Originally posted by steelehc
Admirals
1. Chester Nimitz-American-WW2
2. William Halsey-American-WW2
3. John Jellicoe-British-WW1
4. David Beatty-British-WW1
5. Heihachiro Togo-Japanese-Russo-Japanese War, WW1
6. Isoroku Yamamoto-Japanese-WW2
7. Alfred von Tirpitz-German-WW1
Well, naval warfare being my specialty, I just thought that I would say how difficult it is to rate these fellows. Really, what defines a great admiral? Is it a master administrator like Nimitz? Someone who always keeps his objectives in mind like Jellicoe? A planner like Yamamoto or Tirpitz? The number and scale of battles won, like Togo and Halsey? Or the ability to play to the public and behave like a jackass, while gaining a largely undeserved promotion, like Beatty?
I would say that Nimitz would be the number one administrator, since he managed to manage the enormous logistics of the Pacific, with King and Leahy coming up right behind him. Not even the RN had to deal with such enormous supply lines. Of course, the fact that they were American helped greatly, but still their skill aided their success greatly. Honorable mention for Erich Raeder, who laid the groundwork for the navy that Doenitz would so badly misuse.
For battle admirals, I would go with Togo. Using a force which was on paper far inferior, he handed the entire Russian navy it's ass. Spruance and Halsey are right up there as well, for their hard-fighting techniques.
For the planners, I think that Jacky Fisher gets a spot, for his revolutionizing of naval warfare, as well as his virtual creation of the RN submarine arm. Tirpitz gets something as well for making something from nothing, and accomplishing a great deal with his limited resources compared to his rival. I think that Yamamoto earns points for audacity, but would have better served his country in the short term by not providing his guidance and genius. An IJN run by the old Battleship Admirals would have lost the Pacific war even sooner than they did in actuality.
As for Beatty, like Chuichi Nagumo, I have nothing nice to say about him at all. Nagumo was overly indecisive, and Yamamoto would have done well to bring back Jellicoe from the dead to run his carriers. Beatty, on the other hand, was too much of a loose cannon, and his hotdogging killed thousands of RN sailors in a morning at Jutland. The two men are opposites, but are both defective in their own ways.
