Miltiades and Themistocles, the Athenian statesmen who organized the defense of Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars, might be considered among the most ancient examples.
Xanthippus, a Spartan mercenary hired by the Carthaginians due the Romans having invaded Africa in the first war, he arrived right after the army at the defense of Carthage, their strongest force, had been routed and the Carthaginians were desperate enough to give him free reign if the peace talks fell through. During the peace talks he reorganized the Carthaginian army with the Hellenistic model, and when the peace talks did fall through a few months later he led the force he had just retrained to fight the Roman invasion force - and annihilated it. He then went back home for fear of political assassination (some chronicles claim he was, in fact, assassinated), but the Carthaginians kept his reforms, allowing them to hold their own in ground warfare against Rome for the rest of the war.
Hannibal Barca, considered one of the greatest tacticians in history. Not only did he take a route no one expected by crossing the Alps to strike Italy from the north end, he won numerous improbable battles against Rome with an apparently endless bag of tricks, including pincer movements, cavalry skirmishes, guerrilla, and at one point, a full-army ambush. He also took advantage of We ARE Struggling Together by deliberately not sacking the lands of the Roman general that was most effective against him, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus — leading his compatriots to suspect that his strategy of containment (rather than engaging Hannibal and losing forces) was a result of his having a secret deal.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus himself was the first Roman to score something other than a loss against Hannibal, ultimately figuring out the way Rome would end up defeating him. Prior to him, the very concept of using strategy to win battles rather than attacking head-on and winning by good ol' crushing was considered discreditable in Roman society. Maximus, however, discovered that while Hannibal was a battle-winning machine, his strategy position in Italy was actually very vulnerable to conservative warfare, as his supply lines were flimsy and most of his army was composed by mercenaries and mobs who might desert him with enough input. Fabius then resorted to guerrilla, patient tactics and the threat of armies that never attacked, and although the Romans were initially irate, considering him a coward and possibly a traitor, they eventually re-appreciated his techniques (only a bit too late - they only realized after the disaster of Cannae) and adopted them with enthusiasm, rendering Hannibal ineffective for the rest of the war.
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the man who earned his agnomen "Africanus" by beating Hannibal at his own game and using his own strategies against him, as well as some others he came up with himself. He proved his worth first in the Carthaginian Hispania by attracting the main Spanish tribes to his side, capturing the Punic headquarters of Carthage Nova in a crazy assault, and finally expelling the Carthaginians from mainland with an insanely complex combination of tactics in the Battle of Ilipa. It's little surprise that Scipio, now appointed consul even although he was technically too young, would next go to be the first man to beat Hannibal in battle, fighting a constant Mirror Match of outflanking attempts until his stronger cavalry could deal the blow.
Scipio's grandson Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus would take the torch. He was a philosopher, a diplomat and a military man all in one, and as a younger captain he used to save the ass of his superiors so often that, as with Africanus, the Senate ended up making him general even although he didn't have the required age so he could conquer Carthage - which he did, of course. He even had time to reinforce Rome's alliances with African and Hellenistic kingdoms while he was at it.
Viriathus, the Lusitanian chieftain during the Lusitanian Wars, elevated guerrilla and mobile warfare to a ridiculous level, using feigned retreats, ambushes, diversions and masterful escapes to keep the Romans from dominating Hispania during a decade. He was never beaten in battle, as he died murdered by traitors.
Julius Caesar conquered the Gauls and eventually his rivals back in Rome with the same grace.
The Three Kingdoms era had many, though several famous figures are either overhyped or flatout misrepresented in fiction.
Wei had many, like Sima Yi and Jia Xu. Cao Cao himself was a highly accomplished commander who helped revive the then unpopular Art of War, providing an extensive annotation. Guo Jia died fairly young, but was well respected regardless. In later years, Deng Ai was a major force on the Western front with an uncanny ability to predict and intercept enemy movements through his excellent knowledge of terrain.
Wu had Zhou Yu and Lu Meng among others. While Zhou Yu was instrumental in Sun Ce & Sun Quan's campaigns that lead to the founding of Wu, he died before Jing province could be settled. Lu Meng's lack of scholarship was so notorious he was known as "the country bumpkin of Wu" until Sun Quan encouraged him to take up studying. He then soon became one of Wu's most respected scholars and added tactical genius to his already incredible military ability. note Two Chinese proverbs were derived from him and his experiences. One was "Wu xia A'Meng" (吴下阿蒙), used to describe an ignorant person, and "Shi bie san ri, dang gua mu xiang kan" （士别三日，当刮目相看）, used to praise someone who has made great improvement since the speaker last saw the person. He won battles without even fighting. He took all of Liu Bei's holdings in Jing from Guan Yu without a single pitched battle or active siege.
Shu did have some good strategic men, but they died fairly young and longer-lived commanders have been given this reputation by popular fiction. Zhuge Liang provided a political and diplomatic strategy for Liu Bei to finally establish himself, but wasn't involved in military matters beyond logistics until after Liu Bei's passing, and whether it's due to being dealt a bad hand or personal incompetence, was never quite able to achieve his strategic goals in his northern military campaigns against Wei. While Xu Shu did recommend Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei, he never served him in any capacity and the battle with the "Eight Gates Formation" in which he supposedly defeated Cao Ren is pure fiction. He also never rose high in Cao Cao's regime. Pang Tong advised Liu Bei's Yi campaign, but it ground to a complete halt with his death. Fa Zheng likewise died on his first proper campaign, after tricking one of Cao Cao's greatest generals into an ambush and killing him.
Yuan Shao had several advisors. Perhaps the best was Tian Feng. His ignored advice is said to have been astonishingly accurate, though this may be an exaggeration after the fact. Chen Gong was Lu Bu's chief strategist, though not highly skilled. He had achieved only a middling position in Cao Cao's army and was generally regarded as being too slow in formulating his plans.
Liu Xiu, Emperor Guang Wu and founder of the Eastern Han dynasty. His victory at the Battle of Kunyang was one of the few examples in Chinese history whereby odds were so stacked against one army, and yet the underdog won. His side, with about 20,000 men, prevailed against approximately 420,000 troops of the Xin Dynasty. He was also known for formulating strategies back in court and sending said strategies to his generals out in the field, and the strategies still helped his troops win the day. Unfortunately, Liu Xiu's policy of acting as his own strategist rather than bringing in others to advise him was copied by many later emperors who lacked his strategic brilliance but were too egotistical to realize it.
Middle Ages
Khalid ibn al-Walid, the Drawn Sword of God, is considered one of the greatest generals in history. He never lost a battle in his long career and repeatedly defeated the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires, two of the greatest powers in the world at the time.
Subutai, one of Genghis Khan's "dogs of war", used his strategies and skill as a commander to conquer more territory than any other commander in history, even coordinating attacks on Poland and Hungary, within two days of each other, from five hundred miles away. This was centuries before the telegraph.
By attacking ruthlessly, retreating when necessary, choosing his battles, and exploiting diplomacy to its fullest, be it with Christians or Muslims, El Cid Campeador and his private army achieved no opposition in the Iberian Peninsula, eventually becoming the public enemy No. 1 of the Almoravid Empire by virtue of his people being basically the only Iberian faction the Almoravids seemed unable to win against. It all collapsed after his death, though, as the impossibility to replace the man and his sheer genius forced his former underlings to flee and merge into the existent Christian kingdoms for protection.
Jan Žižka was a Czech general most known for his part in the Hussite Wars where he led his small Bohemian faction against three crusades spearheaded by the Holy Roman Empire and never lost a battle against them even as he went blind towards the end of his life. He was a canny leader who favored extremely unorthodox strategies and regularly made good use of defensive terrain, armored wagons and guns to destroy the best that Sigismund could throw at him, even though his mostly-peasant army was ludicrously outnumbered the whole time.
Early modern
Admiral Yi Sun-sin of the Kingdom of Korea is in a 2-man contest with Horatio Nelson for the position of "greatest naval commander of all time". During the Japanese invasions of Korea, it was solely thanks to Sun-sin's mastery on the waters that the kingdom was saved, despite politicalinfighting including a Japanese plot that saw him tortured and reduced to the ranks. After his replacement fell into the same trap that Yi had been demoted for NOT falling into, the Korean court hastily reinstated Yi Sun-sin and, despite his fleet being reduced to only 12-13 ships, he took on a Japanese fleet of 300 ships and smashed it by picking his battleground carefullynote The Strait of Myeongnyang was known locally for having a current that shifted every few hours, which negated the Japanese numbers advantage and sent them into disarray when the current shifted, causing their ships to splinter against each other. When the Japanese attempted to retreat from Korea, Yi met them in one final battle, his fleet now around 150 ships (thanks to Chinese reinforcements) but now facing 500 Japanese ships. This time, he annihilated them. Ironically, much like Admiral Nelson later would at Trafalgar, he fell in the battle when he was mortally wounded by a stray bullet, dying in his finest hour. In his career fighting the Japanese over the course of the 7-year war, he fought 23 battles and lost none (comparably, Nelson only fought 13 recognised battles in his 35 years of service and only 8 were decisive victories). He is still regarded as Korea's greatest hero to this day. The reason it's only a two-man contest?
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, known solely as the "Great Captain", was the main general of The Catholic Monarchs, as well as a masterful user of both guerrilla and frontal warfare, and could be considered the man who finished the transition between medieval and early modern warfare. He banished the old heavy cavalry, instated the usage of firearms by regular soldiers in combination with the pike, and took to a new level the concept of combined arms, coordinating heavy and light infantry, cavalry, artillery, naval support, fortifications and supply lines as an integrated entity, to the point some attribute him creating the first truly modern army in history. He defeated the French, considered the best army of his time, in two consecutive wars.
Hernán Pérez del Pulgar, Córdoba's close friend, tormented the last Muslim bulwarks in the Iberian Peninsula with a highly refined, ninja-like form of guerrilla warfare, often achieving great effect with a minimal number of men.
Afonso de Albuquerque, the Lion of Portugal, conquered the Indian Ocean for his kingdom by a mix of cannonfire, willpower, cunningness and eye for selecting strategic points. At one point, he conquered a city by meeting its king, murdering the king's adviser in front of him and convincing him to become a vassal, and he chose his target and moment so well that he got away with it. Before dying, Albuquerque was still proposing increasingly crazy plans to defeat Islam, among them deviating the Nile to dry Egypt up and stealing the corpse of The Prophet Muhammad.
Gaston of Foix skillfully and spectacularly defeated the Spaniards in Ravenna, proving the French could adapt to early modern warfare too. Had he not prematurely died in a botched charge, he would have surely become a big name.
Fernando de Ávalos, Marquis of Pescara, was Gaston's Spanish counterpart, down to also dying young. He reintroduced Alexander the Great's oblique marches in early modern warfare, paving the way for Frederick the Great, and also planned and executed the whole army-sized camp infiltration that got King Francis I of France captured in Pavia.
This is the answer to how could Hernán Cortésconquer the Aztec Empire with a meager 500 men who didn't even play at home (rather its complete opposite). His excellence as both a diplomat and a field general soon gathered under his flag an array of indigenous confederacies who hated the Aztecs, whose armies and resources he then used to undermine the empire until isolating its capital and eventually conquering it - and most amazingly, he did all of this without any formal military training, only being a lower nobleman who idolized Alexander the Great.
We cannot exclude one of Cortés' main allies, the indigenous prince Ixtlilxóchitl II of Texcoco. Kicked out of his land for his opposition to Aztec interventionism, he gathered a modest army of followers in the mountains and went to become a serious headache for the empire, conquering one of their nearby cities and defeating the subsequent Aztec army so badly that the empire had to sign a peace treaty with a rebel like him. Naturally, Ixtlilxóchitl joined forces with Cortés as soon as he heard about him, and gave him advice about how to control politics in Texcoco and how to conquer the Aztec capital.
Although more known in pop culture for his less than ideal government of the Netherlands, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba, stood out in turn for his immense ability as a general. He excelled especially in the more mundane aspects of battle, like logistics, training and discipline, turning armies into well-oiled machines, and was famously adverse to seeking the engagement without having everything absolutely calculated, which often annoyed his coworkers but usually paid off.
A friend and collaborator of the Duke of Alba was Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis of Santa Cruz, possibly the best admiral in the history of Spain. He fought the Turks, the French, the English, the Portuguese and the Dutch through four decades without ever taking a loss, and was one of the earliest advocates of sea power in Europe, pioneering the concept of naval infantry and the transition from galleys to galleons as warships in the 16th century. As a trivia fact, he was going to be the original commander of the Spanish Armada before dying of illness.
Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, was considered the greatest strategist of his time. The failure of the Spanish Empire at controlling the constant whack-a-mole of wars in Europe could be attributed to the fact that they only had one Farnese, who excelled wherever he went thanks to his combination of siege abilities, mobility and lightning-quick attacks and retreats.
Maurice of Nassau turned out an impressive military theorist and general who reformed the Dutch army into great efficiency. He is considered a pioneer of the lineal tactics that went to dominate the battlefields.
Ambrogio Spinola entered the Eighty Years' War with a planned attack on English ports that never realized, but he soon adapted to land warfare and blossomed as Farnese's succesor. As his most dangerous enemies were in the Spanish court rather than on the battlefields, he developed a reputation of being a military thaumaturge with the few resources and absurd orders he was constantly given. Skilled at hitting weak spots and pressuring his enemies, he snatched a long number of cities from Maurice of Nassau before quitting when too many court troubles convinced him he was wasting his time.
Albrecht von Wallenstein might be easily the most iconic general in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. A Protestant-turned-Catholic mercenary, he rapidly became Emperor Ferdinand II's enforcer thanks to his leadership skills, his excellent mobile warfare, and his unusual usage of cavalry in a time where it was considered obsolete, which he used to deal the Protestant multiple crushing victories in the Thirty Years' War. Courtly jealously and fear of his ambition caused Wallenstein to be demoted and replaced by the Count of Tilly, but after the latter's death they had to recall him. He passed his last years trying to negotiate peace, as he had calculated the empire could not fight a war like that forever, but the next emperor failed to appreciate his efforts and had him assassinated.
Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, proved to be on Wallenstein's level. An understudy of Alexander Farnese, he re-trained their troops adapting the Spanish system to the German armies and achieved a long streak of crushing victories against the Protestants, including several over King Christian IV of Denmark when he came to assist their side. His success produced an unbalance of power that led King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to enter the war in 1630, which eventually caused Tilly's death in battle when the Swedish turned to be an even better general and reformator.
Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, "The Lion of the North", revolutionized warfare in the 17th century with both strategy and organization. Inspired by his mentor Maurice of Nassau, he established more shallow infantry lines, introduced light mobile artillery for extra flexibility, and in a novel touch, he created a philosophy of cooperation and cross-training among all his combatants. He defeated the Holy Roman Empire multiple times, making Sweden rise to the status of an European power, before dying prematurely in battle in 1632 against Wallenstein. Among the many people who studied him as a role model to follow militarily were Napoleon himself.
Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, brother to Philip IV, was a born general with the misfortune of being forced into a church job by family pressure, which didn't ultimately impede him from deploying in the European wars. He might be most famous for Nordlingen, where the tercios proved their adaptation abilities against Gustavus Adolphus' theoretically superior armies (not against Gustavus himself, as he had died shortly after), but he also added a list of victories against the French and the Dutch in a number that few would expected by that point. Due to his stellar defensive strategies and ability to read the fields, his premature death of illness was probably the breaking point for Spain to lose its top status in Europe.
Henry de La Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount of Turenne, might have been the greatest general in the history of France had Napoleon himself not stolen later his place on the ranking, if only after having "read and re-read" Turenne. Supreme general of Louis XIV, he was an understudy of Maurice of Nassau too before shining with his own light, introducing careful tactics, ghostlike mobility and emphasis on small, grinding battles. He became the nightmare of the House of Habsburg, defeating multiple times the Holy Roman Empire and conquering the whole Spanish Netherlands, as well as assisting in utterly rumpling the Dutch Republic.
Raimondo Montecuccoli. Initially a Holy Roman cavalry officer, he passed some years in prison, where he studied up every military treatise and from where he came out as a genius strategist. He debuted dealing the Turks a traumatic defeat, and when the Holy Roman Empire and France went to war again, he engaged Turenne in a chess-like campaign until the latter's death (in a minor scuffle, much to Raimondo's sadness). Montecuccoli later retired due to bad health, and as the Holy Romans neglected him a bit, he was made a prince of the Spanish Empire by Charles II (yes, the screwed up one) for his services.
Frederick II the Great, King of Prussia, who single-handedly elevated his kingdom to a major military power in Europe. Frederick was a kind of martial Omnidisciplinary Scientist: in addition to studying every single facet of war (from mobility to tactics) and reading every book imaginable on historic conflicts, he personally fought in many battles and was able to devise strategies based not only on his vast knowledge, but lived experience. His reputation echoed across European history (German, French, and Russian military strategies were modeled after Frederick's own army), and indeed with some of the entries on this list—Napoleon Bonaparte viewed Frederick as superior to even his own genius, once remarking at the king's grave: "Gentlemen, if this man were still alive, I would not be here."
Admiral Fyodor Ushakov was one of the best fleet commanders in the Russian Imperial Navy. How good was he? He never lost a battle or a ship in his naval career, despite frequently facing the Turks who had superior numbers and firepower. Lord Nelson used some of his tactics to win the Battle of Trafalgar. Not that Nelson would admit it, had he survived. In fact, Nelson was so intimidated by Ushakov, he earlier got him sent to Egypt instead of having Ushakov direct the siege of Malta as the more senior admiral. Unfortunately, the new Tsar didn't appreciate Ushakov's skill and had him Kicked Upstairs.
Late modern warfare
It's not a coincidence that Napoléon Bonaparte had an age named after him, the man fought and won most of his wars against all of Europe.
Even better: as detailed in the Eroica entry, Napoleon's first claim to fame saw him having been kicked out of the army (even if not for political reasons but for refusing to serve as infantry general when he was from artillery) and being recalled into service because he was already known as capable and the Convention had nobody competent around.
The Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley. Fought all but one of his battles (Vitoria) outnumbered, sometimes drastically, yet never lost a battle, defeated Napoleon, retook the Peninsula, commanded the Allied armies and deprived of almost all of his veterans (they had been sent to colonial outposts worldwide or fell into the category of Retired Badass) stalemate Napoleon who had many more soldiers, mostly veterans and more artillery. Also, a large portion of the army, the Dutch-Belgian contingent, weren't too keen on fighting the French and left, as well as the Heavy cavalry being stupid (as per usual: they were largely composed of variants on the Blood Knight and Upper-Class Twit) and mostly getting slaughtered after refusing to retreat after a successful charge. And he still held on for a day until Blucher arrived with the Prussian army. And he often had to deal with his political opponents in both Spain and London. A complete Four-Star Badass.
However, when the actual shooting wars started, that's where Bismarck needed his own strategist, General Helmut von Moltke the Elder. He was a commander who had a flair for developing war strategies that could seemingly defeat anyone, especially with that talent guided by the useful axiom he liked to follow when it is time to improvise, "Strategy is a series of expedients," or as is more popular known, "No plan survives contact with the enemy." Unfortunately, that general was among those pushed for aggressive conquests like France's Alsace-Lorraine region after the victory of the Franco-Prussian War, even when Bismarck suspected doing that would be a source for more trouble with France in the future.
And Carl Von Clausewitz, author of On War. His first claim to fame was to study Napoleon's strategies and tactics (that he had experienced on himself, having fought Napoleon at Jena and being captured when the Prussian army was annihilated) and use them to reform the Prussian Army and put in theory what Napoleon had improvised. His second claim to fame, detailed in the Eroica entry, was the Trachenberg Plan, the strategy he created with Austrian general Radetzky that led to Napoleon's armies being sufficiently weakened in numbers, firepower and morale to be utterly crushed at Leipzing. Other claims of fame came from the battle of Wavre, where he ridiculed Napoleon's general Grouchy by keeping him busy and away from the battle of Waterloo (where Grouchy's men would have been decisive), and On War, that, while incomplete, is theBig Book of War of Europe.
Imperial Austria had Joseph Radetzky. How good was he? Well, do you remember the Trachenberg Plan detailed in Clausewitz's entry above? Well, he was the mind behind it, Clausewitz was working for him. Later, in his seventies, he was the Austrian commander-in-chief in the First War of Italian Independence, and, outnumbered, outgunned and deprived of his forward base at Milan by the city's rebellion, he outmanoeuvred the Sardinian-led coalition until it dissolved under its political difficulties, at which point he fought decisively and won.
Giuseppe Garibaldi. If someone was fighting for freedom, he was there. His greatest claim to fame is the Spedizione dei Mille (Expedition of the Thousand), that is conquering a kingdom with a thousand men and a strategy that had previously failed miserably against the same enemy:
the strategy was to land in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and cause a pro-Italian Unification insurrection, as tried by Carlo Pisacane a few years earlier resulting in the people lynching the patriots instead of rising in rebellion. Pisacane, who was barely known had landed near the capital of Naples, where the government was relatively well-liked, and had been stupid enough to free some convicts to increase his group's numbers. Garibaldi instead landed in Sicily proper, where the people hated the government, and, being Garibaldi, those who were about to attack the mysterious men anyway waited long enough for him to explain why he was there, at which point they rose in rebellion because Garibaldi asked them. After which Garibaldi's small army waltzed around Sicily, increasing their numbers through Sicilian volunteers and defections from the government's army, conquered it, and landed on the mainland, continuing to defeat the government armies and increase his numbers through defections. The last battle was between the last twenty thousands demoralized men of the Two Sicilian army and Garibaldi's force of thirty thousand...
Contrary to popular belief (which does not mean educated), Stonewall Jackson was a strategist bordering on Guile Hero. He believed that "If [his own men] don't understand what [he's] planning, the enemy will never figure it out." And they never did. This is the man who inspired the phrase "Crazy like a fox".
This is a quote from the commander of the Union Army:
General Hooker: "Jackson's movement, if not an accident, was eccentric and reprehensible, as no-one would be justified in anticipating its success. The movement was an unheard-of one, and under the circumstances, admitted not a ray of probability of successful execution. 99 chances out of a hundred, General Jackson's Corps would have been destroyed. It is for such movements that Jackson will ever be considered an unsafe person to place in command of armies."
Hooker is the general that lost. Jackson's strategy in this battle resulted in General Lee defeating 135,000 men with a force of only 65,000 (about 2-to-1 against).
That is because Lee and Jackson had Nerves of Steel, and were able to press forward with their strategy effectively. While Hooker had (to make an unfairly hyperbolic but revealing comparison) nerves of pasta.
Fortunately (or unfortunately for the Confederacy) Stonewall Jackson’s propensity to keep everyone in the dark about his plans led to him being shot by his own troops.
While many have dismissed American Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant as being limited to only We Have Reserves, he was in reality a handy strategist. His battles in the Eastern Theater of the war and during the Vicksburg Campaign would not have been won just by using raw numbers of troops, no matter what his critics like to say. Furthermore, while Robert E. Lee was a battlefield general skilled in winning individual battles, Grant was a big-picture strategist who could take all his nation's forces in his plans and have the skill and will to use them through a series of battles to most effectively win the war. Indeed, it would be his military reputation as a lauded strategist that would later land him into the presidency.
William Tecumseh Sherman, Grant's second-in-command, was no slouch himself. While considered merely a decent tactician, his March to the Sea is, while ethically controversial, held up as an incredible military accomplishment that broke the back of the Confederacy, aided Grant further North by destroying the source of Lee's supplies, and demoralized the southern citizens. It came from a very forward-thinking mindset that the the common people were the ones who held up an army and striking at their resources would end the war sooner. For better or worse, Sherman pioneered the concept of total war.
Erich von Manstein was Nazi Germany's best strategist, devising the Fall of France and numerous battles on the Eastern Front.
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery. He was undeniably a difficult man to deal with; as Churchill snarked, "in victory, insufferable." He and Patton loathed each other, to the point where part of the reason that Eisenhower (who was frequently exasperated by both) was unanimously made Supreme Allied Commander by the Western Allied leaders was the fact that he was the only person who could manage both of them and keep them pointed in more or less the same direction. However, he was also quite nearly as brilliant as he thought he was, being a patient and methodical general who specialised in logistical campaign warfare. His achievements included singlehandedly turning around the North Africa campaign and outfoxing Erwin Rommel himself, making him overstretch his supply lines and manipulating him into a trap at El Alamein. Likewise, while his gloating about it was very much not appreciated, especially since he rather exaggerated his already significant part, it is universally accepted among experts that his involvement was crucial at the Battle of the Bulge, coordinating a wide variety of isolated holding actions into a set-piece battle.
is one of the more interesting. It is almost a Real Life version of Battleschool.