You may nominate up to five terrible, no-good, awful leaders, be they generals, admirals or military officers of any rank, as well as monarchs, warlords or chieftains actually commanding on the battlefield, describing each in no more than five words. All descriptions are subject to editing for brevity, accuracy and clarity.
Define “worst” as you see fit. Military leaders on the land, at sea or in the air are eligible for nomination. Even just a single noteworthy flop is sufficient for nomination, if you wish.
To avoid contemporary political disputes, your nominees must have been either retired or dead before 2000.
Nominations will close at noon EST a week from today, Mon. Nov. 15. After the deadline, I’ll arrange the nominees alphabetically, and we’ll vote them out much as we did in the U.S. President, greatest American, greatest national leader, and greatest military leader elimination games.
My nominees:
Horatio Gates: Fled headlong from Camden, S.C.
James Ledlie: Drunk during Battle of Crater
Braxton Bragg: Bungling, irritating Confederate general
Heinrich Himmler: Nazi botched every field command
Christian de Castries: Lost at Dien Bien Phu
Adolf Hitler, atrocious supreme commander
Arthur Percival, surrendered Singapore to Japan
Publius Quinctilius Varus, army totally annihilated in Germany
(Note: I believe, but am not certain, that he retired prior to 2000. I’m not nominating Mladić simply because I don’t consider him a military leader so much as a particularly well-equipped and psychotic gangster. The profession of arms is an honorable one; Mladić has nothing to do with it.)
2nd Lt. William Calley: Ordered, led My Lai Massacre.
Captain Anderson Wirz: Commandant, Andersonville Prison. War criminal.
I might have another couple nominations later - is there a deadline for the setup thread?
ETA:
Forgot about the requirement for a battlefield command. Since Wirz doesn’t qualify, and you specified that warlords are eligible, I’ll swap Wirz for:
Forgot about the five-word thing; “Charge of the Light Brigade” will have to do. (Though that’s just the rancid cherry on top of the toxic sewage sundae that was his military career).
Eh, okay - I was trying to come up with another really solid medieval candidate ( Edward II was kinda woeful ), but he probably does deserve a mention somewhere.
William George Keith Elphinstone - Lost an army in Afghanistan
oh I wanted too nominate Mr “don’t shoot the piano player” Karremans
But seeing he’s taken, how about some mad leaders?
Douglas Haig: Lions led by donkeys
Geoffrey Spicer-Simson :went mad in dark Afrika
Francisco Solano López: almost unmade Paraguay
Curtis LeMay: tried to preemptively use nukes
Fun times. Here are my suggestions: Oreste Baratieri - Routed by Ethiopians at Adowa. Lord Chelmsford - Zulu dawn at Isandlwana Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon - Sunk his flagship on maneouvres. Francisco Solano Lopez - Led Paraguay against allcomers.
oh I wanted too nominate Mr “don’t shoot the piano player” Karremans