By George! U.S president Washington voted Britain's greatest enemy commander

whydave · 16-04-2012 9:40am #1

By Ted Thornhill (The daily Mail)
George Washington has been voted 'Britain’s Greatest Enemy Commander' in the National Army Museum’s nationwide poll.
After months of fierce online voting, in which Napoleon, Rommel, Collins, Atatürk and Washington have all vied for the top spot, the deciding votes were cast at a specially convened speaker day at the museum on Saturday.
Washington, who was the first president of the U.S, won with 30 votes, beating off his nearest rival by 16 votes.
Coming in second was Michael Collins !
( LINK )

spank_inferno · 16-04-2012 9:44am

Not bad.

My vote would have been for Bonaparte though.

johngalway · 16-04-2012 1:05pm

Stands to reason, look at what Washington managed to win for the then new USA.

xflyer · 16-04-2012 5:24pm

Ironic when you look at it. Both the top two chosen were effectively 'British' even though both wanted to end that connection. I think Michael Collins deserves to be in that position. When you consider what he and his men achieved. Losing most of Ireland when the British empire was at the height of it's power is remarkable anyway you look at it.

Gee Bag · 16-04-2012 6:06pm

I would have thought the following lads would have figured higher up the list as they managed to invade and conquer substantial parts of the island of Britain.

William the Conqueror (the Norman Invasion)
Guthrum (Warlord of the Danelaw)
Claudius (Main Roman Invasion)

Don't know why Attaturk is in the top 5, there was no chance the Turks were going to lose at Gallipoli.

xflyer · 17-04-2012 12:28am

GB, the three you mention fall outside the terms of the poll which excludes any commanders prior to the 17th century.

tac foley · 18-04-2012 11:06am

xflyer wrote: »

Ironic when you look at it. Both the top two chosen were effectively 'British' even though both wanted to end that connection. I think Michael Collins deserves to be in that position. When you consider what he and his men achieved. Losing most of Ireland when the British empire was at the height of it's power is remarkable anyway you look at it.

100% agree.

tac, whose mother was a Collins.

twinytwo · 22-04-2012 12:58am

whydave wrote: »

By Ted Thornhill (The daily Mail)
George Washington has been voted 'Britain’s Greatest Enemy Commander' in the National Army Museum’s nationwide poll.
After months of fierce online voting, in which Napoleon, Rommel, Collins, Atatürk and Washington have all vied for the top spot, the deciding votes were cast at a specially convened speaker day at the museum on Saturday.
Washington, who was the first president of the U.S, won with 30 votes, beating off his nearest rival by 16 votes.
Coming in second was Michael Collins !
( LINK )

if only collins had the resources that washington had...

bwatson · 22-04-2012 4:13am

One thing that many people forget with regard to the American War of Independence is just how inept the British general staff were shown to be by Washington and other American commanders. This lead to a major rethink in the war British officers were selected and trained and was a significant contributory factor in the rise of great commanders such as Nelson and Wellington.

Victor · 22-04-2012 5:13am

Is this first or second round?

Sunnyisland · 23-04-2012 6:42pm

Victor wrote: »

Is this first or second round?

That was the final.

By George! U.S president Washington voted Britain's greatest enemy commander

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