The Commanders of World War II were for the most part career officers. They were forced to adapt to new technologies and shaped the direction of modern warfare. Some political leaders, particularly those of the principal dictatorships involved in the conflict, Adolf Hitler (Germany), Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union), Benito Mussolini (Italy) and Chiang Kai-shek (China), acted as supreme military commanders as well as civil commanders of their respective countries or empires.
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“A man of honor is so rare an animal in this world that I could not stand the sight of him for too long.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“It takes twenty years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only twenty seconds of war to destroy him.”
—Baudouin I (b. 1930)