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Question: I have a couple of military history questions!.!?
In your opinion, who do you think is the best military tactician of the ancient world to the 20th century and why!? You can even list more than one person if you'd like!.

My second question is this; do modern military personnel sometimes refer upon previous military strategies from history to win battles!? I read somewhere that Eisenhower used Hannibal's tactics in the Battle of Cannae with the Allied forces in WW2!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Two very good answers above!. Alexander the Great was my immediate thought as well!. His battles were very different requiring adjustments in tactics!. The siege of Tyre in 332 BC required a completely different approach from the open field battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC and the the battle of the Hydaspes River (326 BC) against the elephants of king Porus in India!.

Julius Caesar was also masterful at Alesia in 52 BC and the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC!.

Napoleon was known to study the battles of historic campaigns in his early years!. Many commanders have tried to emulate Hannibal's double envelopment strategy at Cannae in 216 BC!. I think the most notable was field marshal Alfred von Schlieffen's plan for the rapid conquest of France at the outset of WWI!.

As noted above, double envelopment was a standard tactic of the disciplined Zulu impis in the 1800's!.

Double envelopments sometimes have occurred by accident - usually after a charge into the center of a line fails to break through!. I believe this happened to James IV of Scotland at the battle of Flodden in September 1513!. It happened to Robert E!. Lee on the 3rd day at Gettysburg when Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble's divisions were overlapped on both sides by the Union line on Cemetery Ridge!. It was common for the "thin red line" of British infantry to overlap French infantry attacks in column during the Napoleonic Wars!.
Very interesting question!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

the greatest tactician goes to Alexander the Great, in my book!. Besides being a capable strategist, conducting sieges and campaigns against presumably more powerful enemies, he personally led his troops into combat against superior numbers, adjusting his plans on the fly!. He's the epitome of someone making their own luck!.
And any military man worth his salt studies prior campaigns and battles!. The most important reason is to try and avoid being caught in the same traps that the losers fell into!. The second is to repeat the victories won!. Can nae is one of the classic examples of double envelopment!. But notice that this was in effect the standard strategy of the Zulu at their peak, and they had not heard of Hannibal or his campaigns when they did it!. Some tactics and strategies are simply so good that people will keep re-inventing them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

well most people I expect would say Alexander the Great for the mere 13 years it took him to conquer the known world and his charting of war that raised the Greek curiosity to a new dimension!.

I would say Julius Caesar the world's greatest soldier who inspires generals even to today by his stunning defeat of almost half a million Gauls in Aleysia with a force of just forty thousand Romans!.

Yes any man change the future if he learns from the past!.Www@QuestionHome@Com