{"id":12177,"date":"2016-02-22T17:40:38","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T23:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=12177"},"modified":"2016-02-22T17:40:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T23:40:38","slug":"brush-up-on-your-history-unhinged-10-of-historys-craziest-military-commanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/22\/brush-up-on-your-history-unhinged-10-of-historys-craziest-military-commanders\/","title":{"rendered":"Brush-Up on Your History: Unhinged! 10 of History’s “Craziest” Military Commanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cConsider some of these \u2018mad\u2019 commanders from the pages of military history.\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n

\"ipatton001p1\"<\/p>\n

GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON<\/strong><\/a> ONCE DESCRIBED HIMSELF AS<\/strong> the best \u201cass-kicker in the United States Army.\u201d It\u2019s a claim that\u2019s not without merit.<\/p>\n

In just nine short months beginning in July of 1944, the flamboyant four-star led his Third Army<\/a> half way across France and into Germany killing, wounding or capturing 1.4 million enemy troops and liberating more than 10,000 cities and towns along the way.<\/p>\n

Dwight D. Eisenhower<\/a>, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, described Patton as \u201cindispensable to the war effort\u201d and wrote that his very name \u201cstruck terror at the hearts of the enemy.\u201d[1<\/a>]<\/p>\n

German field marshal Gerd von Rundstedt<\/a> agreed.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s your best,\u201d the commander of all Axis forces in Western Europe told the American press shortly after his capture.[2<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Yet, George Patton is remembered as much for his many\u00a0peculiarities as he is for his penchant for winning battles. When he wasn\u2019t hammering the Axis, the former cavalryman, known as \u201cOld Blood and Guts\u201d, scribbled odd poetry<\/a>. A notorious\u00a0martinet, Patton demanded his officers wear pressed uniforms with neckties and shave \u2014 even in war zones. He designed his own outfit for tank crews<\/a> \u2013 a garish green leather tunic with a diagonal row of shiny\u00a0buttons topped by a gold football helmet.<\/p>\n

Patton\u2019s fiery temper was legendary. When not suffering ridicule for publicly upbraiding America\u2019s wartime allies<\/a>, he faced censure for callously slapping his own shell-shocked troops<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most bizarre of all was Patton\u2019s deeply held belief\u00a0that he was a\u00a0reincarnated warrior from\u00a0bygone ages. The general claimed that in past lives he fought as an ancient Greek hoplite, a Roman soldier, a Carthaginian spearman, a medieval knight, a Cro-Magnon hunter and one of Napoleon\u2019s field marshals.<\/p>\n

Even Patton\u2019s staunchest defenders described him as eccentric; his own estate\u2019s official website<\/a>\u00a0opts for\u00a0the word \u201ccomplicated\u201d. Others have been less charitable. British field marshal Alan Brooke<\/a>\u00a0reached for words like \u201cwild\u201d and \u201cunbalanced\u201d to characterize him. [3<\/a>]<\/p>\n

But if Patton was indeed peculiar, he is certainly in good company. Consider some of these mad commanders from the pages of military history: \u00ad<\/p>\n

\"Alexander\"<\/p>\n

Raging Alexander<\/h2>\n

Alexander the Great<\/strong><\/a> may have conquered much of the known world <\/strong>in the 4th<\/sup>Century BCE, but he was still unable to master his own temper. His fits, often brought on by bouts of heavy drinking, bordered on the psychotic. Following one particularly prodigious bender, the 30-year-old emperor went berserk and stabbed his close friendCleitus<\/a> with a javelin. Ironically, the murder occurred at the tail end of a banquet held at\u00a0Samarkand<\/a> that the Macedonian ruler hosted to celebrate Cleitus’ own promotion.<\/p>\n

\"luigi\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0Cadorna\u2019s Sadism<\/h2>\n

When it comes to assailing subordinates<\/strong>, few can match Luigi Cadorna<\/a>. In fact, at times the 64-year-old Italian First World War field marshal seemed more interested in killing his own men than the enemy. In just one 1915 offensive alone, he callously squandered the lives of up to 250,000 Italian soldiers! And those not cut down by enemy machine gun fire were just as likely to face malicious prosecution by Cadorna for failing to make good on his suicidal battle plans. In fact, nearly six percent of all men in the Italian army were eventually brought up on some charge or another by the aging tyrant; more than 750 were executed on his watch. No nation shot more of its own during the First World War than Italy.<\/p>\n

Read the Remainder at Military History Now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cConsider some of these \u2018mad\u2019 commanders from the pages of military history.\u201d GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON ONCE DESCRIBED HIMSELF AS the best \u201cass-kicker in the United States Army.\u201d It\u2019s a claim that\u2019s not without merit. In just nine short months beginning in July of 1944, the flamboyant four-star led his Third Army half way across…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4769,475,4418,1898,1899,3545],"tags":[4771,4772,763,3823],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}