LAURENCE REES: And the single most overrated leader?

ANDREW ROBERTS: Mark Clarke. I don’t see why Americans are very fond of Mark Clarke. Yes, he captured Rome, but his capture of Rome was done so ham-fistedly that he allowed another, yet another, German Army to escape. Three German Armies should have been caught in Italy by Mark Clarke and each of them managed to extricate themselves from what should have been impossible circumstances. He’s, partly just through absurd Anglophobia, a useless commander to have on your team and he is vainglorious, boastful and pushy and aggressive, but so were great commanders like Patten and Montgomery and others. But nonetheless he doesn’t seem to have any personal redeeming features, that those other commanders have.