10 Worst Generals In History
10 Worst Generals In History
10 Worst Generals In History
Ever find yourself in a situation where you're looking for at your manager and thinking I could do a better job than you!'? Such sentiments are to be encouraged when we look at the role of managers in high-pressure situations. Scroll down our list of the worst generals in military history.
Marcus Licinius Crassus
In 54 B.C, the Roman General Crassus was collecting tribute money and enriching himself in Syria, while the Parthians (his enemies) massed their forces for battle. A year later, Crassus with 50,000 men marched into Parthia. Crassus entrusted himself to a local guide' who led him into the Mesopotamian desert where the whole Parthian army awaited him. The Parthians, who battled on horseback, rode in circles around the Romans firing volley after volley of arrows. Bewildered by this style of combat, Crassus sent his men to RUN after the Parthians who simply retreated and drew the Romans into an ambush. Its still ranks as Rome's greatest defeats as Crassus was killed and 60% of his army were vanquished.
Philip VI
Ever left a team meeting with a sharp pain in your back? At the battle of Crecy (1346), Philip VI decided to annihilate his own army. He sent 4000 Genoese mercenaries with crossbows against the English line of attack. The English having LONGBOWS swiftly cut down this attack'. Observing the few Genoese crossbowmen retreating, angered Philip and ordered his forward knights to kill them. This strategy amused the English who continued to rain down arrows on both parties. In the confusion, Philip ordered 15 charges of mounted knights against the English line who were similarly stopped by the English arrows. Philip survived but the battle was lost as he lost 4000 men.
General Horatio Gates
Managers manage action, don't they? At the battle of Saratoga the American commanding officer Gates fought more with his subordinate, a Benedict Arnold, than against the British army. Gates possessed little or no military experience and received his command by political appointment. As the battle rages, Gates refused to leave the safety of fortified camp and ordered his men to remain inactive. Arnold sensing that independence might have to fought for, disobeyed and engaged the British. So during battle of Bemis Heights, Gates sat in his tent and speculated with a British prisoner about the revolution whilst Arnold defeated the British Army. On losing the battle of Camden Gates was dismissed from the army.
General William H. Winder
Ever feel like not going in to work? The year is 1814 and General Winder is feeling a bit low. The previous year he lost the battle of Stony Creek against the British. No big deal, but when you have 3 TIMES the personnel to your enemy eyebrows are raised. The good thing for the Americans was that Winder was captured. The bad news was that the British let him go. So in 1814, he commanded the American forces with a clear mandate to protect Washington, D.C., against the British. Perhaps something got lost in communication but a solitary charge by the British and the American army was routed leaving Winder to run for cover. Washington was exposed and British marched through and burned it
General Antonia Lopez De Santa Anna
Sleep is for losers. In 1836 in the Texas War, Santa Anna wasted men and time storing the Alamo. He then marched north and encamped with his army at San Jacinto River for water. Unfortunately, a Texan army was only a few miles away. The Texans attacked while Santa Anna and his troops were taking a SIESTA. The Mexican Army was destroyed and Santa Anna captured. In the Mexican-American War (1846 -1848), Santa Anna had the dubious distinction of losing every battle he fought.
General Ambrose Burnside
There are mistakes and there is just plain wrong. Union general Burnside falls in the latter. At Antietnam in 1862, he sent his men across a narrow bridge where Confederate gunmen on the opposing side duly shot them down for fun. But for a little prudence, Burnside would have released that the river he was trying to cross was only waist high! In the same year at Fredericksburg, he embarked on misjudged suicidal attack which resulted in the deaths of 1,284 Union soldiers. Three years later in Petersburg, he dug a tunnel underneath enemy trenches and filled it with explosives. The explosives detonated and left a large crater. Burnside ordered his troops into the crater, whereby they became trapped and looking up as Confederate forces along the rim of the crater hailed them with gunfire. The best quote on this hapless general came from Abe Lincoln. Only Burnside could have managed such a coup, wringing one last spectacular defeat from the jaws of victory'.
General Sir Ian Hamilton
Bad generals hail from these shores too. During the First World War, Allied troops launched an offensive on the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915 so as to capture Constantinople. The British and French forces landed on the peninsula never got off the beaches from which they had landed. The ultimate indignation was their evacuation 9 MONTHS later! General Hamilton strategy involved spending a great deal of time either on the Greek islands or aboard British battleships. Total chaos reigned as he allowed subordinates to do as they pleased by giving no direct orders. When in August 1915, he summoned up a plan of attack if left everyone confused and failure ensued. The total campaign cost the Allied forces over a quarter of a million casualties.
General Robert Nivelle
If one trait of a bad manager is indecisiveness then inability to listen to staff is fatal. In 1917, the French General Nivelle assumed his position as commander-in-chief of the French Army. Nivelle immediately planned a great offensive. This struck the French government as odd as since the battle at Verdun the French Army was almost bled to death. Nonetheless Nivelle launched his attack. The offensive was a failure on a spectacular scale. Over 200,000 troops lost their lives. 100,000 were dead with the first 5 days that the plan' was executed. Inexplicably, Nivelle continued to pouring more and more men into the battlefield, refusing to accept casualty reports or defeat. French soldiers summoned all their national sense of injustice and a mutiny was swiftly concluded where Nivelle was removed from his command
General Aleksander Samsonov
Experience breeds respect. At the start of the First World War, the Russian general Samsonov was given the command of the Russian Second Army. He had never been a front line officer; he was natural bureaucrat and served in the rear. As he pushed his army onto East Prussia he had no idea where the Germans were or quite what he was supposed to do. Anarchy amongst his forces swiftly followed and Germans smashed through his disorganised unit at Tannenberg in 1914. Given up all hope for his troops, Samsonov rode to the front to die in battle. Remarkably he survived only to commit suicide.
General Maurice Gamelin
When it hits the fan the scent is not of perfume. France, 1940 and General Gamelin, the commander-in-chief of the French Army is keeping his army safe and secure behind the Maginot Line in effect a defence barrier that provided no defence. When the Germans launch their blistering quick and might air and land blitzkrieg through Belgium it's usually clear that they are not messing about after all look at Poland. For reason known only to him, Gamelin thought the Germans were employing a diversionary tactic so he didn't send troops to the Ardennes sector of the Belgian front. The Germans trampled through the region so that by the time the Germans had physically entered France, Gamelin was immediately removed from his post. However, it was too little too late as on 14 June 1940, Germany acquired what it had failed to capture in the First World War. Paris.
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