Across many of our videos, we've given mention to some of the best generals of
the Second World War. These were the men that executed inspired surprise attacks,
brilliant counters, and battle-winning maneouvers. But in this video, we tell a
different story. We present the abject failures, the cowardly, and the criminally incompetent.
These are, by far, the WORST generals of the Second World War.
The United States produced some fine generals during the war
but also had its share of terrible ones. Foremost among the latter was Lloyd Fredendall.
General Fredendall took command of the US Central Task Force, comprising 39,000 men,
in Tunisia in late 1942. He was subordinated to the British First Army under Lieutenant-General
Sir Kenneth Anderson. Anderson was immediately suspicious of Fredendall, suspecting the American
general’s swaggering arrogance disguised his ineptitude. Fredendall flat-out refused to use
proper military terms, calling infantry “Walking Boys” and artillery “popguns.” He didn’t use grid
coordinates either, referring to locations with phrases like “the place that begins with C.” His
aides didn’t even know what he meant, meaning no one knew precisely what his orders were.
Fredendall never visited the front and refused to listen to the advice of people who had.
He was also more concerned about getting a bullet-proof Cadillac than giving orders. It’s
no surprise that such an out-of-touch commander led his force into the worst US defeat of the war.
Ordered to defend Kasserine Pass in the Atlas Mountains, Fredendall spread his force so
thin that units couldn't support each other. When attacked, he sent his entire armoured force ahead
of his frontline troops to chase down Rommel’s panzers. The Wehrmacht withdrew then blew the
US armour to pieces with artillery. The battle was a catastrophe and Fredendall was sacked. His
replacement, General Patton, later said: “I cannot see what Fredendall did to justify his existence.”
Arrogance and overconfidence are common characteristics among history’s worst
generals; one of the best examples of a man with both of these traits
was Italian Lieutenant-General Sebastiano Visconti Prasca. Now, you might not have heard of this guy,
but you’ve probably heard of the campaign he presided over: the Italian invasion of Greece.
Greece was fairly close to Britain in the years leading up to the Second World War,
and Mussolini, Italy’s knock-off version of Hitler, was worried about this.
Then came the supremely confident Visconti Prasca. A bodybuilder who spent more time in the gym than
anywhere else, Visconti Prasca argued that his forces were more than capable of conquering
Greece within a few weeks. Convinced, Mussolini manufactured an incident on the Albanian border,
and the Italian Army marched in. But things did not go as planned.
Even though Visconti Prasca had numerical superiority,
the Greeks used the terrain to their advantage and halted the Italian advance a few kilometres into
Greek territory. Visconti Prasca knew he needed more troops to win, but he was worried that if
his army grew larger, command would be given to a full general and he would miss out on the glory.
While Visconti Prasca hit the gym and thought about medals,
his army was forced onto the defensive by a tenacious Greek counterattack. Caught by surprise,
the Italians retreated again and again. In fact, they were forced back past the Albanian border.
Just two weeks into the invasion, Italy was worse-off than if they’d just left the
Greeks alone. The Germans had to save them, and Visconti Prasca was sacked.
Since we’ve already lambasted General Kulik in other videos
we’re going to shed some light on the USSR’s second-worst general of the war: Dmitry Pavlov.
Pavlov’s early career was pretty typical for Soviet high commanders. He fought in the civil
war, in Spain, and against the Japanese in the early 1930s. In 1940, one of his fellow generals,
a bloke called Zhukov, organised a war game simulating an attack from the west.
Zhukov commanded the enemy forces, which totally weren’t Germans, and Pavlov commanded the
Soviets. Zhukov launched a succession of rapid assaults and encircled Pavlov’s forces. Even
though he had a massive numerical advantage, Pavlov was smashed, rather prophetically.
On the evening of June 21st 1941, Moscow sent out emergency orders to all Red Army commanders.
The Germans were invading. Pavlov got the message while he was watching a comedy play in Kiev. I
suppose he wanted to get a few more laughs in before four years of misery, so he decided to
watch the play to the end instead of rushing to his command post like every other general did.
When he did take command, Pavlov suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Białystok-Minsk.
Within days, he was replaced and arrested.
Stalin initially thought Pavlov was working for the enemy, but later realised he was just terrible
at his job. Charged with “Criminal Incompetence,” Pavlov was stripped of his accolades and rank,
shot, and his body was thrown into a rubbish pit.
Circumstance can curse some generals just as much as it blesses others, and when combined
with strategic oversights and narrow thinking, it can spell disaster. Nowhere was this more
evident than during the Fall of Singapore under the British Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival.
Percival was given command of Singapore and Malaya in April 1941, but he wasn’t pleased. He worried
that if the British weren’t attacked, he’d have nothing to do, and if they were, that he’d be in,
quote, “a pretty sticky business with the inadequate forces which are usually
to be found in the distant parts of our Empire in the early stages of a war.”
His forces were inexperienced, and one of Percival’s first initiatives was to
properly train them. The Japanese, on the other hand, were experienced,
and their commander, General Yamashita, knew what he was doing.
On December 8th, the Japanese landed in Malaya and subsequently pushed the British forces
back to Singapore. Using bicycles and jungle tracks, they advanced through
areas Percival had deemed “impassable,” and consistently surprised the defenders.
After retreating to Singapore and losing 50,000 troops to an army of 36,000 Japanese,
Percival failed to set up adequate defences, believing it would “lower morale.”
He also spread his forces thinly and firmly believed an attack would come from the northeast.
When the Japanese attacked from the northwest, Percival’s men
were overwhelmed. Despite Churchill’s insistence that Singapore fight to the last man,
Percival surrendered his entire 85,000-strong garrison to Yamashita’s undersupplied and
almost-out-of-ammo army. It was the greatest defeat in British history.
As a general, it’s good to have confidence in your men and trust them to make the best of
their situation. But fighting spirit won’t solve every problem, especially supply problems. One
man knew this better than anyone: Major-General Renya Mutaguchi of the Imperial Japanese Army.
Taking command of the 15th Army in 1943, Mutaguchi was sent to Burma to continue Japan’s southward
advance. Not one to listen to far-away superiors, Mutaguchi decided to launch his own campaign and
march into Assam, the gateway to British India. To do this, he needed long supply lines, but Burma
had few paved roads, and he had no trucks. What was the solution? “The Wisdom of Genghis Khan."
Packing supplies onto sheep and cattle, Mutaguchi planned for his army to eat their own supply line
as they advanced. Allied forces traded space for time, moving back to prepared positions
around the settlement of Imphal. By the time the Japanese reached them, they had eaten all of their
sheep and nearly all of their cattle, meaning soldiers had to lug heavy equipment themselves.
Weapons were discarded and starvation set in.
Japanese infantrymen were given just 20 days’ food rations for what became a four-month campaign.
While the Allies were resupplied by air, Japanese losses to starvation
mounted. Mutaguchi lost 55,000 men of his 90,000 total strength to starvation,
all because he couldn’t organise proper supply. When his three divisional commanders
began pulling their dying soldiers back, Mutaguchi flew into a rage and fired them.
Only 12,000 emaciated men made it back to Japan from the catastrophe at Imphal.
Mutaguchi survived the war and later shamelessly distributed pamphlets at veterans' funerals
claiming he had actually won the battle.
After the panzers streamed through the Ardennes into France in May 1940,
the French government replaced the overall commander of their forces,
General Gamelin, with the celebrated Great War general Maxime Weygand.
General Weygand’s first order was to cancel his predecessor’s orders,
which included a vital counterattack, thereby allowing German infantry time to catch up with
their isolated armoured units. He spent the next 48 hours attending dinners and meetings
with various dignitaries. In that time, the Germans consolidated their position.
When Weygand finally counterattacked, using the same plan he had originally cancelled,
it was easily rebuffed by a strong German frontline.
After his failure, Weygand was consumed by defeatism
and urged his army to surrender. Before Paris was in German hands, he had already
decided that further fighting was pointless and total capitulation was the best option.
He collaborated with the SS after France’s fall to discriminate against Jews, communists,
Freemasons, and French patriots. Later, he was imprisoned in Castle Itter,
only to be released after the strangest battle of the Second World War.
THOSE were six stories of the WORST generals of the Second World War.
But what do YOU think? Why do YOU think Fredendall refused to use military terms?
Can YOU think of a worse idea than having soldiers eat their own supply
line? And lastly, which general do YOU think was the worst? Let us know in the comments!