Most are saying Patton, but I have some problems with Patton. He was bad about outrunning his supply lines and he is probably also to blame for those troops in Belgium being ill equiped for winter fighting. They had no winter clothes because Patton assumed he could win the war by Christmas and he didn't think it was necessary for them to have winter clothes. He was a prima donna and I believe that the 3rd army was successful because of those men fighting in it and not because of Patton. He was aggressive, I give him that. But he also didn't play it smart and it ended up costing a lot of lives. If he wouldn't have outrun his supply lines and made sure the men were properly equipped, we would have still won, but without as much lives lost. That's all hindsight and it's debated that being so aggressive kept the Germans on the defensive. However, I also believe that Patton did a lot of things strictly to make Patton look good. I think his ego got in the way of clear thinking too many times.
The original thread asked for commanders and not necessarily generals. If so, I liked Norman Cota and Dick Winters. After reading Band of Brothers, Winters is the type of commander I would have wanted to serve under.
"I liked Norman Cota and Dick Winters."
28th "Keystone" Division bump...they were the ones who paid in blood so the 101st could get to Bastogne.
Regards,