Military History

Dönitz was born in Grünau. He joined the German navy on the 1st of April in 1910 and served on U-boats during World War I. This experience persuaded Dönitz that submarines would play an increasingly important role in naval strategy. With the conclusion of World War I, Dönitz remained in the Reichsmarine, the small navy Germany was permitted unde...

The son of an intensely nationalistic family, Charles de Gaulle, was educated at the Military Academy of Saint-Cyr and joined an infantry regiment (under Col. Philippe Petain) as a second lieutenant in 1913. He impressed Petain and others with his intelligence, initiative and once World War I erupted, with his courage as well. He fought at the d...

Dayan was born in the first kibbutz collective agricultural settlement established by Zionists in Palestine. As a teenager he joined the Haganah, an underground army working toward establishing a nation independent from British rule. The kibbutz was vulnerable to Arab attack and therefore the Haganah also served as a perimeter patrol.

Cunningham joined the Royal Navy in 1898 and saw a wide variety of service prior to World War I when he was skipper of the destroyer Scorpion during the Dardanelles campaign (February 19 to November 23 of 1915). He showed great skill and initiative in the raid on the German U-boat base at Zeebrugge on April 23, 1918.

Clark was a son of the army, born at Madison Barracks in Sackets Harbor, New York, into the family of a career army officer. As a young man, he graduated from West Point and entered the infantry as a second lieutenant in 1917 and in April of the following year was sent to France with the Fifth Infantry Division. They thrust him into the thick of...

Winston Churchill was the son of Lord Randolph Churchill, descended from the First Duke of Marlborough and Jennie Jerome (an American). Young Churchill did not take well to schooling (at Harrow) and rejected the university education that befitted his aristocratic station. Instead, he enrolled at Sandhurst (the "British West Point") graduating in...

Zhu was born into extreme poverty in Yunnan; however, his early potential was recognized by his clan, which funded a classical Confucian education for the boy. After graduation, Zhu entered the civil service system but soon turned to the military, instead of gaining admission to the Yunnan Military Academy. Upon graduation, he was commissioned i...

Chiang Kai-shek was born into a prosperous family in rural Chekiang. His father died when Chiang was young and he was raised by his mother, who sent him to excellent schools, where he got the classical Confucian education reserved for the children of the moderately wealthy.