Michael Collins is running second in a poll being conducted by London’s National Army Museum to establish Britain’s greatest foe.
Collins, who will be 90 years dead next August, has more than 800 votes while nearly 1,400 votes have been cast for frontrunner Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Atatürk repelled the Allied invasion at the Dardanelles in 1915.
West-Cork born Collins is followed in the top five by Erwin Rommel, Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington.
Collins introduced the “flying columns” – volunteers who waged a guerrilla campaign on barracks and police stations and ambushed convoys before quickly withdrawing. For over two years he ran an intelligence system that infiltrated British military and police authorities in Dublin.
Other names on the list include the German Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck who fought a four-year campaign against the British in East Africa and Maurice de Saxe who outfoxed British and Allied armies during wars of succession in 18th-century Europe.
The top five military leaders in the poll will be represented by five historians who will speak at an event in the National Army Museum on April 14th. In assembling the shortlist the museum's main criterion was that each commander must have led a force against the British in battle. Voting continues until March 30th, on nam.ac.uk