Top 5 biggest mistakes

What do you think were the top 5 biggest military mistakes of ww2?

 

Which side?

1. Barbarossa
2. Putting Clark in charge of anything
3. Halsey taking the 3rd Fleet north
4. Anzio
5. McArthur's planes sitting on the ground on 8 December

 

Germans killing civilians vs putting them to work/army.

Germans bring terror vs being Civil. If you think about it MOST of these countries were already in pretty bad shape, if Hitler showed these people that there is better future and didn't kill so many MOST would've turned on his side.

Without people and extra workforce he REALLY stretched his lines THIN and overextended himself which was the turning point of the war.

IMO those were THE biggest mistakes and ones that prevented Hitler from taking over the world.

One can say Hitler strategies on the battlefield, even his generals weren't the biggest fans of his decision making (for example: He should've went for those oil fields vs Stalingrad)

 

Any side and I was thinking more tactical than political.

 

The concept or the execution?

 

1. Maginot line and trust in it in the West
2. German U-boat building too slow
3. Hitler´s declaration of war to the US
4. Operation Zitadelle
5. Vengeance weapons instead of me 262

 

Execution. Should have attacked while the Germans pants were still down. After a largely unopposed landing you attack. Consolidating the beachhead was contradictory to the purpose of the landings. It doesn't help when you select a commander who thinks the plan will fail to lead it.

 

I would have to say:

1. hitler being born
2. hilter surving WW1
3. hitler coming to power
4. hitler surviving numerious assassination attemps
5. hiltler not commiting suicide earlier then he did

 

Here's a few that come to mind:

1. Luftwaffe's failure to properly identify and eradicate England's Chain Home radar system.

2. USAAF's failure to properly identify radar signals of the incoming Japanese arial attack and react effectively at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

3. Failure of the United States' armed forces to appropriately react to the first sighting of the a midget submarine at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 @ 03:42.

4. Market Garden. What a mess that was.

5. Failure to identify and eradicate problems in a timely fashion, with the Mark 13 and Mark 14 torpedoes.

 

Top Mistake!
If Amercia was not thinkeing of theme selfs,fewr lives might havee beene saved

On a seriosly note-
Hitler invading Russia witheout not defeating Briton.

Japan bombing America.

The greese compaine.

Having Monty as the number 1 british general in Charge,there wase other British ande American generals cuolde have done muche better.

Nazi germany shuolde have juste invading cuonries,insteade of murdering the host cuontries populations.

 

1. Germany's declaration of war on the US
2. Germany's invasion of Russia
3. Operation Market Garden
4. Eisenhower's Broad front strategy
5. Germany's halt at Dunkirk

 

1) The Maginot line defense strategy , without it there would have been no occupation of France, no Battle of Britain and no barbarossa, the war would have been stopped .
2) Goering's change of strategy during the B of B
3) Barbarossa started in June instead of early May, two extra months could have emade the difference.
4) The Attack of Pearl Harbor. the U.S. would have entered the war much later without it.
5) The Nazis bad treatment of the peoples in the East. Some hated the Russians and could have allied with the Gemrans if treated fairly

 

1) Germany Declaring war on the US

2) Germany failing to obtain sea power, i.e. not producing enough U-Boats and focusing more on big battleships

3) Goering's decision to start bombing cities in the Battle of Britain

4) Hitler's Directive Number 45 consisting of these three points:
1. The first aim of the campaign (Operation Blue) had been achieved: i.e. the Red Army in the south had been "largely destroyed."
2. The Volga Force was to resume the drive toward Stalingrad, with the
Fourth Panzer Army rejoining it.
3. The Caucasus Force under List was to proceed southward at once, with additions to its original difficult task, such as securing the entire Black Sea coast.

5) Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor

 

1. The Holocaust -I think if the holocaust had not happened we would view the german military and the nazis in a different light.

2. Operation Market Garden

3. Stalingrad-too many lives lost purist sense of the term puric victory in my eyes.

4. Leaving the men in Yugoslavia behind enemy lines for so long, and the aftermath of it.

5. Atomic Weapons/The Manhattan Project.

 

I like Andy's top five.

 

All things considered the war was handled fairly well but there are a few blatant errors which are political. These would be Japanese military doctrine and Nazi social policies.

The way I see it many tactical "errors" were by necessity, the glaring ones which weren't had these political elements or others. American strategic doctrine in Europe for the period 1943 was extremely wasteful and didn't achieve its objectives. British political conservatism stoically lasted the entire war. Stalin did more damage to the Soviet empire than Germany. But obviously these problems were less prohibitive than those of Germany or Japan.

Specific major tactical issues, severe enough to cause strategic problems were things like breaking Army Group South into three understrength Army Groups which were more like individual armies with attachments and no reserves (Gruppe B, Gruppe von Kleist and Gruppe Ruoff collectively Gruppe A for administrative purposes). These faced what was believed to be three Soviet Army Fronts but was in fact more like five which later received reinforcements and training reserves. It killed the Wehrmacht on the south Eastern Front.
Hitler was patiently told at length that he could aim to deal with Stalingrad or launch into the Caucasus, not both because either required rearguards, reserves and concentrated fronts. The Army in fact wanted to destroy Stalingrad from a safe distance and the Luftwaffe wanted to bomb the oil fields to oblivion, both which could've been achieved easily by the end of the summer.
Hitler however was convinced without rationale the Soviets had completely run out of reserves and were on their last legs as a fighting force, even whilst he was being told new equipment was beginning to appear from beyond the Urals.
Von Kleist's chief of Staff wrote in his diary at this time (paraphrasing), "the Army is now ruled by the Devil and has abandoned all rational military thought."

Operation Citadel was a major strategic error, though was superbly fought tactically with even losses against much greater odds and fortified positions. It was a strategic loss which couldn't be afforded and was performed when the Wehrmacht should've been back at the Wotan line (roughly Pskov-Vitebsk-Kiev-Zaporozhye).

But both these events were the whole result of Hitler's direct interference with Army planning, in which he'd assumed full authority from December 41. Even back then he forced entirely disproportionate losses among the Wehrmacht before finally accepting Oberkommando's initial recommendations for the winter.
They were caused by politics.

Similar situation for the loss of Japanese air power in the Pacific. After some conversation my conclusions would return to political.

I think the American 8th air force doctrine for the European air war during 1943 was in grave error, again its driving force was political.

The early British campaign in Africa seems to display military aristocracy and ineptitude, again politically based.

For pure tactical errors I'd say the Italian Navy was well predisposed to these. They lacked any form of commitment during surface action and I think this lost them the bulk of their battles with the Royal Navy. I think individual commanders were just plain intimidated and taken well out of their aristocratic element (British aristocrats fancied themselves gods, Italian ones as usurpers).
So I'm guessing most strictly tactical mistakes per se, no political overtones beyond cultural differences are going to be found there.

Most of everything else I've looked up, whilst in many cases shocking, disappointing, saddening or impressive, were all well handled by both sides given the full breadth of circumstances on the day.

Oh there was that idiot Japanese field commander at Guadalcanal. He was a moron.

 

Funnie,I too wuolde llke And'ys top five,but i don;t know who ist Andy! Who's Andy???is it Skipper???

 

1. Hitler's failure to develop an atomic bomb before the allies did.
2. Pearl Harbor
3. Hitler declaring war on US
4. Barbarossa
5. Hitler's making himself comander in chief of the German Forces afterthe failure of Operation Typhoon in 1941.

 

In no particular order....

Maginot line

Barbarossa (and the policies towards her population)

B o B

Dunkirk

Holocaust