Military Power

Who was the worst "commander" of WWII?

Even defining this question is tough. Is a poor general someone who is just defeated in the operational sense of the word, or does the manner of the defeat count? What if the victor has overwhelming numbers or just extreme luck? Is General "Murphy" (as in Murphy's law) a poor general? Probably, but there must be a list of poor commanders.


Hermann Goring. Probably the best friend the Allies ever had.

1. He spent most of his time on Vacation and stealing treasures from countries the Nazis occupied than actually at his job.

2. Was primarily responsible for the petty feuds between the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht (Regular German Army). For example insisted that the Fallshirmjagers (Airborne) be under Luftwaffe control instead of under Wehrmacht control. This of course meant that the Fallshirmjagers took orders from him and not Army High Command. Which meant they were out of control, out of communication with the rest of the ground forces.

3. His poisonous relationship was partially responsible for the suicide of the real architect of the Luftwaffe, Ernst Udet.

4. Was responsible for the delay of the German X-Gen Fighters such as the ME-262, the He-163 and the Ta-152.

5. Insisted that the Luftwaffe update obsolete airframes like the Me-109 and the JU-87 despite the fact that they were totally obsolete by 1943. Compared to what the British, US and Russians were rolling off the assembly lines.

6. Played a role (with Hitler) in ending the German strategic bomber program. Relied to much on Medium and Dive bombers. He also hindered progress on German long Range Fighters (which was a costly error during BoB).

7. Lied to Hitler about the Luftwaffe ability to resupply 6th Army at Stalingrad. He didn't even have half that transport planes he needed. Didn't stop him from lying about it though.

Interesting facts I found while I was double checking my facts:

Werner Goring was his nephew who emigrated to the USA. He flew 48 bombing Missions over Germany in a B-17. (His co-pilot had secret orders to shoot him should he try and land in Germany).

Henchz Goring was a cousin living in Poland. He was killed because he refused to abandon his Polish Neighbors who were about to be exterminated by the SS Death Squads.

Very interesting, I had no idea about that Max. It's nice to see information pop on here like that, leads to some more thinking about how WW2 may have turned out if the Nazi's had acted in a different way.