This is coolbert: Military thoughts miscellany. Now, Napoleon is rated by Montgomery of El Alamein as being one of the three best generals of all time. According to Montgomery, when asked who were the three best generals of all time, the Field Marshal answered, "Alexander [The Great], and Napoleon were the other two". Monty was never known for lacking in ego. Nonetheless, Napoleon, as successful as he was, did have major failures as well. His abortive expedition to Egypt is one of them. And of course the catastrophic defeat in Russia is another. I would not count Waterloo as a major failure, as Napoleon did not have time to reorganize his forces and prepare for the allied offensive against him.

In a previous post I spoke about Slim of the Arakan. How he relates while studying as a cadet he was "poring" over the principles of war as listed in the old Field Regulations. This was during the First World War. Well, those principles of war could not have been that old. It was only in 1911 that a British officer of Captain rank named J.F.C Fuller was able to assemble the accepted [at least in the English speaking world] principles of war. He did this on his own after finding out that no basic principles were agreed upon and listed on paper. Probably intuitively understood by the "Great Captains" of history, but not studied and enunciated in cogent terms understood by all prior to that time.

coolbert.