The Worst World War II Generals

A callous and bumbling military Luddite, Marshall Kulik was given command of the Soviet Artillery Directorate, despite loathing tanks and motorized artillery. He disdained modern tech like the machine gun, believed the field would be forever ruled by horses, and meddled in the construction of the iconic T-34 tank by ordering it to be armed with an inferior cannon.

Kulik's interference in industrial production ensured the Soviet army was totally unprepared when Germany infiltrated in June 1941, leading to horrific casualties. A totally ineffective field commander (his motto was "jail or medal"), Kulik was nonetheless put in charge of the Leningrad Front - and led it so poorly that the iconic city was surrounded almost immediately, leading to a three-year siege. Kulik somehow survived the conflict, but was detained in a post-conflict purge, and then slain in 1947.

Facing Rommel's elite Afrika Korps, Lloyd Fredendall was totally unsuited to the task of commanding American forces in the field. He was well-liked by superiors, but very hands-off in the field and issued orders in an incomprehensible personal slang code. One order typical of Fredendall's gibberish read: "Have your boss report to the French gentleman whose name begins with J at a place which begins with D which is five grid squares to the left of M."

Beyond that, he infuriated Eisenhower by ordering an entire battalion to construct a giant command bunker 100 miles behind the front that he'd never have to leave. He left other commanders out of his decision-making process and had no grasp of how or where to position units to form a defensive line. The result was the US Army's humiliating defeat at Kasserine Pass. Soon after the fight, Eisenhower removed Fredendall from command.

After rapid German success in the infiltration of France, General Gamelin was relieved of command of French forces. The position was given to another WWI hero, General Maxime Weygand . Weygand promptly canceled the urgent counterattack that Gamelin had planned, and spent the next 48 hours tending to courtesy visits with foreign dignitaries in Paris.

Those 48 hours allowed German soldiers to catch up with their over-extended tanks, ending any chance France had of a successful counter-offensive. Weygand finally launched a strike, but the German position had become too strong for it to work. With his armed forces spent in fruitless, piecemeal strikes, Weygand became overwhelmed by defeatism. He ordered Paris left undefended, advocated for surrender, and became an ambivalent SS collaborator.

Budyonny was one of the most decorated officers of the Soviet Army, but his reliance on old-style cavalry tactics made him totally unsuited for combat in WWII. In 1937, he denounced the most innovative tank officer in the Red Army, leading to his execution - and ruining Soviet tank tactics for years.

Later, he was given command of two Fronts in Ukraine and faced the brunt of the German infiltration. Budyonny's unimaginative orders, lack of understanding of mechanized conflict, and pointless wasting of troops allowed the Germans to make enormous progress. Between August and September 1941, 43 Soviet divisions were either wiped out or captured - a staggering 700,000 men lost. It was a huge disaster, and so badly weakened the Red Army that Moscow was put at risk. Budyonny was relieved of command and held no role of importance the rest of the conflict.

As commander of the British forces in Malaya, Percival became party to the largest surrender in English history . He was given command of a large force that outnumbered the Japanese two-to-one, but it was poorly equipped and trained, with little air support and no tanks. Percival himself shunned the building of defensive works, fearing they would sap morale, and spread his forces far too thinly to launch a proper counterattack.

Japan infiltrated Malaya an hour after bombarding Pearl Harbor, and within a month, Percival's force was in a panicked retreat back to Singapore, which fell weeks later. As a result, 130,000 British troops, including Percival, were taken captive. Malaya suffered horribly under Japanese occupation.

The commander of American forces infiltrating Italy in September 1943, Clark dithered on breaking out after his initial landing, which nearly let the German's push the Allies back. Then, in January 1944, in a glory-seeking effort to take the strategically critical ancient abbey Monte Cassino, he sent an under-strength infantry division on a dangerous river crossing against dug-in German defenses. Predictably, the division was nearly wiped out and Clark was later the subject of a Congressional inquiry.

Finally, Clark's troops had the elite German 10th Army on the run after breaking out of the Anzio landing . But at that critical moment, Clark switched gears to capture Rome - despite it having no strategic value. Rome was taken with no resistance, and Clark rode in as a conqueror, but the bulk of the German force escaped, necessitating nearly another year of vicious combat - and 44,000 more Allied casualties.