How great was Omar Bradley?


I've spent the last two weeks talking practically non-stop about Omar Bradley, so much that I'm hoarse.

I think that's great, because it's past time that Bradley gets some of his due. He is well known inside Army circles and to some extent among historians, but he really has never gotten the attention that he deserves in the general public. (A lot of what historians think they know about him is wrong as well, but that's a topic for another day - or the book itself.)

One question that's difficult to answer, however, is one that seems like it would be the simplest: How great a general was Omar Bradley?

It's easy to say categorically that he was not the plodding infantryman or meek egotist that he is occasionally caricatured as. And it's also easy to show that he was more than mediocre - he had an exception tactical sense, was open to new ideas, flexible in his use of forces, and single-handedly planned one of the key operations of the war (Cobra, the breakout from Normandy).*

But does all of that place him in the "first rank"? Should he be spoken of in the same breath  as, say, Napoleon or Rommel?

He's not Napoleon, but in thinking about that general it becomes clear that there's really no way to compare Bradley, or even of his peers, to Napoleon, at least not on terms that are fair to either. The state of war has changed so much that comparisons are simply not operative.

My book does say that Bradley is undervalued and deserves a lot more credit than he's given. He was a great man and a great general by any normal measure. But how great was great?

Even after all my research, thinking and writing, I'm not sure I can answer that. One thing I will note, however -- Napoleon eventually lost. Same with Rommel. Bradley didn't.

* He had negatives as well. Most people don't ask about them in the interviews. They are in the book. I think his pluses outweigh them, but no man, no general, is perfect. And I can think of at least one series of battles I'm sure he would have taken back if he could have.