Greatest Mistakes of World War 2

Add what you think where the greatest mistakes in WW2, made by any side. I will start with a few:

Dunkirk - Hitler should have smashed all of the Britons waiting for extraction at Dunkirk, with all the force he could muster, air, land and sea. This would have been a major blow to England and might have changed, IMO the outcome of the war.

The Battle for Britain - The Luftwaffe was, in the beginning, a larger and more effective force then the RAF. Instead of terror-bombing London, the Luftwaffe should have focused their entire effort on smashing the RAF. This, IMO might have changed the outcome of the war.

German weapon production - While the Allies focused most of their energy on creating massive amounts of single types of weapons (aircraft, tanks, guns, etc) Hitler wanted superweapons all along. Weapons still in the prototype stage, or not far beyond, where sent into battle, and often with disastrous results. (Ferdinand, Königstiger, etc). Because of the massive obsession with advanced superweapons, simpler and more important needs were neglected.



Please add what you think were the greatest mistakes of WW2. This might turn out to be a very interesting and insightful list 8)

 

I don't see how the German commanders should have done it any differently. To them, there was no indication that the British could escape, and the German spearhead was so far from its infantry that it would be disastreous if they fell into an ambush.

Germany had a lot of mass-produced weapons - the Pz.Kpfw.IV, the Pz.Kpfw.Panther, the 7,92 mm Kar.98 k, the Bf 109 and so forth - they had a large production of prototypes, but so did the US and the British. If you look at the number of variants of US or British tanks, it far surpasses the German ones.
Besides, I don't see what was so disastreous about the Ferdinand or Tiger II.

 

The failure of the Western allies to clear the Sheldt Estuary in early September 1944 when the port of Antwerp was seized intact. This would have solved most of the supply problems and trapped significan elements of the German 15th Army. instead they went for Market-garden. Antwerp wasn't uasable as a port until late November 1944.

 

We have bunches of topics with this exact subject. Just search the "Leaders" section for all topics with the word 'blunders' in their title. There's also a topic on the worst generals (that is, those who made the most mistakes) in that section. And I do believe there is a biggest blunders topic out there, just like this one. Could someone look it up for me please? I'm so lazy.

 

The German commanders wanted to eliminate the dunkirk pocket, but it was Hitler and Goering who said the Luftwaffe could do the job, big mistake.

I'm sorry, but I can't believe this for a second. The Germans had over 400 varients of tanks, not to mention the ones they still planned on building when the war ended (Pkw XIII, XIV). They didn't even reach a war time production level until the beginning of 1943.

Other than the fact that most were destroyed in Kursk right?

 

Ask Danyel how many varients of the Sherman were produced (including all the experimental versions). It was quite a lot.
However, I am willing to be swayed either way by firm evidence...

 

Yeah but thats just being ignorent Zhukov_2003... The Ferdinands operated surpurbly after Kursk and didnt suffer any losses for a long time, plus that of the small number actually produced there was still some left just outside berlin in 45.
The only problem that let down the Ferdinand at kursk was that it didnt have an machinegun so it couldnt defend itself against infantry, wich would just crawl on top of it and take it out with grenades and Molotov-coctailes, other than that the Ferdinand was a great TD.

KBO

 

In hindsight, yes, but they couldn't have know that the forces would be evacuated.

Where exactly do you get this 400 number from? If we include all the different variants, and include halftracks (again including artillery tractors) and their variants, we and up at around 170 different variants.

Also, there was no 'Pkw XIII' or XIV

Less than half were destroyed at Kursk, and you fail to compare this to the number of vehicles they destroyed.

 

Detail, detail!

It is a fact that German production of war materails lacked standardization, which meant that the Allies were all able to churn out vehicles, ships and aircraft faster, more efficiently and in greater numbers. This was a considerable advantage for the Allies. Let's not look at the number of prototypes and just take this lack of standardization for granted among the big mistakes of Germany during WW2. Speer tried to fix this but by then the German industries were crippled by the constant bombing raids; it speaks for Speer's efficiency that in the first half of 1945 more planes were built than in 1940.

 

My source is from Richard Overy's "Why the Allies Won", great book by the way.

The Pkw XIII, more commonly referred to as the Maus is indead real:
http://achtungpanzer.com/pz7.htm#maus

Yes, the Ferdinands did mount a high casualty rate among the Soviets at Kursk, but without a self defense weapon (crews would actually fire their MG through the 88mm gun against infantry) and many technical problems it was an easy target. It was best deployed behind the lines as a mobile AT gun.

 

I would definately like to know who taught him to count...

That's Pz.Kpfw.VIII, not Pkw XIII. Besides, that project was cancelled in early 1944.

That is not a problem with the Ferdinand itself, but with the employment.

 

My point of view: Operation Barbarossa. A terrible underestimating of such a large country as the USSR. Especially the first year (first winter) showed this.

 

Regardless of the finer detail, I think Zhukov's point that the Germans diversified rather than standardised their military machine is basically a good one.

 

Certainly. It is also a display of disregard for history; twice before had Russia been invaded fom the West and twice the invading armies had lost themselves in the great plains and frozen to death in the winter (Sweden in 1709 and France in 1812).

 

did hittler actual spend any time at all planning anything

 

My bad, I'm not the biggest fan of roman numerals.

Um, Oxford I believe, heard of it?

Not before 2 prototypes and many parts were completed.

A problem nontheless

 

I guess their quality is declining, then.

True, but then, that could be said for a lot of projects. Making a few prototypes is not out of the ordinary, and compared to the total production it doesn't have any significant impact.

 

What's your point?

 

To add a twist to this frequently asked question, mistake to me means something that should have been done differently, not whether or not it should have been done.

For instance, Hitler attacking Russia is not a mistake, does anyone have any doubt that the invasion was inevitable? The way that Hitler conducted his campaigns in Russia were the mistakes.

The Battle of the Bulge is not a mistake by Hitler, I think any desperate commander would have planned a similar last gasp attack. However, Hitler's overly-ambitious plans (i.g. counting on capturing of allied fuel, use of the heavy Tiger II tanks, unrealistic objectives, lack of consideration for aerial threat....) were the mistakes.