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[[File:neidermeyer.jpg|link=Animal House|frame|"A PPPLEDGE PPPIN!!!"]]
{{quote|''"Get up, you faggots! Get up and fight!"''
|'''Neidermeyer''', ''[[Animal House]]''}}
{{quote|''"Stop '''exploding''', you cowards!"''
|'''Zapp Brannigan''', ''[[Futurama]]''}}
A commanding officer with a complete lack of respect between himself and the troops. Because of his demonstrated [[General Failure|incompetence]], [[Miles Gloriosus|cowardice]], [[Armchair Military|inexperience]], [[We Have Reserves|willingness to sacrifice
In more upbeat war shows, he's usually forced to learn [[An Aesop]] about his awful command style and adjust his behavior in a way that either changes him into [[A Father to His Men|a likable officer]] or results in his resignation, demotion, or [[Reassigned to Antarctica|transfer to a more suitable post]].
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If he is [[Authority Equals Asskicking|too tough to frag]], though, the (un)lucky survivor of his tirades will become either a [[Yes-Man]] with no more backbone than he started off with a sense of "loyalty" to him, or [[The Dragon]] who seeks to become his successor when he dies/moves on. In a best case scenario, the successor may show much competence and merely view the man as a [[Cynical Mentor]] or [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]], but not always. In this case, the other troops will remain as spiteful as ever, but find that the converted will easily take care of any sort of mutiny they try to pull off.
The [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] is a
See also [[Miles Gloriosus]] for a more general application of this trope.
The polar opposite of this trope is "[[A Father to His Men]]". In many cases, a [[General Failure]] is basically a Neidermeyer with greater rank and thus even more scope for causing damage. If
Named after the infamous blowhard ROTC commander Doug Neidermeyer from the movie ''[[Animal House]]''. In the epilogue, it's revealed that he ended up being shot by his own troops in Vietnam. In the John Landis-directed segment of ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' movie, we even meet the soldiers who shot him.
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* Miwa Sakimori from ''[[Daimos]]'' is this, and a [[General Ripper]]. He mostly hides behind his soldiers, or Daimos itself from danger. And when opportunity presents, he'll show his extreme racist tendencies by shooting actually harmless Brahmins. And all that's in his mind is... well, you guessed it, promotions.
* General Colbert from ''[[Tekkaman Blade]]'' is also a real piece of work. Much like Miwa, he too is a racist (so much so he works with [[Gundam Seed|Murata Azrael]] in [[Super Robot Wars Judgement]]), treats [[The Hero]] like a traitorous piece of filth despite the fact he's pretty much the most effective means of defeating the [[Bug War|Radam]]. Add in the fact he's also a pretty shameless [[General Ripper]] as well, and you've got a total asshole of a Neidermeyer as a result.
* In the ''[[Saga of Tanya the Evil]]'', Tanya, at least for the most part, doesn't see his troops as anything more than an asset and cares more about his promotion than their well being. Fortunately for them, he generally considers being perceived as caring about them as good for his chances of being promoted (and of course the best way of doing that is keeping them alive and unharmed).
== Comic Books ==
* In the [[Elseworlds]] mini-series ''Generations'' by John Byrne, [[Superman]]'s powerless son Joel Kent becomes this sort of officer and is shot by his own men in Vietnam.
* Perhaps not surprisingly, an issue of Garth Ennis's ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)|Preacher]]'' features two examples of these. One is an incompetent lieutenant who gets a
* Major Magnam from the ''[[Rogue Trooper]]'' story of the same name; his domineering, arrogant personality and contempt for regular soldiers leads to an entire Souther squad being slaughtered when they attempt to take a very well-fortified Nort installation. Rogue ends up sticking his biochip into a special containment device and keeping the gun on which it had been stored.
* Parodied in the [[Golden Age]] ''[[Mad Magazine|MAD]]'' feature "Sheik of Araby!"
{{quote|'''Soldat''': Serjeant! I 'ave a bullet hole between mine eyes! May I seek le first aid?
'''Sergeant Guillotine''': Slackair! [[Only a Flesh Wound|Eet ees a superficial wound!]] Back to ze fight! }}
== Film ==
* Lt. Marty Pascal, the executive officer of the submarine ''Stingray'' in the movie ''[[Down Periscope]]''. Gets his
* In ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'', Private "Gomer Pyle" blows away [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Gunnery Sergeant Hartman]], who had [[Break the Cutie|driven him into a psychotic breakdown]].
** Although, to be fair, Pyle wasn't a model soldier, and when he did show improvement, Hartman did commend him. Plus there was the other Marines throwing a "blanket party" for him involving beating the poor guy with bars of soap.
*** Hartman is still a demonstrable failure as a drill instructor in several key aspects (he shows no awareness as to the true mental condition of his trainees, he is either unaware of or condones illegal bullying and assaults by trainees on each other even when its obvious enough to leave marks, and his actions in his final scene are a flat-out [[Too Dumb to Live]]), and the proper remedy for Private Pyle would have been to discharge him as unfit once it became apparent that he simply did not have the mental facilities to function as a Marine, not ride him into a mental breakdown.
* Captain Stillman from ''[[Stripes]]''.
* Lieutenant Pavlov Dill in ''[[Starship Troopers]] 2: Hero of the Federation'' was one of these, though he's more incompetent than mean.
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* Lt. Gorman in ''[[Aliens]]'' certainly qualifies for this, due to his relative inexperience, [[General Failure]] at managing the alien attack, [[Armchair Military|rear echelon tactics]] and the resulting lack of respect from his troops.
** Somewhat subverted in that while he was a bad officer, later on he tries to apologise for his behaviour, has no trouble submitting command to a more experienced and competent subordinate and shows great personal bravery and tries to save the marine who depised him the most.
** Gorman only qualifies for this trope in the sense that his troops have very little respect for him, because he doesn't actually have very many legitimate military failings. What he does have is a complete lack of experience, which hoses him hard at several points in the movie, but every officer goes through that stage of development at one point in their lives and the vast majority of them survive it. Gorman fails because a) he was deliberately assigned to a mission well beyond his experience range, b) his much more experienced platoon sergeant was killed off in the first minute of action, c) the situation is entirely unlike anything ''any'' of the Marines were trained to deal with, d) his available military intelligence is pretty much at the absolute theoretical maximum of "bad" (that is to say, ''every'' significant fact he was given in his pre-mission briefing turned out to be substantially incomplete at best, if not wrong or deliberately falsified), e) his troops deliberately disobeyed the orders he gave that would have prevented much of the disaster<ref>While Gorman did commit an error in that he didn't explain ''why'' it was a good idea to not load standard ammunition, his troops shouldn't have needed an explanation just to do their jobs.</ref> and f) through no fault of his own he is out of communication with his people at the critical moment of the engagement. Had his first assignment been a more standard military deployment there is every reason to believe he'd have done fine.
* Lt. Col. Tall (Nick Nolte) in ''[[The Thin Red Line]]''. He has [[Glory Hound|veins in his teeth]]. Partly subverted in that he secretly has a low opinion of himself... and his tactics work.
{{quote|'''Staros:''' We had a man, gut shot out, on the slope, sir. It created quite an upset.
'''Tall:''' Fine! Fine! Now what about those reinforcements!
'''Staros:''' My company alone cannot take that position, sir.
'''Tall:''' You’re not going to take your men into the jungle to avoid a god damned fight. Now do you hear me, Staros! [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|I want you to attack. I want you to attack right now with every man at your disposal. Now attack, Staros!]]
'''Tall:''' It's never necessary to tell me that you think I'm right. We'll just... assume it.
'''Staros:''' We need some water... the men are passing out.
'''Tall:''' The only time you should start worrying about a soldier is when they stop bitchin'. }}
* In ''[[Paths of Glory]]'', General Mireau sends a division on a suicide mission to attack a heavily fortified German position just for the possibility of getting himself a promotion. After the attack fails, he blames the soldiers and orders random soldiers from the division to be executed for cowardice.
* Lt. Ito from ''[[Letters From Iwo Jima]]'', though if anything he's a mild example of what the real Imperial Japanese Military was like.
* In ''[[Heartbreak Ridge]]'', Major Powers is a good supply clerk with delusions of grandeur.
* C.J. is introduced in such a way in 2004's ''[[Dawn of the Dead (2004 film)|Dawn of the Dead]]''.
* The
* ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (novel)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'': At least in the first movie, the fact that {{spoiler|everybody in the squad likes Sgt. Shaw ''despite'' him being The Neidermeyer}} is a major clue that something's going on.
== Literature ==
* [[Captain Queeg]] of Herman Wouk's ''[[The Caine Mutiny]]'', and the movie and play (''The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial'') based on it, could almost be the [[Trope Namer]]. It is often used in media as an alternate name for this trope.
* ''[[Generation Kill]]'' has several: Captain America, Encino Man ("Echo Mike"), Sgt. Maj. "Fucking" Sixta, though he was only [[Genghis Gambit|acting that way]] to give the troops an outlet for their frustration, and even though he's an NCO, "Casey Kasem". (After the events of ''Generation Kill'' however, Kasem proved to be more akin to [[Sergeant Rock]] as a platoon sergeant when it came to combat.)
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** General Lord Ronald Rust
** Corporal Strappi from ''[[
** While not in a military organization, Sergeant Fred Colon quickly becomes this after being promoted to Acting Captain in ''[[
*** Fred differs from most Niedermeyers in that he is not a bad man, merely a ''very'' bad officer. He didn't want the promotion, and the stress drove him completely bonkers, convinced that if he can find out who is stealing sugar cubes (it's ''him'' doing it subconsciously) all the other problems will go away. He's incredibly relieved when Captain Carrot returns and he can be a sergeant again.
** Actually, nearly every general in the armies of the Sto Plains (which is the area in which Ankh-Morpork lies) counts as this, since their general battle strategy is to hurl their men at the enemy and receive "glorious casualties", since apparently the number of fallen men equals how great the battle was for them. If they actually win anything, that's a nice albeit unimportant bonus. They see the famous general Tacticus as a dishonorable military leader because he had the distinct tendency to win battles and wars and bring most of his soldiers back alive.
*** The official metric goes something like this: First, both sides throw their men at each other. Then, you subtract ''your'' casualties from ''their'' casualties, and "if the answer is a positive sum, it was a glorious victory".
* The ''[[Sharpe]]'' books were full of these. Some of them learned their lesson (kind of), some of them just ceased to be Sharpe's problem, and some were mercilessly bayoneted by their own troops.
** Sharpe himself was
* Captain Styles of the
** Given the rate of promotion in the [[Star Trek]] universe, could this be Lieutenant Styles from the Original Series episode "Balance of Terror"? If so, [[Fantastic Racism|he wasn't a very nice person back then, either]].
*** The lieutenant's name was spelt "Stiles", sadly.
* General George Armstrong Custer in Harry Turtledove's [[World War I]] [[Alternate History]] trilogy ''The Great War'' is like this. Although he lacks the "You're all worthless and weak!!" part, he is still more then willing to send the unfortunate men under his command into needlessly costly and bloody offensives that end up gaining little. He constantly tries to seek glory wherever he can and also is more then willing to hog it all and push all the blame on others when something fails. However, by the end of the trilogy, he later proves to be a competent officer when he {{spoiler|disobeys the US general
** That wasn't being a competent officer. That was being the same idiot he'd always been and happening to get lucky this time. As his aide-de-camp later (frequently) reminisces.
* Lieutnant Lammio in Väinö Linna's ''[[The Unknown Soldier]]''. Surprisingly, {{spoiler|he survives the war}}.
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** Averted by Shagrat, who cares about his men and is actually shown to be fairly noble. He even gets a good death.
* Captains von Pader and Meier from the novels by [[Sven Hassel]], not to mention quite a few other Nazi officers.
* In the ''[[Lord Darcy]]'' short story "The Spell of War", Darcy, a young officer at the time, [[Selective Obliviousness|chooses not to notice]] that the commander of his
** The man responsible for this [[Unfriendly Fire]] then goes on to do a [[Redemption Equals Death]] when he learns that the Captain's orders weren't really suicidally stupid (Though this was due to chance, not any hidden genius on the late Captain's part).
* Two characters that are likened to each other in ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'': the psychotic, sadistic drill sergeant that the main characters train under, and the high school teacher that coerced all of his students into joining the military.
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* Lieutenant Weems from the first ''[[Doom]]'' novel. He was so incompetent and cowardly that he ordered his men to fire on a bunch of harmless monks protesting their war efforts mistaking them for suicide bombers even after one of his subordinates told him they were harmless. Flynn decked him for that, and that's why Flynn is stuck on suspension in the cafeteria on Phobos when everything goes to Hell. Throughout the novel Flynn has unflattering thoughts about Weems and thinks that Weems was the kind of guy who would side with the alien invaders if it meant saving his own skin. {{spoiler|When Flynn finds the dead bodies of Weems and another officer who had entered a suicide pact after the aliens trapped them in a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] by ''fusing their heads together'', he feels too much pity to hate the man anymore.}}
* Lieutenant Bennett from ''[[The Cruel Sea]]''. A lazy bully. Instead of being shot by his own men, he fakes illness to get out of the war.
* In the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Sky Masters'', an inexperienced Captain second-guesses his air defence expert and, when one anti-air missile misfires, shuts down the point defence net in his [[Lawful Stupid
** If this troper remembers correctly, said misfired missile had actually exploded and was tumbling back towards the launcher - keeping the other launch cells closed was a prudent thing to do; keeping on firing might have risked BOTH ships.
* Major Frank Burns, from ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|M*
▲== Live Action TV ==
** ''M*
▲* Major Frank Burns, from ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|M* A* S* H]]'' - especially notably because he's an officer and not enlisted personnel or non-comm.
** When Major Burns left the series (due to having a psychological breakdown caused by the marriage of Major Houlihan -- which led to him causing havoc in Tokyo while on
▲** ''M* A* S* H'' also had several Foe of the Week commanders who either [[Karmic Trickster|learned a lesson or were otherwise removed from command]] by the doctors.
*** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: By this point in the series, Burns' medical and military incompetence is well-known within the Army. At least three officers (Potter, Houlihan, Penobscott) have enough connections farther up the chain of command to ensure that, even if he remains in the Army, Burns never sees the inside of an operating room again. As a result Burns probably ended up in an administrative post with no actual hands-on medical duties... which, for a surgeon, is the equivalent of being [[Reassigned to
▲** When Major Burns left the series (due to having a psychological breakdown caused by the marriage of Major Houlihan - which led to him causing havoc in Tokyo while on RnR), the Army, in its infinite wisdom, [[Kicked Upstairs|promoted him to Lieutenant Colonel and gave him a cushy job in a stateside Veteran's Hospital]]... which is extra disconcerting given that Major Burns was always made out to be as incompetent doctor.
▲*** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: By this point in the series, Burns' medical and military incompetence is well-known within the Army. At least three officers (Potter, Houlihan, Penobscott) have enough connections farther up the chain of command to ensure that, even if he remains in the Army, Burns never sees the inside of an operating room again. As a result Burns probably ended up in an administrative post with no actual hands-on medical duties...which, for a surgeon, is the equivalent of [[Reassigned to Antarctica|Reassignment To Antarctica]] (and probably the end of his military career as well).
** Hawkeye and Winchester both had their opportunity to be Neidermeyers when given the chance to command. Pretty much anyone other than Blake or Potter in charge of the 4077th ends up as this trope. The difference between them and Burns is that these episodes set up an [[An Aesop]] about the difficulty of true leadership when the rest of the main cast calls them out on it, and they see the error of their ways.
* Colonel Crittendon on ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' is one of these. The Heroes' plans to murder him weren't entirely sarcastic.
* General Melchett from ''[[Blackadder|Blackadder Goes Forth]]''. Melchett is distraught by the death of his pigeon "Speckled Jim", yet blissfully uncaring about the fifty thousand men a week dying in the trenches. His bizarre tactics that help expedite the latter include "doing precisely what we've done eighteen times before" and "climbing out of [the] trenches and walking very slowly towards the enemy". Sadly, both are to some extent [[Truth in Television]].
** When walking very slowly towards the enemy, British soldiers were commonly marching behind a firewall of artillery that typically exterminated everyone trying to pop up and hurt them. When they lost the protection of that barrage (muddy ground and other unexpected holdups) is when things frequently went bad. ''Blackadder'' is wonderful satire, but has done terrible things for the understanding of [[World War I|Great War]] history.
* ''[[Generation Kill]]'': [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhGIFLWadEU "Follow My TRACERS!"]
{{quote|'''Marine #1:''' He's got his fucking bayonet out. [[Leeroy Jenkins|Doing his Rambo thing]].
'''Captain America:''' FOLLOW MY TRACERS!
'''Marine #2:''' He's shooting at scraps of metal.
'''Marine #3:''' Can you believe that fucking retard is in charge of people?
'''Captain America:''' Engage those buildings!
'''Marine #4:''' Sir, that's more than 3,000 meters away. Range of my .50 is 1830.
'''Captain America:''' Move into position! [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|Engage! ENGAGE!]] }}
** It's worth noting the HBO adaptation of ''Generation Kill'', discussed above, for how its portrayal of Captain America is a flagrant (but accounting for production times, probably coincidental) [[Expy]] of Captain Bannon from ''[[World in Conflict]]'', below. Though it isn't saying much, Encino Man loses the tiny amount of sympathy he ''may'' have had in the book, with the actor playing him nailing the concept of the nickname perfectly; a man who's problem isn't lack of experience so much as lack of basic common sense.
** While Captain America embodies this trope in the HBO version, don't forget Sgt. Major John "Fucking" Sixta who has more power than either of
*** In the final episode, Sixta {{spoiler|reveals that his psychotic obsession with the men's grooming standards was a [[Genghis Gambit]] to give them an outlet for their stress.}}
* ''[[Band of Brothers]]'' had two real-life examples
** The first is Captain Herbert M. Sobel. Sobel is portrayed as a petty tyrant whose harsh training earns him resentment from the men under his command. This is because he isn't tough on them because he cares about them and wants to teach them to survive in war. He's only tough on them because he cares about making himself look good. While he is an effective leader in the garrison environment he proves to be very poor in the field. It is the catastrophic incompetence he shows in combat exercises that causes a number of his NCO's to flat out refuse to serve under his command.
*** Although his behavior sparked a literal mutiny, some soldiers later admitted that his training methods had been effective in a round-about way.
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'''Rimmer''': You make it sound so negative Lister. Don't you see? The deranged menace that once threatened this world is vanquished!
'''Lister''': No it isn't pal, you're still here! }}
** Further subverted in 'Balance of Power' in that Lister managed to outrank Rimmer by taking the chef's
{{quote|'''Rimmer''': Chef? You want to become a chef?
'''Lister''': Not really. I just want to become your superior.
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** ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' also had the ship's backup computer Queeg 500, who was installed for an episode when the crew got sick of Holly's incompetence. Queeg turned out to be so strict that even Rimmer got sick of him.
*** And then it turns out that Queeg was Holly all along.
* Captain Edward Jellico in ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' seems like this at the start, but subverts it by the end. Placed in temporary command of the ''Enterprise'', he systematically alienates most of the crew thanks to his hard and uncompromising command style, even having Data replace Riker as [[Number One]] after Riker keeps resisting his changes. Afte the first episode, the audience will assuredly hate him, and everything is set up to watch him fail in his mission while the primary Picard-is-captured plot yields the answer, showing him up. The second episode instead has him learn to loosen up just enough to recognize his flaws, and
** AND he makes Troi wear a real uniform instead of her bunny suit, an order Picard never rescinded.
*** To be fair, that may have been an order from Starfleet Command to the effect that all ship's counselors had to wear the standard uniform, and Jellico happened to be the one to break the news (although given his personality, he did so with less tact than one would expect). Neither officer would have the authority to rescind the order in that case.
*** It is also part of Troi's character development; at the beginning, she was a
*** It's also the only order that Jellico explained to the person receiving the order - which might be because Troi voiced well-thought-out concerns about the order in private, instead of reacting with petulance the way everybody else did to their orders. When one's subordinates are being insubordinate, it's easy to fall into this trope.
* ''[[North and South US]]'' (the US one). Elkanah Bent treats Orry and George like scum. He gets Orry crippled by Mexican artillery. Orry cripples him, he murders Orry then George hangs him.
* In ''[[Stargate Universe]]'', Colonel Telford is
** Subverted entirely later on, when it's revealed that {{spoiler|Lucian Alliance brainwashing is largely responsible for his behavior}}.
** No he doesn't, after that his suggestions get ignored and the people on the Destiny won't trust him anymore.
** General George Hammond from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' was originally intended
*** Don S. Davis, who played General Hammond, had prior military experience as a company-grade officer in real life, who had worked largely in administration at headquarters. He was quite familiar with how real-life generals actually behaved, how badly the scripts of TV shows generally departed from that standard, and was not shy about sharing his experience with the creative staff.
* Gordon Ramsay follows this trope in ''[[Hell's Kitchen]]'', and any of his American-produced shows. ''However'', Ramsay's behavior on the UK original of "Kitchen Nightmares" puts him much more in the ''[[Sergeant Rock]]'' personality trope. He may be harsh on the incompetent or misguided cooks, but he's doing it so the diners get the best experience and the cooks realize their own potential.
* Crashdown in ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* Dwight Schrute from ''[[The Office]]'' becomes the civilian equivalent whenever he is given even the slightest amount of authority.
* Lieutenant Charles Marimow in ''[[The Wire]]'' is referred to as "The Unit Killer" and a man who "does not toss away talent lightly. He heaves it with great force."
** At a higher level, both Burress and Rawls are like this to the commanders beneath them, often using the COMSTAT meetings to berate and humiliate them for basically failing to win the drug war each month.
* Both of [[The Squad]]'s lieutenants on ''[[Over There]]''. The first is nicknamed "Mad Cow" because "it's a disease that rots men's brains." The later one is shot in the back under ambiguous circumstances, with the finale leaving it open whether he was killed by the [[Sergeant Rock]].
* Dr. Kelso is this to the entirety of Sacred Heart Hospital in ''[[Scrubs]]''. However, it is [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in that he takes it upon himself to be the one they can all hate in order to unite them on a common front.
== Machinima ==
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** Basically, he spends most of the series as this trope, then [[Character Development]] finally morphs him into [[Sergeant Rock]] late in the eighth season.
** Simmons during his brief stint as leader of the Blood Gulch Reds.
== Music ==
* Titular character in [[Running Wild (band)|Running Wild]]'s "Evil Spirit" who is referred to as a guardian and as a tormentor. After he is swept overboard from his vessel, [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|rejoicement ensues]].
* Played for comedy in both videos by Twisted Sister: In "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT1LXhgXPWs We're Not gonna Take It]",
** And
== Newspaper Comics ==
* Sergeant Snorkel in ''[[Beetle Bailey]]''.
** Far more so Lt. Fuzz, whenever he gets the opportunity to command troops. Snorkel's men do respect him as a soldier - they just ''really'' don't want to be soldiers, and are rarely seen in the field (which for the strip means war games and exercises) where this becomes apparent. Fuzz tries to copy Snorkel's treatment of subordinates, and adds in his complete incompetence and desperation for recognition.
== Radio ==
* In ''[[The Navy Lark]]'' Captain Povey frequently falls into this category with his obsession for hounding the Troutbridge crew out of the Navy.
** To be fair, the crew of the Troutbridge are completely incompetent/derelict in their duties
== Tabletop Games ==
* Most of the Commissars in ''[[Warhammer
** Similar to the Dinobots example listed below, one of the reasons Imperial doctrine normally prohibits [[Space Marine]] commanders from leading large-scale actions and campaigns in which the Marines and Imperial Guard fight together is that they tend to work the normal troops as hard as their [[Super Soldier]] battle brothers, often with fatal results.
** Common Imperial Guard tactics employed usually boil down to "throw men at it by the regiment like a battering ram until it breaks." A noted battle cries of commissars is, "We will drown them in our blood and crush them under the weight of our own dead!"
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* Captain Jasper Stone from ''[[Deadlands]]'' was a really bad version of this. He was shanked by his own troops in the Battle of Gettysburg... only to rise as an undead and become Death's right hand man.
* Excessively Righteous Blossom in ''[[Exalted]]''. His military career was marked by ''repeatedly'' getting a battalion whittled down to about company size, and he made it very clear to everyone who would listen that he viewed this as a result of the incompetence of his soldiers. Especially hilarious since he ''is'' very talented - at personal combat - but has exactly no ability to recognise what his talents ''are'', leading to both military and civilian careers [[Dwarf Fortress|crafted from incompetence and menacing with spikes of fail]].
== Video Games ==
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* Sufficiently unhappy nobles in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' act this way, ordering beatings and hammerings to any dwarf that ignores (or is incapable of fulfilling) their demands. Unsurprisingly, players tend to respond to such behavior with [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much|their own form of capital punishment]].
* ''[[Iron Grip]]'' has the Fahrong/Confederacy, where apparently every officer above the Sergeant is this and everybody below it is [[Cannon Fodder]].
* Zaeed Massani of ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' was apparently this, considering the fact that all his stories usually end with getting all of his men killed and info discovered in [[
* Due to the open ended nature of the story, it is entirely possible that both brothers in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' count as this. All of the mercs on both teams start haphazardly next to the other side, and can just run to battle in about 4 seconds, and everybody should die at least once. Given that the announcer seemed to be looking for this setup, it may be the brothers were intended to both become "the Neidermeyer".
* Lt. Cole Phelps of ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* The [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Bleen]] leadership tends to operate like this, [[You Have Failed Me...|not being used to setbacks]].
{{quote|'''[[The Emperor]]:''' Tell me how your [[Alien Invasion|invasion fleet]] came to be destroyed by a group of [[Puny Earthlings|inferior monkeys]]
'''Bleen soldier:''' Your eminence, the hu-mons have perverted our [[Artificial Gravity|repulsor technology]] into [[Wave Motion Gun|a devestating weapon]].
'''The Emperor:''' Yet you did nothing to punish them for this?
'''Bleen soldier:''' Um... Excuse me? We were... I dunno, occupied.
'''The Emperor:''' Occupied? [[Hold Your Hippogriffs|What on Bleen]] were you doing other than [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|advancing the mighty flag of your sovereign]].
'''Bleen soldier:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|Screaming? Praying? ...fighting over the escape pods? The usual.]] }}
== Western Animation ==
* Zapp Brannigan of ''[[Futurama]]'', who's especially fond of saving himself by [[Redshirt Army|sacrificing those under his command]]. Samples:
{{quote|'''Bender''' (with his Patriotism Circuits activated): Sir, I volunteer for a suicide mission!
'''Zapp''': You're a brave robot, son. But when I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission.
{{quote|'''Zapp''': Stop exploding, you cowards!"}}
{{quote|'''Zapp''': You see, Killbots have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of ''[[Redshirt Army|my own men]]'' at them, until they reached their limit and shut down. Kif, show them the medal I won.
''[[No Hero to His Valet|Kif]] begrudgingly points at a prominent medal on Zapp's chest.''
{{quote|'''Zapp''': Whatever it is, I'm willing to put wave after wave of men at your disposal. Right men?
''Dead silence''
'''Random Soldier''': [[Crowning Moment of Funny|You suck!]]
{{quote|'''Zapp:''' We made it through, Kif. How many men did we lose?
'''Kif:''' All of them.
'''Zapp:''' Well, at least they won't have to mourn each other.
* In the Generation 1 ''[[Transformers]]'', Megatron was competent, but selfish. This and his ego led him to doing quite a few stupid things and even abandoning Devastator in one episode. To be fair, it's really Starscream that was made out to be incompetent by the cartoon's writers, though his comic and toy bios show that he is far more brilliant.
** The real gem, however, is Galvatron. This insane psychotic warfreak shot at his own troops and did more damage to his own army than the Autobots. Needless to say, if it weren't for a number of certain extenuating circumstances, the Decepticons would have recycled Galvatron a long time ago, no matter how powerful he was. Said circumstances mainly being that, because of the backstabbing treachery endemic in their ranks, the first thing that would happen when Galvatron got slagged would be civil war breaking out due to there being no clear-cut successor to Galvatron's rank. And this would doubtlessly be fatal to the Decepticons, due to them being stuck on a burned out world and barely scraping together enough fuel, parts and ammo to survive from day to day.
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** Sentinel Prime from ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' is an example this kind of character among the ''good guys''. Even in his younger days, he had zero respect for his peers, blaming the more responsible Optimus for Elita-1's presumed death, and as soon as he gained a command of his own, promptly began treating his men like worthless garbage, causing poor Bumblebee and Bulkhead much pain and suffering. He remains a jerk in the present day, taking every opportunity to viciously mock Optimus and his team's lower positions.
*** And it got worse when {{spoiler|he became acting leader of the Autobots. How did that happen?}}
*** [[Word of God|The head writer]] stated that his portrayal was meant to be evocative of the
** Grimlock is occasionally shown to be a bit of a Neidermeyer in the comics when he's put in command of units other than the Dinobots, largely due to the fact that most Autobots aren't used to doing things [[The Spartan Way]] like the Dinobots are and Grimlock being unwilling to accommodate them. When he briefly took over the Autobots he threw the rulebook out the
** Many sub-commanders within the Decepticons fit into this trope, but none moreso than Motormaster, leader of the Stunticons. His team is a big ball of crazy, and he loves to do things like order the silence-fearing Wildrider to remain quiet on missions. The intense loathing that the rest of the Stunticons have for Motormaster causes their [[Combining Mecha|combined form Menasor]] to be utterly uncontrollable as ''none'' of his component minds are able to work with their leader's.
* In ''[[Invader Zim]]'', Zim is shown to be this type of leader in the episode Hobo-13 in that he needlessly sacrifices his squadmates so that he himself can get to the end of the obstacle course, including using his last remaining soldier as a battering ram to open a door. The Drill Sergeant (ironically played by [[R. Lee Ermey]]) who meets him at the end chooses to fail Zim due to his horrendous leadership skills and challenges him into combat in order to pass (which Zim does by cheating).
** Of course, The Tallests are seen as worse than Zim, being a pair of petty, self-serving, and egomaniacal [[
* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'', Principal Skinner was shot in the back when he was a sergeant in Vietnam when trying to get Joey Heatherton to ''put some pants on''. The depiction of his army career is basically the same as his current one, just with soldiers replacing Willy. That's of course you assume he's telling the truth in any of his flash backs, what with him {{spoiler|not really being Seymour Skinner}}.
* Capt Marcus of ''[[Exo Squad]]'' is the worse example. He's both a [[General Ripper]] and [[General Failure]] all roled into one. His battleplans usually end up getting ambushed and outgunned by the enemy.
* [[Yo Yogi!]]: Dick Dastardly usurps Yogi's position as the head of the LAF (Lost And Found) section of Jellystone Mall and becomes a Neidermeyer to Yogi's friends. Later on, two kidnappers trick him into abducting Augie Doggie and he's now afraid of being sent to prison. He tries to get Yogi's friends to help him rescuing Augie but they won't follow him, so he brings Yogi back.
** Dick Dastardly, period, on his own show [[Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines]]. The General believes him incompetent (just there to collect flight pay), Zilly tries to shirk his duties, and Muttley isn't above using blackmail to weasel a medal from him. Klunk is the only pilot that gives him an iota of respect.
* Mr. Peevly from [[The Hair Bear Bunch|Help! It's The Hair Bear Bunch!]]. Any respect the zoo animals give him is purely tongue-in-cheek.
* Pong Krell from ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' is a Jedi General infamous for the amount of Clone Trooper casualties under his command. As shown by how he commands Anakin's platoon during the Battle for Umbara, he fits this trope to a T: he bullies and belittles the Clones out of bigotry, is prone to stupidly bum-rushing Umbaran checkpoints and command posts and throwing his men into the meatgrinder once everything goes to hell, and obsessively punishes Clones who break rank and save countless Clone lives by going against his orders and pursuing a safer option. And of course, almost every clone he commands (save for the fanatically loyal Dogma) ''hates'' him to the point of defying his orders to execute two Clones for disobeying him. However, {{spoiler|he's merely ''pretending'' to be this trope: he's actually a cunning traitor who wants to sell out to the Sith Lord Count Dooku, and uses seemingly stupid battle plans as a way to kill as many Clones as possible without revealing his true intentions.}}
== Real Life ==
* It should be noted that this sort of thing actually occurs in [[Real Life]]. While fraggings are uncommon (though they did occur in Vietnam), plenty of stories get passed around the modern military about which officers to avoid and who's a dirtbag.
* [[World War II]]:
** Since his Turtledove counterpart's been cited, one example might as well be named directly; George Armstrong Custer. He was a glory-seeking General that lost his wits, every man of his Seventh Calvary, and his life in the campaign that led to the Little Big Horn. And he got in that mess from increasingly frantic and frustrated desire for glory to turn to political advantage, no matter how many tribes or soldiers died to get it!▼
*
*** However, one incident that is largely forgotten is that Custer almost singlehandedly prevented a massacre when [[General Ripper|Philip Sheridan]] ordered an assault against the starved, exhausted and defenseless remnants of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. Custer, realizing that the surviving Confederates were in no physical or emotional condition to fight anyone and were completely encircled, rode in front of the Union Army frantically trying to stop the attack. Custer's actions managed to delay the attack long enough for the famous surrender to be negotiated. Custer may have been a psychotic nut-case but he had nothing on Sheridan.▼
*** The irony is that Fredenhall was an excellent logistician. He was sent back to Stateside, where he made more for the Army logistics than any other general.▼
*** Custer led a cavalry force of 700 men to take out Sitting Bull and the 800 natives who had left a reservation. Ignoring his scouts (members of the Crow tribe) who told him the village they spotted had THOUSANDS of women and children and probably an equal number of warriors he split his force in half to "trap" the enemy. Custer's own group, about 200 soldiers personally led by him would end up facing at least 1800 native american warriors, warriors who had just fought off the other half of his armed force which had attacked the village. The only survivor from Custer's group was a horse called Commanche which had nearly a dozen wounds from bullets, arrows and spears.▼
*** What everyone always forgets is that he was a Colonel at this point, having been a General in the civil war, and wanted to regain his rank!▼
*** Custer had problems even before Little Big Horn: suspension from duty for a year for being AWOL, misappropriation of funds meant for provisions for reservation Indians, and during Reconstruction duty in Texas he only narrowly escaped being fragged by his own troops (namely, the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry, of which Custer had been given command and who resented his attempts at discipline). He was routinely called a 'dandy' and 'Ringlets' by his men as a result of his obsession with his personal appearance. Little Big Horn itself was the result of Custer's insubordination and happened when Custer and his men deserted their commanding officer (of note: Custer had earlier been denied independent command because of his continued use of his position and his men for political lobbying).▼
▲* In [[World War II]] General Lloyd Fredendall was one of the original commanders of Operation Torch (the American invasion of North Africa). Once on the ground in Africa Fredendall had his headquarters built 70 miles behind the front lines, which was viewed as cowardly by both the troops under his command and by his peers and superiors. From there he proceeded to issue unsound commands that showed little grasp of military tactics, including a tendency to place infantry in positions where they could not receive decent air or artillery support. By most reports Fredendall was a swaggering, cocky man who did not listen to his subordinates. Even more unfortunately, his adversary in the campaign was [[Magnificent Bastard|General Erwin Rommel]] and his famed Afrika Korps. After the crushing American defeat at the Kasserine Pass Fredendall was relieved of command and replaced by George Patton, after which American forces actually started experiencing success in North Africa.
▲** The irony is that Fredenhall was an excellent logistician. He was sent back to Stateside, where he made more for the Army logistics than any other general.
** Patton himself has been accused of being more than a little of a martinet, far too concerned with the dress code in a combat zone (including the fact he demanded, and may even have gotten, front-line infantry to wear their ties), attacking Metz and the Vauban forts without proper preparation and demanding the attack continue after it became clear it was not going to succeed, and finally culminating late in the war with his famous tirade against a soldier who had been shot in the foot for cowardice (said soldier had already won a Silver Star for valor).
*** With regard to the slapping incident, the soldier in question was away from his unit without permission and legally Patton could have had him executed for desertion. What Patton did was the better option, albeit not the best one available.
** There is one story that the sailors aboard a US Navy vessel were lining up for geedunk (ice cream) when two Ensigns shouted "Make way for officers" and started shoving through. Whereupon [[Four-Star Badass|Admiral]] [[Father Neptune|Halsey]] who had been waiting his turn patiently with [[A Father to His Men|every other sailor]] shouted "Get back where you belong!" With appropriate sailorly adjectives no doubt.
** Hermann Goering, by 1945, was called the most hated man in Germany beccause of his obsession with fame, glory, [[Bling of War]] and rampant egomania. Given [[Those Wacky Nazis|the competition]] at the time, it's quite an achievement.▼
*** Göring was a perfect example of [[The Peter Principle]]. A brilliant [[Ace Pilot]] (22 victories and Blue Max) and a competent wing commander, he found his level of [[General Failure|total incompetentness]] as Reichsmarschall.▼
** [[Adolf Hitler]]. By the end of the War, many of his own
*** To say 'strategic blunders' doesn't quite cover it entirely. After the defeat in Stalingrad (a defeat that occured purely due to Hitler's personal strategic intervention) Hitler went from "makes unreasonable demands and interferes in well made plans" to "totally detached from reality". The famous stories from his war room are that he would regularly issue orders to units that no longer existed or were so undermanned they might as well not exist, then when his plans didn't work out, would blame the subordinate who was "responsible". Most Generals were lucky enough that they would simply be demoted or put somewhere out of the way (Legendary General Guderian was one example), however some were not so lucky and would be executed for cowardice or "defying orders".▼
*** When approached for advice by a junior officer, Graf allegedly responded with “Don’t come to me with your problems. You’re a fucking department head”, and later “I can’t express how mad you make me without getting violent!”▼
*** One well-known story from the war is that when the D-Day invasion began, Panzer groups sat idly by while the Allies invaded. The reason? Because they needed Adolf's ordered permission to get into the battle. He did not until late in the day, because ''he was asleep''. And ''nobody'' wanted to be the one to wake him up and tell him the bad news.▼
*** Started a (confirmed) drag race with another destroyer that nearly resulted in a collision; the ships came within 300 feet of eachother. A photo from the deck of Graf’s ship shows the vessel heading straight toward the other. To make it worse, when the bridge crew went to sound a collision alarm (so all hands could brace and ready repairs), Graf ordered them to not sound the alarm. Such an alarm, after all, would have to be noted in the ship’s logs. That would mean she’d have to explain why she endangered two very expensive ships and a couple hundred lives in a pissing contest▼
** Captain Herbert Sobel, former commander of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101 Airbornee. He was incompetent, petty, a [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]], and a complete [[Jerkass]]. Many say that his [[Moral Event Horizon]] was raiding his troop's rooms and confiscating everything from magazines to nonregulation clothing. When he was replaced, [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|everybody was happy]]. It should be noted, though, that while he was almost universally hated by every man who trained under him, those same men almost universally say that it was Sobel who made E Company into the elite unit it was ''because'' of his [[Jerkass]], overly harsh treatment. (Yes, the portrayal of him in ''[[Band of Brothers (TV series)|Band of Brothers]]'' is widely agreed to be ''perfectly accurate''.)▼
*** Tired of delays leaving a port, she ordered that the ship accelerate to 25 knots instead of 10, despite being informed it was dangerous to do so. As a result, the USS Cowpens ran soft aground and mangled the ship’s propulsion screws. She then allegedly grabbed a British exchange officer by either the throat or the lapels (accounts differ), and began shouting “Did you run my fucking ship aground?!”. She then went on to order the crew to falsify records and claim they were moving at 10 knots.▼
** An even more infamous example from the same war and company (and eventual miniseries) is 1st Lt. Norman Dike. He's been accused of delegating all duty to lower officers and NCOs during his tenure, and for disappearing from the front lines for hours at a time during the Battle of the Bulge; many of the men under (and over) him accused him of simply using the E Company assignment as a way to get "field experience" before continuing his climb up the ladder. Most infamous, however, is his historically-documented ''meltdown'' during the assault on Foy, Belgium. While trying to lead E Company on the Foy attack, he completely froze up from terror and was unable to give any commands at all, aside from one order for Easy to halt their advance into the town... in the middle of an open field. He was famously relieved of duty by [[Memetic Badass|Ronald Spiers]], who would go on to lead E Company to victory in Foy. After this incident, Dike was quickly drummed out of the Airborne and was lucky to not be kicked out of the Army wholesale.▼
*** Allegedly covered up the fact that her ship had struck a whale by ordering the crew into lockdown and temporarily terminating e-mail privileges.▼
▲
*** Graf was such a dick to so many people that the crew supposedly began cheering when another officer arrived relieve and replace her aboard the USS Winston Churchill▼
▲
**** YMMV, but she ended up with an [[Evil Only Has to Win Once|FTN]] moment when the Asst. Secretary of the Navy decided she did nothing to earn anything less than an [http://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/01/navy-fired-cowpens-co-to-get-honorable-retirement-010612/ honorable discharge].▼
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▲
* Captain Holly Graf, US Navy, officer commanding USS ''Cowpens'' (CG-63) until relieved of her command in early 2010. Graf's Neidermeyer behavior includes:
▲
▲
▲
*** For the non-naval among us, it's important to note that running a ship aground is ''supposed'' to be an automatic career-killer right then and there, and that an officer swearing a false official statement is supposed to be an automatic ''court-martial'' and yet [[Karma Houdini|somehow she went on to command another ship anyway]].
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* [[Public Domain Character|Ernesto "Che" Guevara]] was like this about half of the time more or less, depending on the source. While he was occasionally known for showing reckless bravery and some decent planning, at other times he was notably incompetent, fled from battle, and generally was a burden to his men. And he was verbally abusive to his men almost all the time and generally showed a disdain for "Bourgeoise tactics" that hardly helped matters at all. He is perhaps most infamously known for his [[Last Stand|"last stand"]], where according to most accounts he left the rest of his unit to fight it out against the [[Bolivian Army Ending|Bolivian forces attacking him]] before surrendering afterwards with two loaded and primed pistols.
** Despite leading revolutionaries in Africa, Guevara was often overheard to disparage his black fellow travelers, stating that black people did not have the intelligence to make communism work.
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** Plus, after their mutiny, the crew returned to Tahiti and began treating the natives little better than slaves. Eventually the natives rebelled and killed nearly all of them.
** It should be noted at this point that the famed Mutiny on the Bounty was not the last time Bligh faced a mutiny of those under him. His overly strict and by the book attempts to enforce discipline when he was made Governor of New South Wales sparked off the [[wikipedia:Rum Rebellion|Rum Rebellion]].
▲* Hermann Goering, by 1945, was called the most hated man in Germany beccause of his obsession with fame, glory, [[Bling of War]] and rampant egomania. Given [[Those Wacky Nazis|the competition]] at the time, it's quite an achievement.
▲** Göring was a perfect example of [[The Peter Principle]]. A brilliant [[Ace Pilot]] (22 victories and Blue Max) and a competent wing commander, he found his level of [[General Failure|total incompetentness]] as Reichsmarschall.
▲* [[Adolf Hitler]]. By the end of the War, many of his own men--particularly his generals--wanted him dead more than the Allies due to his repeated strategic blunders. Indeed, a few senior officers, many of them [[Officer and a Gentleman|Junkers]] (contrary to [[Nazi Nobleman|common belief]], the German nobility generally disdained or even outright hated Hitler), led [[wikipedia:20 July Plot|a plot to assassinate Hitler]] in 1944. [[Captain Obvious|It failed, of course]]. [[Sarcasm Mode|On the bright side]], it inspired the film ''[[Valkyrie]]''.
▲** To say 'strategic blunders' doesn't quite cover it entirely. After the defeat in Stalingrad (a defeat that occured purely due to Hitler's personal strategic intervention) Hitler went from "makes unreasonable demands and interferes in well made plans" to "totally detached from reality". The famous stories from his war room are that he would regularly issue orders to units that no longer existed or were so undermanned they might as well not exist, then when his plans didn't work out, would blame the subordinate who was "responsible". Most Generals were lucky enough that they would simply be demoted or put somewhere out of the way (Legendary General Guderian was one example), however some were not so lucky and would be executed for cowardice or "defying orders".
▲** One well-known story from the war is that when the D-Day invasion began, Panzer groups sat idly by while the Allies invaded. The reason? Because they needed Adolf's ordered permission to get into the battle. He did not until late in the day, because ''he was asleep''. And ''nobody'' wanted to be the one to wake him up and tell him the bad news.
▲* Captain Herbert Sobel, former commander of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101 Airbornee. He was incompetent, petty, a [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]], and a complete [[Jerkass]]. Many say that his [[Moral Event Horizon]] was raiding his troop's rooms and confiscating everything from magazines to nonregulation clothing. When he was replaced, [[And There Was Much Rejoicing|everybody was happy]]. It should be noted, though, that while he was almost universally hated by every man who trained under him, those same men almost universally say that it was Sobel who made E Company into the elite unit it was ''because'' of his [[Jerkass]], overly harsh treatment. (Yes, the portrayal of him in ''[[Band of Brothers (TV series)|Band of Brothers]]'' is widely agreed to be ''perfectly accurate''.)
▲** An even more infamous example from the same war and company (and eventual miniseries) is 1st Lt. Norman Dike. He's been accused of delegating all duty to lower officers and NCOs during his tenure, and for disappearing from the front lines for hours at a time during the Battle of the Bulge; many of the men under (and over) him accused him of simply using the E Company assignment as a way to get "field experience" before continuing his climb up the ladder. Most infamous, however, is his historically-documented ''meltdown'' during the assault on Foy, Belgium. While trying to lead E Company on the Foy attack, he completely froze up from terror and was unable to give any commands at all, aside from one order for Easy to halt their advance into the town... in the middle of an open field. He was famously relieved of duty by [[Memetic Badass|Ronald Spiers]], who would go on to lead E Company to victory in Foy. After this incident, Dike was quickly drummed out of the Airborne and was lucky to not be kicked out of the Army wholesale.
* This happens often when the former military people end up in the areas, where the less straightforward methods are the norm. A good IT example would be Bob Belleville, the Apple's Software Manager for the original Macintosh development team. The guy was an alumnus of the same Xerox PARC lab as the most other Mac people, but his stint in the Navy had shifted his priorities somewhat. He once almost fired one of the critical OS developers over a dispute about the crucial part of software he felt was unneeded, and drove the chief OS architect to tears and filing his resignation (during the critical period of the OS development, mind you) because of his supposed ''insubordination''. In both cases only a good chewing out by Steve Jobs himself made him relent somewhat.
** A common problem with former military ''is'' [[Stranger in a Familiar Land|re-socializing to the civilian world]]. Once you spend a long enough time in, it takes time to get used to the less formal (in appearance) environment of the civilian workforce. There are reasons why former military are often seen in jobs with known chains of command.
** People who've worked for Jobs and left tend to have this view on him, considering his high standards. But since he's led Apple from nearly dead in the water to having more liquid assets than the US government in 10 years, people skirt by this.
* Virtually every officer in the [[Imperial Japan
* Virtually every officer in the [[Imperial Russia
** The Soviet military fared no better, largely due to the culture of ''dedovschina'' (literally, 'rule of the grandfathers') where senior conscripts were encouraged by the hierarchy to inflict extremely brutal hazing and bullying upon junior conscripts. The practice is responsible for as many as 3,000 deaths per year, although the Russian Defense Ministry classifies most of those as 'suicides'. The practice was partly responsible for the ''[[wikipedia:Strozhevoi mutiny|Strozhevoi]]'' Mutiny, the attempted defection of a Soviet frigate to Sweden in 1975. Lowering the mandatory service period to three years from five has eased the problem somewhat, but it still remains endemic to the Russian military even in the post-Soviet era.
* Soviet General Grigory Kulik had a reputation of being erratic and a murderous buffoon. His personal command motto was: "Jail, or Medal." People under his command who he favored would receive (undeserved) honors, while those he didn't would be arrested for whatever reason he could think of. He would then shout his motto at his 'favored' subordinates to intimidate them if they were starting to displease him. Not only this, he was a stupendously inept officer who had no understanding of tactics and resisted all military innovations (such as tanks, rocket artillery, minefields, and sub-machine guns, all of which were effective). The only reason he survived for so long when other much more competent generals did not was because he himself had the personal favor of Stalin. He finally lost it after the end of WWII, when he was overheard criticizing Stalin. He was soon arrested, and eventually executed.
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