rank of Colonel in the United States Army, he would only display the three stars of a Confederate Colonel until the Civil War had been won and Lee could be promoted, in peacetime, to a General in the Confederate Army.

After commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, and then in charge of coastal defenses along the Carolina seaboards, he became military adviser to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, whom he knew from West Point.


Commander, Army of Northern Virginia
Following the wounding of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines, on June 1, 1862, Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, his first opportunity to lead an army in the field. He soon launched a series of attacks, the Seven Days Battles, against General George B. McClellan's Union forces threatening Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital. Lee's attacks resulted in heavy Confederate casualties and they were marred by clumsy tactical performances by his subordinates, but his aggressive actions unnerved McClellan. After McClellan's retreat, Lee defeated another Union army at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He then invaded Maryland, hoping to replenish his supplies and possibly influence the Northern elections that fall in favor of ending the war. McClellan obtained a lost order that revealed Lee's plans and brought superior forces to bear at Antietam before Lee's army could be assembled. In the bloodiest day of the war, Lee withstood the Union assaults, but withdrew his battered army back to Virginia.


Lee mounted on TravellerDisappointed by McClellan's failure to destroy Lee's army, Lincoln named Ambrose Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside ordered an attack across the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. Delays in getting bridges built across the river allowed Lee's army ample time to organize strong defenses, and the attack on December 12, 1862, was a disaster for the Union. Lincoln then named Joseph Hooker commander of the Army of the Potomac. Hooker's advance to attack Lee in May, 1863, near Chancellorsville, Virginia, was defeated by Lee and Stonewall Jackson's daring plan to divide the army and attack Hooker's flank. It was an enormous victory over a larger force, but came at a great cost as Jackson, Lee's best subordinate, was mortally wounded.

In the summer of 1863, Lee proceeded to invade the North again, hoping for a Southern victory that would compel the North to grant Confederate independence. But his attempts to defeat the Union forces under George G. Meade at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, failed. His subordinates did not attack with the aggressive drive Lee expected, J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry was out of the area, and Lee's decision to launch a massive frontal assault on the center of the Union line—the disastrous Pickett's Charge—resulted in heavy losses. Lee was compelled to retreat again but, as after Antietam, was not vigorously pursued. Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee sent a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis on August 8, 1863, but Davis refused Lee's request.

In 1864, the new Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant sought to destroy Lee's army and capture Richmond. Lee and his men stopped each advance, but Grant had enough men to throw into the slaughter and keep trying again each time a bit further to the southeast. These battles in the Overland Campaign included the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. Grant eventually fooled Lee by stealthily moving his army across the James River. After stopping a Union attempt to capture Petersburg, Virginia, a vital railroad link supplying Richmond, Lee's men built elaborate trenches and were besieged in Petersburg. He attempted to break the stalemate by sending Jubal A. Early on a raid through the Shenandoah Valley to Washington, D.C., but Early was defeated by the superior forces of Philip Sheridan. The Siege of Petersburg would last from June 1864 until April, 1865.


General-in-chief

Lee with son Custis (left) and Walter H. Taylor (right).On January 31, 1865, Lee was promoted to be general-in-chief of Confederate forces. In early 1865, he urged adoption of a scheme to allow slaves to join the Confederate army in exchange for their freedom. The scheme never came to fruition in the short time the Confederacy had left before it ceased to exist.

As the Confederate army was worn down by months of battle, a Union attempt to capture Petersburg on April 2, 1865, succeeded. Lee abandoned the defense of Richmond and sought to join General Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina. His forces were surrounded by the Union army and he surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Lee resisted calls by some subordinates (and indirectly by Jefferson Davis) to reject surrender and allow small units to melt away into the mountains, setting up a lengthy guerrilla war.


After the War

Lee after the Civil WarFollowing the war, Lee applied for, but was never granted, the official postwar amnesty. He and his wife had lived at his wife's family home prior to the Civil War, the Custis-Lee Mansion. It was confiscated by Union forces, and is today part of Arlington National Cemetery. Lee's example of applying for amnesty was an encouragement to many other former Confederates to accept being citizens of the United States once again. In 1975, President Gerald Ford granted a posthumous pardon and Congress restored his citizenship.

He served as president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia from October 2, 1865. Over five years he transformed Washington College from a small, undistinguished school into one of the first American colleges to offer courses in business, journalism, and Spanish. He incorporated law into the academic curriculum -- at the time an odd concept, because law was seen as a technical rather than intellectual profession. He also imposed a sweeping and breathtakingly simple concept of honor — "We have but one rule, and it is that every student is a gentleman" — that endures today at Washington and Lee and at a few other schools that continue to maintain absolutist "honor systems."


Final illness and death
On the evening of September 28, 1870, Lee walked home from a church meeting from Grace Church in Lexington. He was late for dinner and had kept his family waiting. Without saying a word, he went directly to the head of the dinner table preparing to say grace. Strangely, Lee was unable to speak, although he tried. He sat down but still could not answer questions from his family on what was wrong. The most he could do was mumble incoherent sounds. His face had an odd passive and resigned look, and his eyes showed no expression, making him seem oblivious to all around him. When his medical doctors were called, the most they could do was help put him to bed and hope for the best.

Although not diagnosed by his doctors, it is almost certain that Lee suffered a stroke. In his last few years, he had complained about chest pain (probably angina pectoris) and often complained about pain in his right arm, which he said often felt numb. Likely he was developing arteriosclerosis or a type of cardiovascular disorder, and it would gradually weaken him the rest of his life. Medical wisdom had no knowledge of this, and simply diagnosed it as rheumatism (a general term then, often used to describe some circulatory problem). In his last year of his life, an aged and weak Lee confided to friends that he felt like he could die any moment. The stroke damaged the frontal lobes of the brain which made speech impossible, and causing abulia, a condition which impaired any thought process (which also explained his facial expression). Lee was also not able to cough or expectorate, and this would prove a fatal problem. In the coming days his family and friends, with doctors' approval, force-fed him food and liquids to build up his strength. Unfortunately, some of these liquids found their way into his lungs, and pneumonia developed. With no ability to cough, Lee died from the effects of pneumonia (not from the stroke itself), inadvertently caused by his well-meaning family and doctors. He died two weeks after the stroke on the morning of October 12, 1870, in Lexington, Virginia, and was buried underneath the chapel at Washington and Lee University.

A reported story that has even found its way into Bartlett's Familiar Quotations had Lee uttering his last words on September 28, shortly after his stroke. He reputedly said "Tell Hill he must come up. Strike the Tent." (The first sentence very often omitted when cited as his last words.) It is doubtful that Lee said this or anything else after his stroke. Officially, his last recorded words were spoken the same day at the church meeting, in which he said "I will give that sum", in response to offers to raise money for the church. Lee had agreed to contribute $55.

In 1975, Lee's full USA citizenship was restored posthumously by an act of the U.S. Congress, following the discovery of his oath of allegiance by an employee of the National Archives in 1970.

The birth of Robert E. Lee is celebrated in the state of Virginia as part of Lee-Jackson Day (formerly Lee-Jackson-King Day).

Omar Nelson Bradley (February 12, 1893 – April 8, 1981) was one of the main U.S. Army field commanders in North Africa and Europe during the World War II.

Early life and career
Bradley was born to a poor family near Clark, Missouri, the son of a schoolteacher. He was educated at local schools and intended to enter the University of Missouri. Instead, he was advised to try for West Point. He placed first in his district exams for a place and entered the academy in 1911. He graduated from West Point in 1915 as part of a class that contained many future generals, which military historians have called, "The class the stars fell upon."

He joined the 14th Infantry Regiment but, like many of his peers, did not see action in Europe, but held a variety of stateside assignments. He served on the Mexican border in 1915. When war was declared, he was promoted to captain, but was posted to Montana. Bradley joined the 19th Infantry Division in August 1918, which was intended for European deployment, but the influenza pandemic and the armistice prevented him from leaving the US.

Between the wars he taught and studied. From 1920-24 he taught mathematics at West Point. He was promoted to a major in 1924 and took the advanced infantry course at Fort Benning, Georgia. After a brief service in Hawaii he then studied at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth in 1928-29. From 1929 he taught at West Point again, taking a break to study at the Army War College in 1934. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1936 and worked at the War Department from 1938. In February 1941 he was promoted to brigadier general and sent to command Fort Benning. In February 1942 he took command of the 82nd Infantry Division before being switched to the 28th Infantry Division in June.

World War II

General Omar N. BradleyBradley did not receive a frontline command until early 1943 after Operation Torch. He had been given VIII Corps but instead was sent to North Africa to serve under Dwight D. Eisenhower. He became head of II Corps in April and directed them in the final battles of April and May. He then led his corps onto Sicily in July. In the approach to Normandy Bradley was chosen to command the substantial 1st Army Group. During Operation Overlord he commanded three corps directed at the areas codenamed Utah and Omaha. Later in July he planned Operation Cobra which was the beginning of the breakout from the Normandy beachhead. By August, Bradley's command, the renamed 12th Army Group, had swollen to over 900,000 men.

Commander General Henry H. Arnold confer with Bradley on the beach at Normandy, France in 1944. Bradley used his force to undertake an ambitious plan to encircle the German forces in Normandy, trapping them at the Chambois pocket. It was only partially successful but German forces still suffered huge losses during their retreat. The American forces reached the 'Siegfried Line' or 'Westwall' in late September. The sheer scale of the advance had taken the Allied high command by surprise. They had expected the German Wehrmacht to make stands on the natural defensive lines provided by the French rivers, and consequently, logistics had become a severe issue as well.


Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall (center) and Army Air ForcesAt this time, the Allied high command under Eisenhower faced a decision on strategy. Bradley favored a strategy consisting of a advance into the Saarland, or possibly a two thrust assault on both the Saarland and the Ruhr Area. Newly promoted to Field Marshal, Bernard Montgomery argued that he should lead a thrust on the northern flank into the Ruhr. Montgomery's tempestuous personality ultimately carried the day, leading to Operation Market-Garden. The debate, while not fissuring the Allied command, nevertheless led to a serious rift between the two Army group commanders of the European Theater of Operations. Bradley bitterly protested to Eisenhower the priority of supplies given to Montgomery, but Eisenhower, mindful of British public opinion, held Bradley's protests in check.

After the failure of Montgomery's forces to take Arnhem and its bridge across the Rhine, forces under Bradley's command took the initial brunt of what would become the Battle of the Bulge. In a move without precedent in modern warfare, the US 3rd Army under George Patton disengaged from their combat in the Saarland, moved 90 miles to the battlefront, and forced the Germans back. Bradley used the advantage gained in March 1945 — after Eisenhower once again favored Montgomery with supplies for another unsuccessful offensive in February 1945 — to break the German defences and cross the Rhine into the industrial heartland of the Ruhr. Aggressive pursuit of the disintegrating German troops by Bradley's forces resulted in the capture of a bridge across the Rhine River at Remagen. Bradley and his subordinates quickly exploited the crossing, leading to an enormous pincer movement encircling the German forces in the Ruhr from the north and south. Over 300,000 prisoners were taken. American forces then met up with the Soviet forces near the River Elbe in mid-April. By V-E Day, the 12th Army Group was a force of four armies (1st, 3rd, 9th, and 15th) that numbered over 1.3 million men.


Post-war
Bradley headed the Veterans Administration for two years after the war. He was made army chief of staff in 1948 and first official Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949. On September 22, 1950 he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army, the fifth man in the 20th century - and last to date - to achieve that rank. Also in 1950 he was made the first Chairman of the NATO Committee. He remained on the committee until August 1953 when he left active duty to take a number of positions in commercial life.

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Bradley strongly rebuked General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of the U.N. forces in Korea, for his desire to expand the Korean War into China. Soon after Truman relieved MacArthur of command in April 1951, Bradley said in Congressional testimony, "Red China is not the powerful nation seeking to dominate the world. Frankly, in the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, this strategy would involve us in the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy."

He published his memoirs in 1951 as A Soldier's Story and took the opportunity to attack Field Marshal Montgomery's 1945 claims to have won the Battle of the Bulge. Bradley spent his last years at a special residence on the grounds of the William Beaumont Army Medical Center, part of the complex which supports Fort Bliss, Texas. Upon his death, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The U.S. Army's M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle and M3 Bradley cavalry fighting vehicle are named after General Bradley.

Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880–April 5, 1964) was an American military leader. He is the most decorated soldier in the history of the United States military. He served in the U.S. Army most of his life, taking part in three major wars (World War I, World War II, Korean War) and rising to the rank of General of the Army, one of only nine people to hold that rank in U.S. history.

During World War II, MacArthur became famous for both losing and retaking the Philippines. He was appointed Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific Area and led a series of military victories by Allied forces in the theatre. After Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945, MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, rebuilding Japan during the Allied occupation. During the Korean War, MacArthur was removed from command for insubordination to U.S. President Harry S. Truman, causing a national controversy.

MacArthur remains one of the most controversial figures in American history. While greatly admired by many for his strategic and tactical brilliance, MacArthur is also criticized by many for his actions in command, such as his role in putting down the Bonus Army, his command in the Philippines and New Guinea, and his challenge to Truman during the Cold War. MacArthur was also criticized for his egotistical attitude.

Early life and education
MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. His parents were Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, a recipient of the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War, and Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur of Norfolk, Virginia. In 1883, when he was three years old, his other brother, Malcolm, died (his older brother Arthur would later attend the U.S. Naval Academy and die in 1923 as a Captain.) MacArthur spent much of his childhood in remote parts of New Mexico such as Fort Selden, where his father commanded an infantry company. In his memoir Reminiscences, MacArthur wrote that his first memory was the sound of a bugle.

When MacArthur was six years old, his father was reassigned to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Three years later, the MacArthur family moved to Washington, D.C. when Douglas's father took a post at the War Department. There he spent time with his paternal grandfather, Judge Arthur MacArthur, a member of the high-profile Washington political culture that had enormous influence on Douglas.

MacArthur's father was posted to San Antonio, Texas in 1893. There, Douglas attended the West Texas Military Academy, where he became an excellent student. MacArthur entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1898. An outstanding cadet, he graduated as valedictorian of his 93-man class in 1903, with only two other students in the history of West Point surpassing his achievements. MacArthur became a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where he was a leader in combat engineering.


World War I
During World War I MacArthur served in France, with the 42nd Division. Upon his promotion to Brigadier General (the youngest ever in the Army) he became the commander of the 84th Infantry Brigade.


MacArthur's Mistress
In 1929 MacArthur met Isabel Rosario Cooper, a sixteen-year old Filipina Actress, who he later took with him to Washington.


The Bonus Army
He spent most of the inter-war period on different assignments in the Philippines. In 1932, while in Washington, D.C. he commanded the troops used to disperse the Bonus Army of First World War veterans who were in the capital protesting against the government's failure to give them benefits. He was accused of using excessive force against a peaceful protest.

MacArthur left the U.S. Army in 1937 to command the Philippine Army, but returned in July 1941 as commander of United States Army Forces Far East (USAFFE), based in Manila.


World War II
After the United States entered World War II, MacArthur became Allied commander in the Philippines. He courted controversy on several occasions, especially when he overruled his air commander, General Lewis H. Brereton, who had requested permission to launch air attacks against Japanese bases on nearby Formosa. Consequently much of the US Far East Air Force was destroyed on the ground in the Philippines, the prelude to a Japanese invasion. In March 1942, as Japanese forces tightened their grip on the Philippines, MacArthur was ordered by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to relocate to Melbourne, Australia. MacArthur's famous speech, in which he said "I came out of Bataan and I shall return", was made at Terowie, South Australia on March 20.


General MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito.MacArthur became Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) and took command of Australian, US, Dutch and other Allied forces defending Australia, fighting mainly in and around New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies. He later moved SWPA headquarters to Brisbane, Australia. MacArthur's forces eventually achieved success, overrunning Japanese resistance in 1943 and 1944.

MacArthur's handling of the Australian forces under his command during this time has been the subject of much criticism, both by his contemporaries and subsequent historians. During 1942, MacArthur controlled more Australian than US forces. However, it has been claimed that he decreed that all Australian victories would be reported as "Allied victories", while American victories would be reported as American. It is also a widely-held view that, from mid-1943 onwards, MacArthur confined the Australian Army divisions under his command to tough and largely irrelevant actions, while reserving the more prestigious actions for his own nation's troops. As a result, there is an enduring antipathy towards MacArthur in Australia.

American forces under MacArthur's command took back the Philippines in October 1944, fulfilling MacArthur's vow to return to the Philippines and consolidating their hold on the archipelago after heavy fighting. In September 1945 MacArthur received the formal Japanese surrender which ended World War II. He was awarded and received the Medal of Honor for his leadership in the Southwest Pacific Theater.

Post-World War II
After World War II, MacArthur served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP). His first responsibility was overseeing the reconstruction in Japan. Though it was officially an effort of the Allies, the US was firmly in control, and MacArthur was effectively the dictator of Japan during this period. In 1946, MacArthur's staff created the constitution that is in use in Japan to this day. MacArthur handed over power to the newly-formed Japanese government in 1949, and remained in Japan until June 1950.

After the surprise attack of the North Korean army in June 1950 started the Korean War, the United Nations General Assembly authorized a United Nations (UN) force to help South Korea. MacArthur led the UN coalition counter-offensive, noted for an amphibious landing behind North Korean lines in the Battle of Inchon. As his forces approached the Korea-China border, the Chinese warned they would become involved. During his trip to Wake Island to meet with President Truman, MacArthur was specifically asked by President Truman about Chinese involvement in the war. MacArthur was dismissive.

On October 25, 1950, the People's Liberation Army attacked across the Yalu River, forcing the U.N forces to embark on a lengthy retreat. MacArthur sought an extension of the conflict into China, but President Truman refused his request. Later declassified documents indicate that MacArthur wanted to use nuclear weapons on Chinese territory, some sources suggesting as many as 50. A nuclear strike may have drawn the Soviet Union into the war and perhaps launched a Third World War. Truman feared a nuclear exchange and needless Chinese deaths. After heated arguments between the two men, Truman relieved MacArthur of his duty on April 11, 1951. General Matthew B. Ridgway replaced MacArthur and stabilized the situation near the 38th parallel.


Post-dismissal
MacArthur returned to Washington (his first time in the continental US in 11 years), where he made his last public appearance in a farewell address to the U.S. Congress, interrupted by thirty ovations. In his closing speech, he mused: "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."

On his return from Korea, after his relief by Truman, MacArthur encountered massive public adulation, which aroused expectations that he would run for the US presidency as a Republican in 1952. However, a Senate Committee investigation of his removal, chaired by Richard Russell, contributed to a marked cooling of the public mood and, once his presidential hopes had died away, MacArthur spent the remainder of his life quietly in New York.

MacArthur and his second wife, Jean Faircloth, are buried together in downtown Norfolk, Virginia; their burial site is in a small museum dedicated to his memory, and there is a major shopping mall named for him across the street from the burial site. The couple's son changed his surname and now lives anonymously as a saxophonist in the New York area.

MacArthur's nephew, Douglas MacArthur II, served as a diplomat for several years.

Tommy Ray Franks, (born June 17, 1945) is a retired General in the United States Army, previously serving as the Commander-in-Chief of United States Central Command, overseeing United States Armed Forces operations in a 25-country region, including the Middle East. Franks succeeded General Anthony Zinni to this position on July 6, 2000 and served until his retirement on July 7, 2003. He was succeeded by General John Abizaid.

He was the U.S. general leading the attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan in response to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. Franks also led the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and was commander-in-chief of the American occupation forces.

Early life
Franks was born in Wynnewood, Oklahoma but grew up in Texas, attending the same high school as Laura Bush in Midland.

Franks was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1967 as a distinguished graduate of The U.S. Army Artillery and Missile Officer Candidate School (USAAMOCS), Fort Sill, Oklahoma. After an initial tour as a battery Assistant Executive Officer at Fort Sill, he was assigned to the US 9th Infantry Division, Republic of Vietnam, where he served as Forward Observer, Aerial Observer, and Assistant S-3 with 2nd Battalion, 4th Field Artillery. He also served as Fire Support Officer with 5th Battalion (mechanized), 60th Infantry during this tour.

In 1968, Franks returned to Fort Sill, where he commanded a cannon battery in the Artillery Training Center. In 1969, he was selected to participate in the Army's "Boot Strap Degree Completion Program," and subsequently attended the University of Texas at Arlington, where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration in 1971. Following attendance at the Artillery Advance Course, he was assigned to the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment in West Germany in 1973 where he commanded 1st Squadron Howitzer Battery, and served as Squadron S-3. He also commanded the 84th Armored Engineer Company, and served as Regimental Assistant S-3 during this tour.


Military career
Franks, after graduation from Armed Forces Staff College, was posted to The Pentagon in 1976 where he served as an Army Inspector General in the Investigations Division. In 1977 he was assigned to the Office of the Chief of Staff, Army where he served on the Congressional Activities Team, and subsequently as an Executive Assistant.

In 1981, Franks returned to West Germany where he commanded 2nd Battalion, 78th Field Artillery for three years. He returned to the United States in 1984 to attend the Army War College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he also completed graduate studies and received a Master of Science Degree in Public Administration at Shippensburg University. He was next assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, as III Corps Deputy Assistant G3, a position he held until 1987 when he assumed command of Division Artillery, US 1st Cavalry Division. He also served as Chief of Staff, 1st Cavalry Division during this tour.

His initial general officer assignment was Assistant Division Commander (Maneuver), 1st Cavalry Division during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. During 1991-92, he was assigned as Assistant Commandant of the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill. In 1992, he was assigned to Fort Monroe, Virginia as the first Director, Louisiana Maneuvers Task Force, Office of Chief of Staff of the Army, a position held until 1994 when he was reassigned to South Korea as the CJG3 of Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea.

From 1995-97, General Franks commanded the 2nd (Warrior) Division, Korea. He assumed command of Third (U.S.) Army/Army Forces Central Command in Atlanta, Ga. in May 1997, a post he held until June 2000 when he was selected for promotion to general and assignment as Commander in Chief, United States Central Command.

General Franks' retirement was announced on May 22, 2003. Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had offered him the position of Army Chief of Staff, but he declined.

General Franks endorsed President George W. Bush for re-election on August 31, 2004.


Awards
General Franks' awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal; Distinguished Service Medal (two awards); Legion of Merit (four awards); Bronze Star Medal with Valor device and two oak leaf clusters; Purple Heart (two oak leaf clusters); Air Medal with Valor device; Army Commendation Medal with Valor device; and a number of U.S. and foreign service awards. He wears the Army Staff Identification Badge and the Aircraft Crewmember's Badge. He is a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[1] (http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBKTHCRNUD.html). In late 2004, he was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States (1953–1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General of the Army.


Early life and family
Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, the third of seven sons born to David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Elizabeth Stover, and their only child born in Texas. The Eisenhower family was of German descent, but had lived in America since the 18th century. The family moved back to Abilene, Kansas, in 1892. Eisenhower graduated from Abilene High School in 1909 and he worked at Belle Springs Creamery from 1909 to 1911.

Eisenhower married Mamie Geneva Doud (1896–1979), of Denver, Colorado on Saturday, July 1, 1916. They had two children, Doud Dwight Eisenhower (1917–1921), and John Sheldon David Doud Eisenhower (born 1922). John Eisenhower served in the United States Army, then became an author and served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. John's son, David Eisenhower, after whom Camp David is named, married Richard Nixon's daughter Julie in 1968.

Military career
Eisenhower enrolled at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, in June, 1911 and graduated in 1915. He served with the infantry until 1918 at various camps in Texas and Georgia. He then served with the Tank Corps from 1918 to 1922 at Camp Meade, Maryland and other places. He was promoted to Captain in 1917 and Major in 1920. In 1922 he was assigned as executive officer to General Fox Conner in the Panama Canal Zone, where he served until 1924. In 1925 and 1926 he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and then served as a battalion commander, at Fort Benning, Georgia, until 1927.


Eisenhower with his wife Mamie on the steps of St. Louis College at San Antonio, Texas in 1916.During the late 1920s and early 1930s Eisenhower's career in the peacetime Army stagnated. He was assigned to the American Battle Monuments Commission, directed by General John J. Pershing, then to the Army War College in Washington, D.C., and then served as executive officer to General George V. Moseley, Assistant Secretary of War, from 1929 to 1933. He then served as chief military aide to General Douglas MacArthur, Army Chief of Staff, until 1935, when he accompanied MacArthur to the Philippines, where he served as assistant military advisor to the Philippine Government. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1936.

Eisenhower returned to the U.S. in 1939 and held a series of staff positions in Washington, D.C., California, and Texas. In June 1941 was appointed Chief of Staff to General Walter Kreuger, Commander of the 3rd Army, at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He was promoted to Brigadier-General in September 1941. Although his administrative abilities had been noticed, on the eve of the U.S. entry into World War II he had never held an active command and was far from being considered as a potential commander of major operations.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower was assigned to the General Staff in Washington, where he served until June 1942. He was appointed Deputy Chief in charge of Pacific Defenses under the Chief of War Plans Division, General Leonard Gerow, and then succeeded Gerow as Chief of the War Plans Division. Then he was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of Operations Division under the Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall. It was his close association with Marshall which finally brought Eisenhower to senior command positions. Marshall recognised his great organisational and administrative abilities.


Wartime commander

Eisenhower with Winston Churchill during World War IIIn June 1942 Eisenhower was appointed Commanding General, European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA) and was based in London. In November he was also appointed Supreme Commander Allied (Expeditionary) Force of the North African Theater of Operations through the new operational Headquarters A(E)FHQ. The word Expeditionary was dropped soon after his appointment for security reasons. In February 1943 his authority was extended as commander of AFHQ across the Mediterranean Sea basin to include the British 8th Army, commanded by General Bernard Montgomery. The 8th Army had advanced across the Western Desert from the east and was ready for the start of Tunisia Campaign. Eisenhower gained his fourth star and gave up command of ETOUSA to be commander of NATOUSA. After the capitulation of Axis forces in North Africa, Eisenhower remained in command of the renamed Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) keeping the operational title and continued in command of NATOUSA redesignated MTOUSA. In this position he oversaw the invasion of Sicily and the invasion of the Italian mainland.

In December 1943 it was announced that Eisenhower would be Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. In January 1944 he resumed command of ETOUSA and the following month was officially designated as the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), serving in a dual role until the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945. In these positions he was charged with planning and carrying out the Allied assault on the coast of Normandy in June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord, the liberation of western Europe and the invasion of Germany. A month after the Normandy D-Day on June 6 1944, the invasion of southern France took place, control for the forces which took part in the southern invasion passed from the AFHQ to the SHAEF. From then until the end of the War in Europe on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower through SHAEF had supreme command of all operational Allied forces1, and through his command of ETOUSA, administrative command of all US forces, on the Western Front north of the Alps.

As recognition of his senior position in the Allied command, on December 20 1944, he was promoted to General of the Army equivalent to the rank of Field Marshal in most European armies. In this and the previous high commands he held Eisenhower showed his great talents for leadership and diplomacy. Although he had never seen action himself, he won the respect of front-line commanders such as Omar Bradley and George Patton. He dealt skillfully with difficult allies such as Winston Churchill, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and General Charles de Gaulle. He had fundamental disagreements with Churchill and Montgomery over questions of strategy, but these rarely upset his relationships with them. He negotiated with Soviet Marshal Zhukov, and such was the confidence that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had in him, he sometimes worked directly with Stalin. Eisenhower was offered the Medal of Honor for his leadership in the European Theater but refused it, saying that it should be reserved for bravery and valour.

It was never a certainty that Overlord would succeed. The tenuousness surrounding the entire decision including the timing and the location of the Normandy invasion might be summarized by a short speech that Eisenhower himself wrote, in advance, in case he might need it. In it, he took full responsibility for catastrophic failure, should that be the final result. Long after the successful landings on D-Day and the BBC broadcast of Eisenhower's brief speech concerning them, the never-used second speech was found in a shirt pocket by an aide. It read:

"Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
Following the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, Eisenhower was appointed Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone, based in Frankfurt-am-Main. Germany was divided into four Occupation Zones, one each for the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. He made the controversial decision to reclassify German prisoners of war or POWs in U.S. custody as Disarmed Enemy Forces or DEFs. As DEFs, they could be compelled to serve as unpaid conscript labor. An unknown number may have died in custody as a consequence of malnutrition, exposure to the elements, and lack of medical care.

Eisenhower was named Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army in November 1945, and in December 1950 was named Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and given operational command of NATO forces in Europe. Eisenhower retired from active service on May 31, 1952, upon entering politics.

Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (born August 22, 1934), United States Army general, was commander of the United States forces in the Gulf War of 1991.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey to Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr., he graduated from West Point in 1956, and earned a masters degree in missile engineering from the University of Southern California in 1964.

After graduating from West Point and receiving a commission in the infantry, Schwarzkopf had assignments in the United States and Germany before going back to school to earn his masters in guided missile engineering. Schwarzkopf then returned to West Point as a member of the faculty.

Following Schwarzkopf's first year as a member of the faculty at West Point he requested a reassignment to Vietnam. Schwarzkopf served as an adviser to the Vietnamese airborne division during his two combat tours in the Vietnam War and received the Purple Heart after being injured.

Schwarzkopf made general in 1978, and in 1983 was deputy commander during the US invasion of Grenada, and in 1988 was appointed to the U.S. Central Command.

In 1990 he was chosen to run Operation Desert Storm, and was responsible for the "left hook" strategy that went into Iraq behind the Iraqi forces occupying Kuwait, and widely credited with bringing the ground war to a close in just four days. He was personally very visible in the conduct of the war, giving frequent press conferences, and was dubbed "Stormin' Norman."

He was awarded the United States Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom and the British Order of the Bath.

Antoine Charles Louis, comte de Lasalle (1775-1809) was a French general of cavalry under Napoleon.

He belonged to a noble family in Lorraine; his grandfather was Abraham Fabert, marshal of France. Entering the French army at the age of eleven, he had reached the rank of lieutenant when the French Revolution broke out. As an aristocrat, he lost his commission, but he enlisted in the ranks, where his desperate bravery and innate power of command soon distinguished him. By 1795 he had won back his grade, and was serving as a staff-officer in the army of Italy. On one occasion, at Vicenza, he rivalled Seydlitz's feat of leaping his horse over the parapet of a bridge to avoid capture, and, later, in Egypt, he saved Davout's life in action.

By 1800 he had become colonel, and in one combat in that year he had two horses killed under him, and broke seven swords. Five years later, having attained the rank of general of brigade, he was present with his brigade of light cavalry at Austerlitz. In the pursuit after Jena in 1806, though he had but 600 hussars and not one piece of artillery with him, he terrified the commandant of the strong fortress of Stettin into surrender, a feat rarely equalled save by that of Cromwell on Bletchingdon House.

Made general of division for this exploit, he was next in the Polish campaign, and at Heilsberg saved the life of Murat, grand duke of Berg. When the Peninsular War began, Lasalle was sent out with one of the cavalry divisions, and at Medina de Rio Seco, Gamonal and Medellin broke every body of troops which he charged.

A year later, at the head of one of the cavalry divisions of the Grande Armee he took part in the Austrian war. At Wagram he was killed at the head of his men. With the possible exception of Curely, who was in 1809 still unknown, Napoleon never possessed a better leader of light horse. Wild and irregular in his private life, Lasalle was far more than a beau sabreur. To talent and experience he added that power of feeling the pulse of the battle which is the true gift of a great leader. A statue of him was erected in Luneville in 1893. His remains were brought from Austria to the Invalides in 1891.

Napoléon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français) and King of Italy under the name Napoleon I from May 18, 1804 to April 6, 1814, and again briefly from March 20 to June 22, 1815.

Napoleon is considered to have been a military genius, and is known for commanding many successful campaigns, although also for some spectacular failures. Over the course of little more than a decade, he acquired control of most or all of the western and central mainland of Europe by conquest or alliance until his defeat at the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig in October 1813, which led to his abdication several months later. He staged a comeback known as the Hundred Days (les Cent Jours), but was defeated decisively at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium on June 18, 1802, followed shortly afterwards by his capture by the British and his exile to the island of Saint Helena, where he died.

Aside from his military achievements, Napoleon is also remembered for the establishment of the Napoleonic Code, and he is considered to have been one of the "enlightened monarchs". Napoleon appointed several members of the Bonaparte family as monarchs. Although they did not survive his downfall, a nephew, Napoleon III, ruled France later in the century.


Early life and military career


He later adopted the more French-sounding Napoléon Bonaparte, the first known instance of which appears in an official report dated March 28, 1796.

His family was of minor Corsican nobility. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, an attorney, was named Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI in 1778, where he remained for a number of years. The dominant influence of Napoleon's childhood was his mother, (Maria) Letizia Ramolino. Ahead of her time, she had her 8 children bathe every other day—at a time when even those in the upper classes took a bath perhaps once a month. Her firm discipline helped restrain the rambunctious boy, nicknamed Rabullione (the "meddler" or "disrupter").


Education
At age 10, Napoleon was admitted to a French military school at Brienne-le-Château, a small town near Troyes, on May 15, 1779. He had to learn to speak French before entering the school. He spoke French with a marked Italian accent throughout his life, and was a poor speller. He earned high marks in mathematics and geography, and passable grades in other subjects. Upon graduation from Brienne in 1784, Bonaparte was admitted to the elite École Royale Militaire in Paris, where he completed the course of study in one year while most other cadets required two. Although he had earlier sought a naval assignment, he studied artillery at the École Militaire. Upon graduation in September, 1785, he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant of artillery, and took up his new duties in January 1786, at the age of 16.


Revolutionary Officer

Napoleon Bonaparte as young officerHe served on garrison duty in Valence and Auxonne until after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 (although he took nearly two years of leave in Corsica and Paris during this period). He spent most of the next several years on Corsica, where a complex three-way struggle was played out among royalists, revolutionaries, and Corsican nationalists. Bonaparte supported the Jacobin faction, and gained the position of lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of volunteers. After coming into conflict with the increasingly conservative nationalist leader, Pasquale Paoli, Bonaparte and his family were forced to flee to France in June 1793.

He soon was appointed as artillery commander in the French forces beseiging Toulon, which had risen in revolt against the Terror and was occupied by British troops. He formulated a successful plan for assaulting the British positions, leading to the recapture of the city and a promotion to brigadier-general. His actions brought him to the attention of the Committee of Public Safety, and he became a close associate of Augustin Robespierre, younger brother of the Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. As a result, he was briefly imprisoned following the fall of the elder Robespierre in 1794, but was released within two weeks.


The "Whiff of Grapeshot"
In 1795, Bonaparte was serving in Paris when royalists and counter-revolutionaries organized an armed protest against the National Convention on October 3. Bonaparte was given command of the improvised forces defending the Convention in the Tuileries Palace. He seized artillery pieces (with the aid of a young cavalry officer, Joachim Murat, who would later become his brother-in-law) and used them the following day to repel the attackers. He later boasted that he had cleared the streets with a "whiff of grapeshot." This triumph gained him sudden fame, wealth, and the patronage of the new Directory, particularly that of its leading member, Barras. Within weeks he was romantically attached to Barras' former mistress, Josephine de Beauharnais, whom he married in 1796.


Campaigns in Italy and Egypt
Just days after his marriage, Bonaparte took command of the French "Army of Italy" and led it on a successful invasion of Italy. At the Lodi, he gained the nickname of "The Little Corporal" (le petit caporal), a term reflecting his camaraderie with the ordinary soldiers. He drove the Austrian forces out of Lombardy and defeated the army of the Papal States, but ignored the Directory's order to march on Rome and dethrone the Pope. In early 1797, he led his army into Austria and forced that power to sue for peace. The resulting Treaty of Campo Formio gave France control of most of northern Italy, along with the Low Countries and Rhineland, but a secret clause promised Venice to Austria. Bonaparte then marched on Venice and forced its surrender, ending over 1,000 years of independence. Later in 1797, Bonaparte organized many of the French-dominated territories in Italy into the Cisalpine Republic.

Bonaparte was a brilliant military strategist, able to absorb the substantial body of military knowledge of his time and to apply it to the real-world circumstances of his era. He was not, however, an innovator, but rather a skilled practitioner of an art he learned from books; as he put it himself, "I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning." An artillery officer by training, he used artillery innovatively as a mobile force to support infantry attacks, and benefited from France's technological advantage in this branch of arms. He was an aggressive commander who enjoyed the loyalty of highly motivated soliders. Contemporary paintings of his headquarters during the Italian campaign show that he used the world's first telecommunications system, the Chappe semaphore line, first implemented in 1792. He was also a master of both intelligence and deception, using spies to gather information about opposing forces while seeking to conceal his own deployments, and often won battles by concentrating his forces on an unsuspecting enemy.

While campaigning in Italy, Bonaparte became increasingly influential in French politics. He published two newspapers, ostensibly for the troops in his army, but widely circulated within France as well. In May 1797 he founded a third newspaper, published in Paris, entitled Le Journal de Bonaparte et des hommes vertueux. Elections in mid-1797 gave the royalist party increased power, alarming Barras and his allies on the Directory. The royalists, in turn, began attacking Bonaparte for looting Italy and overstepping his authority in dealings with the Austrians (not without justification on both counts). Bonaparte soon sent General Augereau to Paris to lead a coup d'etat and purge the royalists on 4 September (18 Fructidor). This left Barras and his Republican allies in firm control again, but dependent on Bonaparte's "sword" to stay there. Bonaparte himself proceeded to the peace negotiations with Austria, then returned to Paris in December as the conquering hero and the dominant force in government, far more popular than any of the Directors.


Napoleon visiting the plague victims of JaffaIn March 1798, Bonaparte proposed an expedition to colonize Egypt, then a province of the Ottoman Empire, seeking to protect French trade interests and undermine Britain's access to India. The Directory, although troubled by the scope and cost of the enterprise, readily agreed to the plan in order to remove the popular general from the center of power.

An unusual aspect of the Egyptian expedition was the inclusion of a large group of scientists along with the invading force: among the other discoveries that resulted, the Rosetta Stone was found. This deployment of intellectual resources is considered by some an indication of Bonaparte's devotion to the principles of the Enlightenment, and by others a masterstroke of propaganda obfuscating the true imperialist motives of the invasion. In a largely unsuccessful effort to gain the support of the Egyptian populace, Bonaparte also issued proclamations casting himself as a liberator of the people from Ottoman oppression, and praising the precepts of Islam.

Bonaparte’s expedition seized Malta on June 9 and then landed successfully at Alexandria on July 1, eluding (temporarily) pursuit by the Royal Navy. Although Bonaparte had massive success against the native Mamluk army (his 25,000 strong invading force defeated a 100,000 army), his fleet was largely destroyed by Nelson at The Battle of the Nile, so that Bonaparte became land-bound. His goal of strengthening the French position in the Mediterranean Sea was thus frustrated, but his army nonetheless succeeded in consolidating power in Egypt, although it faced repeated nationalist uprisings.

In early 1799 he led the army into the Ottoman province of Syria, now modern Israel, and defeated numerically superior Ottoman forces in several battles, but his army was weakened by disease and poor supplies. He was unable to reduce the fortress of Acre, and was forced to retreat to Egypt in May. On July 25, he defeated an Ottoman amphibious invasion at Abukir.

Ruler of France


Portrait by Jacques-Louis DavidWhile in Egypt, Bonaparte had kept a close eye on European affairs, relying largely on newspapers and dispatches that arrived only irregularly. On August 23, he abruptly set sail for France, taking advantage of a temporary departure of blockading British ships. Although he was later accused by political opponents of abandoning his troops, his departure actually had been authorized by the Directory, which had suffered a series of military defeats to the forces of the Second Coalition, and feared an invasion. By the time he arrived back in Paris in October, the military situation had improved thanks to several French victories. The Republic was bankrupt, however, and the corrupt and inefficient Directory was no more popular than ever.

Bonaparte was approached by one of the Directors, Sieyès, seeking his support for a coup to overthrow the constitution. The plot included Bonaparte's brother Lucien, then serving as speaker of the Council of Five Hundred, Roger Ducos, another Director, and Talleyrand. On November 9, or 18 Brumaire, and the following day, troops led by Bonaparte seized control and dispersed the legislative councils, leaving a rump to name Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Ducos as provisional Consuls to administer the government. Although Sieyès expected to dominate the new regime, he was outmaneuvered by Bonaparte, who drafted the Constitution of the Year VIII and secured his own election as First Consul. This made him the most powerful person in France, a power that was increased by the Constitution of the Year X, which made him First Consul for life.

The First Consul
Bonaparte instituted several lasting reforms including centralized admnistration of the départments, higher education, a tax system, a central bank, law codes, and road and sewer systems. He negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with the Catholic Church, seeking to reconcile the mostly Catholic population with his regime. His set of civil laws, the Napoleonic Code or Civil Code, has importance to this day in many countries. The Code was prepared by committees of legal experts under the supervision of Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, who held the office Second Consul from 1799 to 1804; Bonaparte, however, participated actively in the sessions of the Council of State that revised the drafts. Other codes were commissioned by Bonaparte to deal with criminal and commerce law; in 1808, a Code of Criminal Instruction was published, which laid precise rules of operations for courts and, though it may seem somewhat biased in favor of the prosecution by today's standards, sought to preserve personal freedoms and remedy the abuses commonplace in the European courts of the day. Although Bonaparte was an authoritarian ruler, the same was true of all the European monarchs of the time, with the sole exception of Britain. Bonaparte sought to restore law and order after the excesses of the Revolution, and reform the administration of the State.


An Interlude of Peace

Napoléon crossing the Alps, by Jacques-Louis DavidIn 1800, Bonaparte returned to Italy, which the Austrians had re-conquered during his absence in Egypt. He and his troops crossed the Alps in spring (although he actually rode a mule, not the white charger on which David famously depicted him). Although the campaign began badly, the Austrians were routed in June at Marengo, leading to an armistice. Napoleon's brother Joseph, who was leading the peace negotiations in Lunéville, reported that due to British backing for Austria, Austria would not recognize France's newly gained territory. As negotiations became more and more fractious, Bonaparte gave orders to his general Moreau to strike Austria once more. Moreau led France to victory at Hohenlinden. As a result the Treaty of Lunéville was signed in February 1801, under which the French gains of the Treaty of Campo Formio were reaffirmed and increased; the British also committed themselves to sign a peace treaty and finally signed the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, under which Malta was to be handed over to France.

The peace between France and Britain was uneasy at best. The "legitimate" monarchies of Europe were reluctant to recognize a republic, fearing that the ideas of the revolution might be exported to them. In Britain, the brother of Louis XVI was welcomed as a state guest although officially Britain recognized France as a republic. Britain failed to evacuate Malta and Egypt as promised, and protested against France's annexation of Piedmont, and Napoleon's Act of Mediation in Switzerland (although neither of these areas was covered by the Treaty of Amiens).

In 1803, Bonaparte faced a major setback when an army he sent to reconquer Santo Domingo and establish a base was destroyed by a combination of yellow fever and fierce resistance led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Recognizing that the French possessions on the mainland of North America would now be indefensible, and facing imminent war with Britain, he sold them to the United States—the Louisiana Purchase—for less than three cents per acre ($7.40/km²). The dispute over Malta provided the pretext for Britain to declare war on France in 1803 to support French royalists.


Emperor of the French
Main article: First French Empire

In January 1804, Bonaparte's police uncovered an assassination plot against him, supposedly sponsored by the Bourbons. In retaliation, Bonaparte ordered the arrest of the Duc d'Enghien, in a violation of the sovereignty of Baden. After a hurried secret trial, the Duke was executed on 21 March. Bonaparte then used this incident to justify the re-creation of a hereditary monarchy in France, with himself as Emperor, on the theory that a Bourbon restoration would be impossible once the Bonapartist succession was entrenched in the constitution.


Coronation of Napoleon, memorialized by Jacques-Louis DavidNapoleon crowned himself Emperor on 2 December 1804 (illustration, right) at Notre-Dame Cathedral. Claims that he seized the crown out of the hands of Pope Pius VII during the ceremony in order to avoid subjecting himself to the authority of the pontiff are apocryphal; in fact, the coronation procedure had been agreed upon in advance. After the Imperial regalia had been blessed by the Pope, Napoleon crowned himself before crowning his wife Joséphine as Empress. Then at Milan's cathedral on 26 May 1805, Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.

By 1805 the Third Coalition against Napoleon had formed in Europe. A plan by the French, along with the Spanish, to defeat the Royal Navy failed dramatically at the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805), and Britain gained lasting control of the seas. Napoleon then finally abandoned all hope of invading Britain, and turned his attention once again to his Continental rivals. He secured a major victory against Austria and Russia at Austerlitz (2 December), forcing Austria yet again to sue for peace; and, in the following year, humbled Prussia at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt (14 October 1806). Napoleon marched on through Poland but was attacked by the Russians at the bloody battle of Eylau on 6 February 1807. After a major victory at Friedland he signed a treaty at Tilsit in East Prussia with the Russian tsar Alexander I, dividing Europe between the two powers. He placed puppet rulers on the thrones of German states, including his brother Jerome as King of the new state of Westphalia. In the French part of Poland, he established the Duchy of Warsaw with the Saxonian King as ruler.


The Peninsula War and the War of the Fifth Coalition
Since he failed at conquering the British militarily, he decided to try to conquer them economically, by banning all merchandise and ships from continental Europe. Napoleon attempted to enforce a Europe-wide commercial boycott of Britain called the "Continental System". The English economy did suffer to an extent from this - but no more so than the French Empire's economy and neither nation was in a position to challenge the other.

Portugal did not comply with this Continental System and in 1807 Napoleon sought Spain's support in an invasion of Portugal. When Spain refused Napoleon sent forces into Spain as well. After mixed results were encountered by his generals Napoleon himself intervened and defeated the Spanish army, retook Madrid and then defeated a British army sent to support the Spanish, driving it to the coast and ignoble withdrawal from Iberia (in which its commander, Sir John Moore, was killed). He installed the King of Naples, his brother Joseph Bonaparte, as king of Spain (making one of his marshals and brother-in-law, Joachim Murat King of Naples).

The Spanish, inspired by nationalist and Catholic opposition to the French, rose in revolt. However at this time Austria broke its alliance with France without warning and Napoleon was forced to assume command of forces on the Danube and German fronts. A bloody draw at Aspern-Essling (May 21-22, 1809) near Vienna was the closest Napoleon ever came to a defeat in a battle with more or less equal numbers on each side. After both sides had licked their wounds for two months the principal French and Austrian armies engaged again near Vienna resulting in a French victory at Battle of Wagram (6 July).

Following this a new peace was signed between Austria and France and in the following year the Austrian Archduchess Marie-Louise married Napoleon, following his divorce of Josephine.

Although the Congress of Erfurt had sought to preserve the Russo-French alliance, by 1811 tensions were again increasing between the two nations. Despite being an avid admirer of Napoleon since first meeting him in 1807, Alexander had been under strong pressure from the Russian aristocracy to break off the alliance with France, as they considered it an insult to Russian pride.

The first signs that the alliance was deteriorating was the easing of the application of the Continental System in Russia. This enraged Napoleon, who it seems had genuinely liked Alexander since their meeting and thus felt betrayed. By 1812, advisors to Alexander suggested that a vast revolution was brewing across Germany and that the time was right for an invasion of the French Empire (and the recapture of Poland).

Large numbers of troops were deployed to the Polish borders (reaching over 300,000 out of the total Russian army strength of 410,000). However Napoleon anticipated this and after the initial reports of Russian war preparations he began expanding his Grande Armée to a massive force of over 600,000 men (despite already having over 300,000 men deployed in Iberia). Napoleon ignored repeated advice against an invasion of the vast Russian heartland, and prepared his forces for an offensive campaign.

On June 23, 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia commenced.

Victor Hugo would write in his poem, "Russia 1812" (1873):

The snow fell, and its power was multiplied.

For the First time the Eagle bowed its head - dark days!

Slowly the Emperor returned - behind him Moscow!

Its onion domes still burned.
Napoleon, in an attempt to gain increased support from Polish nationalists, termed the war the "Second Polish War" (the first Polish war being the liberation of Poland from Russia, Prussia and Austria). Polish nationalists wanted all of Russian Poland to be incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and a new Kingdom of Poland created. For political reasons this was unlikely to happen (principally because it would bring Prussia and Austria into the war against France). Napoleon also rejected requests to free the Russian serfs, fearing this might provoke a conservative reaction in his rear.

The Russians under Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly were unable to successfully defeat Napoleon's huge, well-organized army and retreated instead. A brief attempt at resistance was offered at Smolensk (August 16-17), but the Russians were defeated in a series of battles in the area and Napoleon resumed the advance. The Russians then repeatedly avoided battle with the Grand Armée, although in a few cases only because Napoleon uncharacteristically hesitated to attack when the opportunity presented itself.

Criticized over his tentative strategy of continual retreat, Barclay was replaced by Kutuzov. Realising the reality of the situation, Kutuzov continued Barclay's strategy. Kutuzov also soon came under criticism for this and finally offered battle. It appeared both Barclay and Kutuzov had been correct in their assessments of the situation for, outside Moscow on 7 September, the Russian army was defeated after what may have been the bloodiest day of battle in history - the Battle of Borodino (see article for comparisons to the first day of the Battle of the Somme).

The Russians retreated and Napoleon was able to enter Moscow, assuming that Alexander I would negotiate peace. Moscow began to burn in accordance with orders of the city's military governor and commander-in-chief, Feodor Rostopchin. Within the month, fearing loss of control in France, Napoleon left Moscow. The French suffered greatly in the course of a ruinous retreat; the Army had begun as over 650,000 frontline troops, but in the end fewer than 40,000 crossed the Berezina River (November 1812) to escape. In total French losses in the campaign were 570,000 against about 400,000 Russian casualties and several hundred thousand civilian deaths.

Napoleon was determined not to lose hold of Germany and there was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812–13 whilst both the Russians and the French recovered from their massive losses of around half a million soldiers each. A small Russian army harassed the French in Poland and eventually 30,000 French troops there withdrew to Germany to rejoin the expanding force there - numbering 130,000 with the reinforcements from Poland. This force continued to expand, with Napoleon aiming for a force of 400,000 French troops supported by a quarter of a million German troops.

Heartened by Napoleon's losses in Russia, Prussia soon rejoined the Coalition that now included Russia, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Portugal. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and soon inflicted a series of defeats on the Allies culminating in the Battle of Dresden on August 26-27, 1813 causing almost 100,000 casualties to the Coalition forces (the French sustaining only around 30,000). It appeared the Napoleon of old was back and that the Coalition might be forced to conclude a peace treaty if this run continued.

However, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon as Sweden and Austria joined the Coalition. Eventually the French army was caught by a force twice its size at the Battle of Nations (October 16-19) at Leipzig. Some of the German states switched sides in the midst of the battle, further undermining the French position. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost both sides a combined total of over 120,000 casualties.

After this Napoléon withdrew in an orderly fashion back into France, but his army was now reduced to less than 100,000 against more than half a million Allied troops. Although some historians consider the defensive campaigns of late 1813 and early 1814 to be among Napoleon's most brilliant, the French were now surrounded (with British armies pressing from the south in addition to the Coalition forces moving in from Germany) and vastly outnumbered. The French armies could only delay, not prevent, inevitable defeat.

Exile in Elba, return and Waterloo
Paris was occupied on 31 March 1814. His marshals asked Napoléon to abdicate, and he did so on 6 April in favour of his son. The Allies, however, demanded unconditional surrender and Napoléon abdicated again, unconditionally, on 11 April. In the Treaty of Fontainebleau the victors exiled the Corsican to Elba, a small island in the Mediterranean 20 km off the coast of Italy. They let him keep the title of "Emperor" but restricted his empire to that tiny island.

Napoléon tried to poison himself and failed; on the voyage to Elba he was almost assassinated. In France, the royalists had taken over and restored King Louis XVIII to power. On Elba, Napoléon became concerned about his wife and, more especially, his son, in the hands of the Austrians. The French government refused to pay the allowance guaranteed to him by the Treaty of Fountainebleau, and he heard rumours that he was about to be banished to a remote island in the Atlantic. Napoléon escaped from Elba on 26 February 1815 and returned to the mainland on 1 March 1815. When he returned to the mainland, King Louis XVIII sent the Fifth Regiment to meet him at Grenoble. Napoléon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse, and confidently walked up to the line of soldiers. When he was within earshot of the men, he threw open his coat and shouted "Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now". Following a brief silence, the soldiers erupted into shouts of "Vive L'Empereur!" The soldiers sent to stop the former emperor instead joined the ranks behind him and marched with Napoléon to Paris. He arrived on 20 March, quickly raising a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000 and governed for a Hundred Days.

Napoléon's final defeat came at the hands of the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battle of Waterloo in present-day Belgium on 18 June 1815.

Off the port of Rochefort, Napoléon made his formal surrender while on board HMS Bellerophon on 15 July 1815.


Exile in Saint Helena and death

Napoléon on the Bellerophon at Plymouth, before his exile to Saint Helena.Napoléon was imprisoned and then exiled by the British to the island of Saint Helena (2,800 km off the Bight of Guinea) from 15 October 1815. There, with a small cadre of followers, he dictated his memoirs and criticized his captors. In the last half of April 1821, he wrote out his own will and several codicils (a total of 40-odd pages). When he died, on 5 May 1821, his last words were: "France, the Army, head of the Army, Joséphine."

In 1955 the diaries of Louis Marchand, Napoléon's valet, appeared in print. He describes Napoléon in the months leading up to his death, and led many, most notably Sten Forshufvud and Ben Weider, to conclude that he had been killed by arsenic poisoning. Arsenic was at the time sometimes used as a poison as it was undetectable when administered over a long period of time. In 2001 Pascal Kintz, of the Strasbourg Forensic Institute in France, added credence to this claim with a study of arsenic levels found in a lock of Napoléon's hair preserved after his death: they were seven to thirty-eight times higher than normal.

Cutting up hairs into short segments and analysing each segment individually provides a histogram of arsenic concentration in the body. This analysis on hair from Napoléon suggests that large but non-lethal doses were absorbed at random intervals. The arsenic severely weakened Napoléon and remained in his system. There, it could have reacted with calomel- and mercury-based compounds—common medicines at the time—and thus been the immediate cause of his death.

More recent analysis on behalf of the magazine Science et Vie showed that similar concentrations of arsenic can be found in Napoléon's hair in samples taken from 1805, 1814 and 1821. The lead investigator, Ivan Ricordel (head of toxicology for the Paris Police), stated that if arsenic had been the cause, Napoléon would have died years earlier. Arsenic was also used in some wallpaper, as a green pigment, and even in some patent medicines, and the group suggested that the most likely source in this case was a hair tonic. Prior to the discovery of antibiotics, arsenic was also a widely used, but ineffective, treatment for syphilis. (This has led to speculation that Napoléon might have suffered from syphilis.) Controversy remains as the Science et Vie analysis has not addressed all points of the arsenic poisoning theory.

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel (November 15, 1891 – October 14, 1944) was one of the most distinguished German Field Marshals and commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps in World War II. He is also known by his nickname The Desert Fox (Wüstenfuchs).

Early life and career
Rommel was born in Heidenheim, approximately 50 km from Ulm, in the state of Württemberg. The second son of a Protestant Headmaster of the secondary school at Aalen, Erwin Rommel the elder and Helene von Luz, a daughter of a prominent local dignitary. The couple also had three more children, two sons, Karl and Gerhard, and a daughter, Helene. Later recalling his childhood, Rommel wrote that "my early years passed very happily". At the age of 14 Rommel, with a friend, built a full-scale glider that flew, although not far. Young Erwin considered becoming an engineer, but on his fathers insistence joined the local 124th Württemberg Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet in 1910, and was soon sent to the Officer Cadet School in Danzig.

There, in 1911, Rommel met his future wife, Lucie Mollin, whom he married in 1916. In 1928, they had a son, Manfred, later the mayor of Stuttgart. Scholars Bierman and Smith argue that Rommel also had an affair with Walburga Stemmer in 1912 and that relationship produced a daughter named Gertrud (1 p. 56). Graduating from school in November 1911, Rommel was commissioned as a Lieutenant January 1912.

World War I
During World War I, Rommel served in France, as well as on the Romanian and Italian fronts, during which time he was wounded three times and awarded the Iron Cross - First and Second Class. He also became the youngest recipient of Prussia's highest medal, the Pour le Mérite, which he received after fighting in the mountains of north-east Italy, specifically at the Battle of Longarone, and the capture of Mount Matajur and its defenders, numbering 150 Italian officers, 7000 men and 81 artillery guns.


Inter-War years
After the war Rommel held battalion commands, and was instructor at the Dresden Infantry School (1929-1933) and the Potsdam War Academy (1935-1938). His war diaries, Infanterie greift an (Infantry Attacks), published in 1937, became a major textbook, which also attracted the attention of Adolf Hitler. In 1938, Rommel, now a colonel, was appointed commandant of the War Academy at Wiener Neustadt. He was removed after a short time, however, and placed in command of Adolf Hitler's personal protection battalion (Führer-Begleitbattalion). He was promoted again to Major General just prior to the invasion of Poland.


World War II

France 1940-41
In 1940 he was given command of the 7th Panzer Division, later nicknamed the "Ghost Division" (for the speed and surprise it was consistently able to achieve), for Fall Gelb, the invasion of the west. He showed considerable skill in this operation, and in reward was appointed commander of the German troops, the 5th Light and later the 15th Panzer Division, which were sent to Libya in early 1941 to aid the defeated Italian troops, forming the Deutsches Afrika Korps. It was in Africa that Rommel achieved his greatest fame as a commander.


Africa 1941-43

Rommel in Africa - Summer 1941Rommel spent most of 1941 building his organization and re-forming the shattered Italian units, who had suffered a string of defeats at the hands of British Commonwealth forces under Major General Richard O'Connor. An offensive pushed the Allied forces back out of Libya, but it stalled a relatively short way into Egypt, and the important port of Tobruk, although surrounded, was still held by Allied forces under an Australian General, Leslie Morshead. The Allied Commander-in-Chief, General Archibald Wavell swapped commands with the British Commander-in-Chief India, General Claude Auchinleck. Auchinleck launched a major offensive to relieve Tobruk which eventually succeeded. However, when this offensive ran out of steam, Rommel struck.

In a classic blitzkrieg, Allied forces were comprehensively beaten. Within weeks they had been pushed back into Egypt. Rommel's offensive was eventually stopped at the small railway halt of El Alamein, just 60 miles from Cairo. The First Battle of El Alamein was lost by Rommel through a combination of supply problems and improved Allied tactics. The Allies, with their backs against the wall, were very close to their supplies and had fresh troops on hand. Auchinleck's tactics of continually attacking the weaker Italian forces during the battle forced Rommel to use the Deutsches Afrika Korps in a "Fire Brigade" role and placed the initiative in Allied hands. Rommel tried again to break through the Allied lines during the Battle of Alam Halfa. He was decisively stopped by the newly arrived Allied commander, Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery; mainly due to the fact that the allies had devised a machine capable of deciphering German communications, thus alerting them to Rommel's battle plan prior to the battle. This was known as the "Ultra".

With Allied forces from Malta interdicting his supplies at sea, and the massive distances they had to cover in the desert, Rommel could not hold the El Alamein position forever. Still, it took a large set piece battle, the Second Battle of El Alamein to force his troops back. After the defeat at El Alamein, despite urgings from Hitler and Mussolini, Rommel's forces did not again stand and fight until they had entered Tunisia. Even then, their first battle was not against the British Eighth Army, but against the U.S. II Corps. Rommel inflicted a sharp reversal on the American forces at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass.

Turning once again to face the British Commonwealth forces in the old French border defences of the Mareth Line, Rommel could only delay the inevitable. He left Africa after falling sick, and the men of his former command eventually became prisoners of war. The main factor leading to Rommel's failure to achieve total victory in Africa, was that the Allies had developed a machine which deciphered German communications, alerting them to Rommel's battle plans.

Some say that Rommel's withdrawal of his army back to Tunisia against Hitler's dreams was a much greater success than his capture of Tobruk (in sharp contrast to the fate suffered by the German 6th Army at the Battle of Stalingrad under the command of Friedrich Paulus).


France 1943-1944

Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (center) discusses the upcoming Allied invasion of France with Colonel General Johannes Blaskowitz and Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt.Back in Germany, Rommel was for some time virtually "unemployed". However, when the tide of war shifted against Germany, Hitler made Rommel the commander of Army Group B, responsible for defending the French coast against a possible Allied invasion. After his battles in Africa, Rommel concluded that any offensive movements would be impossible due to the overwhelming Allied air superiority. He argued that the tank forces should be kept in small units as close to the front as possible, so they wouldn't have to move far and enmasse when the invasion started. He wanted the invasion stopped right on the beaches.

However his commander, Gerd von Rundstedt, felt that there was no way to stop the invasion near the beaches due to the equally overwhelming firepower of the Royal Navy. He felt the tanks should be formed into large units well inland near Paris, where they could allow the Allies to extend into France and then be cut off. When asked to pick a plan, Hitler then vacillated and placed them in the middle, far enough to be useless to Rommel, not far enough to watch the fight for von Rundstedt. Rommel's plan nearly came to fruition anyway.

During D-Day several tank units, notably the 12th SS Panzer Division (the elite Hitler Jugend) were near enough to the beaches and created serious havoc. The overwhelming Allied numbers and Hitler's refusal to unleash the tank forces in time, made any success unlikely however, and soon the beachhead was secure.

The plot against Hitler
On July 17, 1944 his staff car was strafed by an RCAF Spitfire, and Rommel was hospitalized with major head injuries. In the meantime, after the failed July 20 Plot against Adolf Hitler, Rommel was suspected of connections with the conspiracy. Bormann was certain of Rommel's involvement, Goebbels was not. The true extent of Rommel's knowledge of, or involvement with, the plot is still unclear. After the war, however, his wife maintained that Rommel had been against the plot as it was carried out. It has been stated that Rommel wanted to avoid giving future generations of Germans the perception that the war was lost because of a backstab, the infamous Dolchstoßlegende, as it was commonly believed by some Germans following WWI. Instead, he favored a coup where Hitler would be taken alive and made to stand trial before the public. Due to Rommel's popularity with the German people, Hitler gave him an option to commit suicide with cyanide or face dishonour and retaliation against his family and staff. Rommel ended his own life on October 14, 1944, and was buried with full military honours.

After the war his diary was published as The Rommel Papers. He is often remembered not only for being a great tactician, but also for his chivalry towards his enemies.


Battles of Erwin Rommel
Battle of Bir Hakeim (1942)
First Battle of El Alamein
Second Battle of El Alamein
Battle of the Kasserine Pass
Battle of Normandy

Quotes
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Erwin RommelThe British Parliament considered a censure vote against Winston Churchill, for his failure to defeat Rommel. The vote failed, but in the course of the debate, Churchill would say:
"We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great General."
Theodor Werner was an officer who, during World War I, served under Rommel.
"Anybody who came under the spell of his personality turned into a real soldier. He seemed to know what the enemy were like and how they would react."
Quotations by Erwin Rommel

"Sweat saves blood..."

Hirohito the Shōwa Emperor ,(April 29, 1901 – January 7, 1989) reigned over Japan from 1926 to 1989. He is largely known in the West by his given name Hirohito (he had no surname). He was the 124th Emperor of Japan.


Emperor HirohitoHis reign was the longest of all Japanese emperors, and oversaw the greatest changes to Japanese society.

Early life
He was born at the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo, the first son of then Crown Prince Yoshihito and then-Crown Princess Sadako. His childhood title was Michi no miya (Prince Michi). He became heir apparent upon the death of his grandfather, the Emperor Meiji, on July 30, 1912. His formal investiture as Crown Prince took place on November 2, 1916.

He attended the boy's department of Gakushuin Peer's School from 1908 to 1914 and then a special institute for the Crown Prince (Tōgū-gogakumonsho) from 1914 to 1921. On November 29, 1921, he became regent of Japan, in place of his ailing father. In 1922, Prince Regent Hirohito took a six month tour of the United Kingdom and four other European countries (France; Italy, including the Vatican City; the Netherlands; and Belgium) thus becoming the first Japanese crown prince to travel abroad.

He married his distant cousin Princess Nagako, the eldest daughter of Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi, on January 26, 1924. There were seven children from the marriage:

Princess Teru (Teru no miya Shigeko), b. December 9, 1925, d. July 23, 1961; m. October 10 1943 Prince Morihiro (b. May 6, 1916, d. February 1, 1969), the eldest son of Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko and his wife, Princess Toshiko, the eighth daughter of Emperor Meiji; lost status as imperial family members, October 14, 1947.
Princess Hisa (Hisa no miya Sachiko), b. September 10, 1927, d. March 8, 1928.
Princess Taka (Taka no miya Kazuko), b. September 30, 1929, d. May 26, 1989; m. May 5, 1950 Mr. Takatsukasa Toshimichi (b. August 26, 1923, d. January 27, 1966), eldest son of Takatsukasa Nubusuke [peer].
Princess Yori (Yori no miya Atsuko), b. March 7, 1931; m. October 10, 1952 Mr. Ikeda Takamasa (b. October 21, 1927), eldest son of former Marquis Ikeda Nobumasa.
Crown Prince Akihito (now HM The Emperor), b. December 23, 1933; m. April 10, 1959 Miss Shoda Michiko (b. October 20, 1934), elder daughter of Mr. Shoda Hidesaburo, former president and chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling Company.
Prince Hitachi (Hitachi no miya Masahito), b. November 28, 1935; m. October 30, 1964 Miss Tsugaru Hanako (b. July 19, 1940), fourth daughter of former Count Tsugaru Yoshitaka.
Princess Suga (Suga no miya Takako), b. March 2, 1939; m. March 3, 1960 Mr. Shimazu Hisanaga, son of former Count Shimazu Hisanori.

Accession

Hirohito, pictured on the cover the American newsmagazine Time, on the occasion of his coronation.On December 25, 1926, upon the death of his father Yoshihito, he succeeded to the throne and was entitled Shōwa (Enlightened Peace). He was crowned emperor on November 10, 1928 in Kyoto. The new emperor had the distinction of being the first Japanese monarch in several hundred years whose biological mother was his predecessor's official wife.


Early years
The first part of Hirohito's reign as sovereign (between 1926 and 1945) took place against a background of increasing military power within the government, through both legal and extralegal means. The Japanese Imperial Army and Imperial Navy had held veto power over the formation of cabinets since 1900, and between 1921 and 1944 there were no less than 64 incidents of right-wing political violence.

One notable case was the assassination of moderate Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai in 1932, which marked the end of any real civilian control of the military. This was followed by an attempted military coup in February 1936, mounted by junior Army officers; it was occasioned by a loss of ground by the militarist faction in Diet elections. The coup resulted in the murder of a number of high government and Army officials, and was put down with Hirohito angrily assuming a major role in confronting them.

Still, from the 1930s on, the military clique held almost all political power in Japan, and pursued policies that eventually led Japan to fight the second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.


World War II
In the immediate aftermath of the war, many believed that the Shōwa Emperor was an evil mastermind behind the war while others claimed that he was simply a powerless figurehead. Many people in China, Taiwan, Korea and South-East Asia see Hirohito as Asia's Hitler of World War II, and some feel he should have been tried for war crimes. Because of this, many Asians residing in countries that were victims of Japanese aggression retain a hostile attitude towards the Japanese Imperial Family. The central question is how much real control Hirohito had over the Japanese military during the two wars. The view promoted by both the Japanese Imperial Palace and the American occupation forces immediately after World War II had Hirohito behaving strictly according to protocol, remaining at a distance from the decision making processes. On the other hand, Herbert Bix has recently produced a large amount of evidence suggesting that the emperor worked through intermediaries to exercise a great deal of control over the military, and that he was, in fact, the prime mover of most of the events of the two wars.

On September 4, 1941, the Japanese Cabinet met to consider the war plans prepared by Imperial General Headquarters, and decided that:

Our Empire, for the purpose of self-defence and self-preservation, will complete preparations for war ... [and is] ... resolved to go to war with the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands if necessary. Our Empire will concurrently take all possible diplomatic measures vis-a-vis the United States and Great Britain, and thereby endeavor to obtain our objectives ... In the event that there is no prospect of our demands being met by the first ten days of October through the diplomatic negotiations mentioned above, we will immediately decide to commence hostilities against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands.

The young Emperor in his coronation robesThe "objectives" to be obtained were clearly defined: a free hand to continue with the conquest of China and South-east Asia, no increase in US or British military forces in the region, and cooperation by the West "in the acquisition of goods needed by our Empire".

On September 5, Prime Minister Konoe informally submitted a draft of the decision to the Emperor, just one day in advance of the Imperial Conference at which it would be formally implemented. According to the traditional view (again, contradicted by Bix's research), Hirohito was deeply concerned by the decision to place "war preparations first and diplomatic negotiations second" and announced his intention to break with centuries-old protocol and, at the Imperial Conference on the following day, directly question the chiefs of the Army and Navy general staffs — a quite unprecedented action. Konoe quickly persuaded Hirohito to summon them for a private conference instead, at which the Emperor made it plain that a peaceful settlement was to be pursued "up to the last". Chief of Naval General Staff Admiral Osami Nagano, a former Navy Minister and vastly experienced, later told a trusted colleague "I have never seen the Emperor reprimand us in such a manner, his face turning red and raising his voice."

Nevertheless, all speakers at the Imperial Conference were united in favour of war rather than diplomacy. Baron Yoshimichi Hara, President of the Imperial Council and the Emperor's representative, then questioned them closely, producing replies to the effect that war would only be considered as a last resort from some, and silence from others.

At this point, the sovereign astonished all present by addressing the conference personally, and in breaking the tradition of Imperial silence left his advisors "struck with awe". (Prime Minister Konoe's description of the event.) Emperor Hirohito stressed the need for peaceful resolution of international problems, expressed regret at his ministers' failure to respond to Baron Hara's probings, and recited a poem written by his grandfather, the Emperor Meiji which, he said, he had read "over and over again":

Methinks all the people of the world are brethren, then.
Why are the waves and the wind so unsettled nowadays?
Recovering from their shock, the ministers hastened to express their profound wish to explore all possible peaceful avenues. The war preparations continued without the slightest change, however, and within weeks Cabinet would replace the insufficiently belligerent Konoe with the hard line General Hideki Tojo, chosen by Hirohito. On December 8 (December 7 in Hawaii) 1941, in simultaneous attacks, Japanese forces struck at the US Fleet in Pearl Harbor and began the invasion of South-East Asia. From here, there was no turning back.


The Emperor's later life. Meeting with President ReaganWhatever his actual involvement leading up to hostilities, with the nation now fully committed to the war, Emperor Hirohito took a keen interest in military progress and did all he could to boost morale. To begin with, the news was all good. As the tide of war gradually began to turn (around late 1942 and early 1943), some people argue that the flow of information to the palace gradually began to bear less and less relation to reality, while others suggest that the emperor worked closely with Prime Minister Tojo, continued to be well and accurately briefed by the military, and knew Japan's military position precisely right up to the point of surrender. In the first six months of war, all the major engagements had been victories. Throughout the following years, the sequence of drawn, and then decisively lost engagements were also reported to the public as great victories. Only gradually did it become apparent to the people in the home islands that the situation was very grim. U.S. air raids on the cities of Japan starting in 1944 made a mockery of the unending tales of victory.

Last days of the war
In early 1945, in the wake of the loss of Leyte, the Emperor began a series of individual meetings with senior government officials to consider the progress of the war. All but one advised continuing. The exception was ex-Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe, who feared a communist revolution even more than defeat and urged a negotiated surrender. Hirohito took the view that peace was essential but that the armed forces would have to engineer a conspicuous military victory somewhere in order to provide a stronger bargaining position. With each passing week this became less likely. In April the Soviet Union issued notice that it would not renew its neutrality agreement. Japan's ally Germany was defeated in May 1945. In June, the cabinet reassessed the war strategy, only to decide more firmly than ever on a fight to the last man. This was officially affirmed at a brief Imperial Council meeting, to which the Emperor listened in stony-faced silence.

The following day, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Koichi Kido prepared a draft document which summarised the hopeless military situation and proposed a negotiated settlement. According to some sources, the Emperor privately approved of it and authorised Kido to circulate it discreetly amongst the less hawkish cabinet members; others suggest that the Emperor was indecisive, and that the mixed signals from the palace delayed the peace process, costing many tens of thousands of Japanese and Allied lives. By mid-June the cabinet had agreed to approach the Soviet Union to act as a mediator, though not before the bargaining position had been improved by a repulse of the coming Allied invasion of mainland Japan.

On June 22, Hirohito broke tradition once again to speak to his ministers, saying "I desire that concrete plans to end the war, unhampered by existing policy, be speedily studied and that efforts be made to implement them." The attempt to negotiate a peace via the Soviet Union came to nothing: the Allies were determined not to settle for anything short of "unconditional surrender", and as late as July 1945 neither the Emperor nor his government were prepared to consider that option: they insisted on at least one condition, a guarantee of the emperor's continuing position in Japanese society.


Post-war reign
On August 15, 1945, following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan, Hirohito, after more hesitation, abandoned the condition of preserving his own position and finally made the radio broadcast announcing the unconditional surrender of Japan's military forces (known as Gyokuon-hōsō). Despite pressures to try him for war crimes by numerous leaders, among them President Harry S. Truman, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Hirohito remain Emperor to keep him as a symbol of continuity and cohesion of the Japanese people. Hirohito was spared trial and retained the throne, but Hirohito was forced to explicitly reject (in the Ningen-sengen (人間宣言, lit. "declaration of human being")) the traditional claim that the Emperor of Japan was divine; a descendant of the Sun Goddess. According to the Japanese constitution of 1889, Hirohito had a divine power over his country, which was derived from the mythology of the Japanese Imperial Family who were the offspring of the creator of Japan or Amaterasu. The imperial title was thus transformed from 'imperial sovereign' to 'constitutional monarch' in 1946. It should, however, be noted that immediately after this explicit repudiation of divinity, he implicitly reaffirmed it by asking the occupation authorities for permission to worship an ancestress and then worshipping the Sun Goddess; this reaffirmation would have been comprehensible to all Japanese though not necessarily by the occupation authorities.


The Emperor and General MacArthurAlthough Hirohito was forced to reject any claims to his own divine status, his status was deliberately left vague, partly because General MacArthur thought him likely to be a useful tool to get the Japanese to accept the occupation, and partly due to behind-the-scenes maneuverings by Yoshida Shigeru to thwart MacArthur's attempts at casting Hirohito as a European-style monarch. While Hirohito was usually seen as a head of state, there is still a broad dispute about whether he became a mere citizen or something else. Many scholars claim that today's tennō (usually translated into Emperor of Japan in English) is not an emperor. That view determines whether Japan is a democratic republic or a constitutional monarchy. See Emperor of Japan article for discussion of the position of emperor of Japan.

Regardless, for the rest of his life, Hirohito was an active figure in Japanese life, and performed many of the duties we commonly associate with a figurehead head of state. The emperor and his family maintained a strong public presence, often holding public walkabouts and making public appearances on special events and holidays. He also played an important role in rebuilding Japan's diplomatic image, traveling abroad to meet with many foreign leaders, including numerous American presidents and Britain's Elizabeth II.

In his lifetime, he was interested in marine biology, and the Imperial Palace contained a laboratory from which Hirohito published several papers in the field.

Death
On September 22, 1987, Hirohito underwent surgery on his pancreas after having digestive problems for several months. This was the very first time a Japanese Emperor underwent surgery. The doctors discovered that he had duodenal cancer, but in accordance with Japanese tradition, they did not tell him. Hirohito seemed to be recovering well for several months after his surgery. About a year later, however, on September 19, 1988, he collapsed in his palace, and his health worsened over the next several months as he suffered from continuous internal bleeding. On January 7, 1989, at 6:33 AM, Hirohito finally passed away. At 7:55 AM, the grand steward of Japan's Imperial Household Agency, Shoichi Fujimori, officially announced the Emperor's death, and revealed details about his cancer for the first time. On February 24, Hirohito's funeral was held, and unlike that of his predecessor, it was not done in a strictly Shinto manner, and a number of world leaders attended it. He is buried in the Imperial mausoleum in Hachioji, alongside other past emperors.