Biggest Blunders in Military History

Charge_7 said:
I'm surprised that Chewie or other ANZAC folks didn't mention Gallipoli. A tremendous loss of lives and ships that did not accomplish one single thing decisive in WWI and was the scene of error after error after error. Nobody can question the valor of the troops, but the generals involved and Churchill who promoted it made a very grievious error indeed.
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hmmmm i think it because for some strange reason i don't consider it a blunder ( well on our part anyway) ANZAC forces achieved their objectives...only to have the british shell us off them. grrrr.

but you're right charge, there are many factors that doomed that operation right from the start, formost would be that they were useing tourist maps to plan it....and that we landed at the wrong beach. hmmmm
 
AussieNick said:
Napoleon's march on Russia. Because he was the "original" one to get done in by Russia's winter and huge distance... Hitler just didn't read up on French history enough :D
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since the topic is biggest blunter, I would say both of campaigns on russia. this two actions were decesive for both, poor adolf and napoleon. both were so masive, involving most of military power of both countries, not to mention their historical significance.
 
Anybody declaring war on America...

But seriously...

How about Antietam? And wasn't the Battle of the Crater a Burnside move, too?

J
 
Elphinstone's retreat from Kabul on 6th January-13th January 1842. Out of 15,500 men, women and children only one reached Jellalabad. The rest either froze, starved, taken hostage or were slaughtered by Afghan tribesmen.
 
Zucchini said:
The Bay of Pigs was a blunder, but I think it is a red herring to suggest lack of air support is what doomed it.

The plan hinged on picking up widespread support from the Cuban people. That was proven to be naive, and the 1500-man force had no chance of succeeding without significant ground support.

When the US finally did send in planes, four pilots were killed. We did not have the the type of dominance over the sky that we enjoy now.
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While a popular uprising may or may not have taken place. The lack of air support and fire support ensured a lodgement could not be established. So we'll never know. But I still say JFK left them twisting.
 
He was kind of stuck with it though. Those forces had been started under Eisenhower. Difficult decision for a brand new President from the opposite party to make. JFK himself though acknowledged his errors in the Bay of Pigs incident and learned from it. Without that lesson I doubt he'd have done so well with the Missiles of October.
 
Kilgore said:
Yeah but it surely ruined germany's chance to win WW2. If only they invaded the United kingdom.
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But they probably couldn't, even if they had won the Battle of Britain. Besides, I think a war between Germany & the USSR was inevitable. Even so, I agree that ultimately Barbarossa was a major blunder, if only because Hitler completely underestimated the USSR and its will to resist.
 
The british will no doubt give the germans a hard time, but i think the germans would be somewhat successful. By the way i have also heard that Stalin wanted to invade Germany in a later period. So of course the war was inevitable.
 
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Like the link shows, it was not the question of if there would be a war between Germany and the USSR, but when.
 
Thats basically it. The Russians were trying to spread communism throughout europe and even helped the communists in the Spanish civil war. It was a sign that those two nations were already in a "Cold War".
 
The manner that the USA got into and out of Vietnam.
The USSR's invasion of Afganistan.
Russia's underestimation and beating at the hands of Japan in the 1905 war.
The maiden voyage of the K19 COULD have outdone anything, but thank heavens it didn't turn out that way!!
Hannibal's failure to attack and take Rome for ... how many years again? :shock:
The Persian Empires attempts to conquer Greece, and subsequently the Greek/Macedonian conquest of Persia.
The 30 Years War.
The Qing Dynasty's policy toward European Colonial Powers in the 1800's.
The Battle of Liegnitz.
 
The Other Guy said:
[LINK DID NOT WORK]
Like the link shows, it was not the question of if there would be a war between Germany and the USSR, but when.
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Correct. The almost opposite ideologies, Hitler's own vision in Mein Kampf and just the simple fact that both wanted to be top dog and both needed/wanted expansion in the roughly the same areas made it inevitable. There is some who now hold the view that Stalin was even perhaps planning his own pre-emptive strike in 1941. So maybe Hitler was aware of this and knew he had to strike first. It's possible he didn't want to in 1941 but that his hand was forced.

http://bread.book.h4c.pl/k659
 
Speculation now is that Hitler's health issues are what "forced" his hand. Parkinson's disease was much more deadly in the '40s than it is now and Hitler knew his life expectancy was limited. He had to rush his plans of conquest accordingly.
 
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