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World War II was one of the most complex events in history, the consequences of which are still being felt today. Believing that one of the best ways to learn history is through biography, Famous Men of the Second World War tells the story of the war through the lives of 31 men, investigating... read more

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  • Adolph Hitler: (1889-1945) German politician and leader of the Third Reich
  • George S. Patton: (1885-1945) American military officer best known for his execution of mechanized warfare. Patton commanded some of the the first U.S. troops into the war during the North African Campaign in 1942, where he later established himself as an effective commander through his rapid rehabilitation of the demoralized U.S. II Corps. He commanded the Seventh Army during the Invasion of Sicily, where he beat British General Bernard Law Montgomery to Messina but was embroiled in controversy after he slapped two soldiers under his command. Patton returned to command the Third Army following the Invasion of Normandy in 1944, where he led a highly successful, rapid drive across France. He led the relief of beleaguered U.S. troops at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, and advanced his army into Nazi Germany by the end of the war. Patton was the military governor of Bavaria after the end of the war, and for a time commanded the Fifteenth United States Army before he died following an automobile accident on 21 December 1945.
  • William Halsey, Jr.: ‘Bull’ Halsey (1882-1959) American admiral. During World War II he commanded the South Pacific Area during the early stages of the Pacific War against Japan. Later he was commander of the Third Fleet through the duration of hostilities.
  • Dwight David Eisenhower: (1890-1969) American military officer and 34th President of the United States. During World War II, he was the Supreme Allied Commander of the forces in Europe.
  • Erwin Rommel: (1891-1944) German Field Marshal. Commander of the 7th Panzer Division during the 1940 invasion of France. However, it was his leadership of German and Italian forces in the North African campaign that established the legend of the Desert Fox. He is considered to have been one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare in the war. He later commanded the German forces opposing the Allied cross-channel invasion in Normandy.
  • Albert Kesselring: (1885-1960) German Field Marshal during World War II. he commanded air forces in the invasions of Poland and France, the Battle of Britain, and Operation Barbarossa. As Commander-in-Chief South, he was overall German commander in the Mediterranean theatre, which included the operations in North Africa. Kesselring conducted an uncompromising defensive campaign against the Allied forces in Italy until he was injured in an accident in October 1944. In the final campaign of the war, he commanded German forces on the Western Front.
  • Josef Stalin: (1878-1953) Leader of the Soviet Union
  • Georgi Zhukov: (1896-1974) Soviet military officer.
  • Isoroku Yamamoto: (1884-1943) Japanese Admiral and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II.
  • Chester Nimitz: (1885-1966) American admiral. A five-star admiral in the United States Navy. He held the dual command of Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet, for U.S. naval forces and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, for U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II. He served as Chief of Naval Operations from 1945 until 1947.
  • George C. Marshall: (1880-1959) American military officer. Army Chief-of-Staff during World War II, he organized the largest military expansion in U.S. history, inheriting an outmoded, poorly equipped army of 189,000 men and, partly drawing from his experience teaching and developing techniques of modern warfare as an instructor at the Army War College, coordinated the large-scale expansion and modernization of the U.S. Army. Though he had never actually led troops in combat, Marshall was a skilled organizer with a talent for inspiring other officers.
  • Douglas Macarthur: (1880-1964) American military officer. From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he attempted a series of reforms. His next assignment was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, he became the Army's youngest major general. In 1930, he became Chief of Staff of the United States Army. As such, he was involved with the expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters from Washington, D.C., in 1932, and the establishment and organization of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1937 to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of U.S. Army Forces Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with the destruction of his air force on 8 December 1941, and the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese. MacArthur's forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left Corregidor Island in PT boats, and escaped to Australia, where MacArthur became Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area. He officially accepted Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945, and oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951.
  • Karl Dönitz: (1891-1980) German naval commander during World War II. In January 1943, Dönitz achieved the rank of Grand Admiral, the highest naval rank. On 30 April 1945, after the death of Adolf Hitler and in accordance with Hitler's last will and testament, Dönitz was named Hitler's successor as Head of State, with the title of President.
  • Erich Von Manstein: (1887-1973) German General in command at the initiation of the Battle of Stalingrad. He was replaced when he became unable to capture the city.
  • Omar Bradley: (1893-1981) American military officer. He was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army. From the Normandy landings through the end of the war in Europe, Bradley had command of all U.S. ground forces invading Germany from the west; he ultimately commanded forty-three divisions and 1.3 million men, the largest body of American soldiers ever to serve under a U.S. field commander.
  • James H. Doolittle: Jimmy Doolittle (1896-1993) American pioneer aviator. During World War II he was an officer in the Army Air Force. He is most famous for leading the first offensive raid on the Japanese homeland in early 1942 while a lieutenant colonel.
  • Frank Jack Fletcher: (1885-1973) American admiral. Operational commander at the pivotal Battles of Coral Sea and of Midway.
  • Benito Mussolini: Add a description of this character.
  • Murphy
  • Franklin Roosevelt
  • Harry Truman
  • Wallenberg
  • Tojo
  • Edson
  • Winston Churchill
  • Bundesarchiv
  • Cunningham
  • Graf Spee
  • Fuchida
  • Chamberlain
  • Bismarck
  • Hermann Göring
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus: (1890-1957) German Field Marshal in command of the German Sixth Army that invaded the Soviet Union in 1942.
  • Heinz Guderian: (1888-1954) German military officer. Proponent of mechanized warfare.
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