Most overrated WW2 commander

[Darth Wagtaros]

It is the one where the result of WW2 was determined on the Russian front, where Zhukov is an utter genius who engineered the Soviet victory and where any apparent errors by Zhukov were in fact Stalin's 

With that sort of rating it is perfectly possible for Zhukov to both be a great general and heavily overrated.

Having a boss like Stalin or Hitler is great for a general. You can claim responsibility for every success, and for all the things that went wrong you can just claim "the crazy man" made me do it and everyone will nod their head.

That's only assuming you survive "the crazy man".

[Drakken]

That's only assuming you survive "the crazy man".

As far as I remember, no general under Hitler was executed for either incompetence or being soundly and humiliatingly beaten, even when Hitler became raving mad. 

[Viking]

That's only assuming you survive "the crazy man".

As far as I remember, no general under Hitler was executed for either incompetence or being soundly and humiliatingly beaten, even when Hitler became raving mad. 

just for trying to arrange his early demise

[Warspite]

For "general time has been kindest to", I'd vote Slim - he's like the anti-Monty: mostly overlooked at the time, historians these days tend to rate him very highly.

A pomme general highly respected in Australia, that alone should qualify him for greatness.

[crazy canuck]

After a heavy pondering that lasted 10 seconds, I went with MacArthur.

Does anyone rate MacArther highly?

[Viking]

After a heavy pondering that lasted 10 seconds, I went with MacArthur.

Does anyone rate MacArther highly?

Douglas MacArthur did.

[Razgovory]

After a heavy pondering that lasted 10 seconds, I went with MacArthur.

Does anyone rate MacArther highly?

Seedy.

[Norgy]

HoI games rate him.

How much operational warfare did de Gaulle really take part in? After the Fall of France, I seem to recall he was a political leader first and foremost.

Of those mentioned, I suppose one might say that Bomber Harris is "over-rated", but that would be judging the effect of the strategic bombing campaign compared to the costs in retrospect. At the time, I am sure it made perfect sense and was about the only way outside of the commando raids that the UK could strike at Germany in Europe.

Zhukov and Konev did get results, but showed a sometimes outrageous disregard for their own losses.

I'm actually not at all sure that anyone these days is over-rated, given the enormous quantity of material published discussing the pros and cons of each commander.

Maybe a write-in candidate in Sepp Dietrich, as some seem to rate his battle prowess quite highly, while it definitely wasn't great.

[The Brain]

Only Model could retreat from Leningrad.

[Norgy]

He was a Model to us all.

[Admiral Yi]

Does anyone rate MacArther highly?

Dugout Doug generally gets good marks for the Inchon landing.

[The Brain]

With Harry "now-I-want-to-nuke-and-now-I-don't" Truman as boss anyone would have looked pretty meh.

[The Minsky Moment]

re Zhukov I don't see how anyone who both successfully countered Manstein and the German Army at the front and Stalin at his back, and came through all of that alive, can be overrated.  There is a reason the cheesy documentaries make a lot of the fact that he had to cope with Stalin and that is because having to cope with Stalin is about as difficult a handicap as one can imagine.  And yes, dealing with Hitler is a problem too, but then again not every German general on the list successfully did that.  eg Rommel, among others.

My votes:
1.  Rommel - had a small (alibeit important) single division command in France. The Africa campaign was a wasteful strategic sideshow which he ultimately lost.  True, in the long run it was unwinnable, but he did his side no favors by pushing well beyond his logistical capacities into Egypt in summer 42.  That's pretty much it for his tangible war record.
2.  Yamamoto - Pearl Harbor and Midway were two of the biggest strategic blunders by any side during the war.  About the best you can say is that the strategic problems he faced were so dismal it didn't really matter.
3. Patton - that degree of lack of self-control is a fatal flaw.  He is like the all-star level ballplayer that misses the key games of the season because he gets into bar fights after the game.

[The Brain]

re Zhukov I don't see how anyone who both successfully countered Manstein and the German Army at the front and Stalin at his back, and came through all of that alive, can be overrated.

Ah yes, the uber-Wehrmacht. Are you "PanzerFanBoi123" on some other boards?

[Jacob]

Mao is pretty overrated by a lot of people, though maybe not Western historians.