Allied"disasters".

Which was the worst allied disaster,market garden or the Ardennes.?

 

I don't think I would classify either of them as "disasters, at least not compared to the fall of Malaya or the fall of the Philippines.

 

I agree the Allies had worst moments, Norway 1940, France 1940, Greece, Dieppe etc. But of the two listed in the OP I would go with Market-Garden as it was a planned Allied operation that in hindsight should never been done.

 

I thought we we won the Battle of the Bulge

 

Market-Garden was an Allied defeat ,the Ardennes a German defeat .

 

I don't know. In the Ardennes, while we took an initial beating, when things were over we had regained the lost ground. The casualties for both sides, in the end, were comparable. Germany, however, had destroyed it's own offensive capability. As I said, the casualties in raw numbers were comparable but the allies quickly rebuilt their combat power, the Germans were unable to replace their losses.

 

This one is easy, as I don't think the Ardennes was a disaster at all. As others have pointed out the Bulge probably shortened the war. Market-Garden eliminated the chance to finish off the 15th Armee and, more importantly, meant that the Scheldt would only be cleared at the end of November, instead of mid September. The diversion of scare resources (in September 1944) to support Market-Garden meant that momentum was also lost on the Saar (US 3rd Army) axis, although Patton did a good job of doing that himself at Metz.I would change your question:What operation did more to blunt the Allied advance?Market-Garden?Aachen?The Hurtgen?Metz?Brest?Or the Channel Ports?

 

I was thinking more on the lines of prisoners.I'm not sure exactly how many prisoners were taken by the Germans in market garden or the Ardennes,but in market garden the 1st airbourne division was virtually written off the allied order of battle.Now,i think OMG was a worthwhile gamble,but the loss of a division,well,in my eyes was a disaster. During the opening German offensive in the Ardennes ,I believe the U.S.106th div?,was virtually wiped off the order of battle as well.I know the bulge was eventually turned from a very precarious position,into an allied victory,but do you not think that this was a disaster too.?,cheers.

 

A"little" disaster was the British attempt after the Italian capitulation,to (re)capture some Greek islands what resulted in a failure.

 

And if you widen the scope, for allied disasters, you have the Battle of Savo Island during the Guadalcanal Campaign. The worst U.S. Navy defeat in history. Where it resembles the Ardennes is that this battle, while being a humiliating defeat, was one of the first battles in a campaign that was a strategic defeat for Japan. America recovered from the losses but the campaign as a whole attitted Japanese naval and air power, ended with debilitating losses to their ground forces and laid the groundwork for their defeat.

 

I don't think either were total 'disasters' but Market Garden came closest to that description in the disappointment of its objectives. The Ardennes was equally a failure for the Germans and actually had less chance of success than did OMG.

To say that Market Garden should never have happened is to apply the same 20-20 hindsight and foreknowledge of the enemy's dispositions and capabilities which would equally not allowed the 'disaster' of the Schnee Eifel ( somewhere between 4,- and 6,000 POW's ) to have happened.

 

When I think of a disaster, I think of Slapton Sands..


Operation TIGER - Pre D-Day training disaster, 28 April 1944, Quartermaster History This Week

 

I wouldn't call Norway a "disaster", despite it's reputation as such.
In many respects the Germans came out worse than the British after Norway

I agree
OMG was a gamble, great if it worked, but it had a bunch of problems in it's execution.