Biggest Mistake of WWII

Discussion in 'General' started by Paratrooper, Jul 25, 2004.

  1. 4th wilts

    4th wilts Discharged

    allowing a broad front after the battle of normandy
     
  2. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    Hitler declaring war on the US on December 8th 1941, the day the Allies won the war.
     
  3. P51fan

    P51fan Junior Member

    Germans failure to finish the British at Dunkirk. Hitler had a chance to force the British to sue for peace had they not allowed the Brits to escape. Why Hitler held back the Panzers is still a mystery.
    The second part was "Operation Barbarossa" the day the Germans invaded the Soviet Union was really the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.
    http://re3.yt-thm-a01.yimg.com/image/25/m1/2115490486

    The Japanese mistake was the attack on Pearl Harbor and their inability to find the US Carriers. The entire West Coast of the US would have been wide open for invasion.
    http://re3.mm-a1.yimg.com/image/1974115183
     
  4. Patton

    Patton Member

    The Germans had a Navy?
     
  5. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    Hitler declaring war on the US on December 8th 1941, the day the Allies won the war.
    uh...Gott...um...that was Dec 11th, 1941. Dec 8th was when Roosevelt made his "live in infamy" speech.
     
  6. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    The Japanese mistake was the attack on Pearl Harbor and their inability to find the US Carriers. The entire West Coast of the US would have been wide open for invasion.

    I don't really see a way that the Japanese could have sustained an army on the West Coast of the US with the dearth of shipping they had. Getting enough men all the way across the Pacific, then supplying them would have been problematic at best, especially with both and hands and feet stuck in the tar-baby of China.:cowboy_125:

    Apologies for getting off subject.
     
  7. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Biggest mistake of WW2 was screwing the Germans so hard after WW1 with the Treaty Of Versailles.
     
  8. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    uh...Gott...um...that was Dec 11th, 1941. Dec 8th was when Roosevelt made his "live in infamy" speech.
    D'oh!!! Apologies for the mistake lads!! Thanks for pointing that out Geoff!
     
  9. freebird

    freebird Senior Member

    Hitler declaring war on the US on December 8th 1941, the day the Allies won the war.

    Gotthard are you saying that the Axis had NO chance to win the war after Pearl harbour? I've heard lots of Americans say this, it may be bravado, but I think if the Axis had a solid plan they could have won, even against US industrial might. {I realize I'm kinda throwing down the gauntlet here, I'll have to start a new thread on this... :D} But strategy is my passion so it might be interesting...

    Germans failure to finish the British at Dunkirk. Hitler had a chance to force the British to sue for peace had they not allowed the Brits to escape. Why Hitler held back the Panzers is still a mystery.
    The second part was "Operation Barbarossa" the day the Germans invaded the Soviet Union was really the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.

    It's not a mystery, P-51, the Panzers had taken some heavy casualties due to British anti-tank {remember these are light Pz I's & Pz II's in battle, not the 1943 Tigers} The Panzer thrust to the south of the BEF was very short on infantry, because there were only a couple of SS motorized divisions with the Panzers. The terrain around dunkirk is very poor for tanks, being rather wet & with many canals. The Germans continued to push against the British from the north, where the bulk of the army was. At this time Hitler still expected the remainder of the French army to put up a stiff fight, he needed the Panzers intact for the forthcoming battle, not heavily damaged. The germans also did not think that it was an urgent matter, as at the time neither the German OKW or the Royal Navy thought that the British could evacuate more that about 50,000 of the 350,000 men trapped. When the total rescued was over 330,000 it was a big surprise to both sides.

    The Japanese mistake was the attack on Pearl Harbor and their inability to find the US Carriers. The entire West Coast of the US would have been wide open for invasion.


    Well Hitler made many mistakes because of his desire for attacks and offencive.He made a terrible mistake attacking the Russians they could be a great ally Stalin didnt hate Hitler befor the war.The other mistake that Hitler make is that he take control of the U-boats.

    Hitler really had no choice. If he hadn't attacked in 1941 Stalin planned to double-cross & attack Germany in 1942. Stalin & Hitler both realized there could only be 1 "master of Europe", it was inevitable that there would be war between them.
     
  10. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    Gotthard are you saying that the Axis had NO chance to win the war after Pearl harbour? I've heard lots of Americans say this, it may be bravado, but I think if the Axis had a solid plan they could have won, even against US industrial might. {I realize I'm kinda throwing down the gauntlet here, I'll have to start a new thread on this... :D} But strategy is my passion so it might be interesting...

    No, please, not a what-if thread here....please....I'll save you the trouble and mention two words....Atom Bomb. :cowboy_125:
     
  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Atom Bomb. :cowboy_125:
    Aaaah, the ultimate arbiter of so much 'what if' activity.

    Biggest mistake?
    " 'What if' I built a Reich that would last for 1000 years?" - Adolf.
     
  12. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    Biggest mistake - Adolf not following that promising Art Career. The entire war can be summed as a sort of "When Art Students go bad" type of programme :)
     
  13. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    Not necessarily the biggest mistake, but Hitler ordering Rommel to pop his clogs has got to have been a bad move. IMO he was a good Field Marshal and had he been left where he was, perhaps the allied advance would have been pushed back or atleast held up long enough for the germans to make a 'what if' difference to the war. I have no source or anything to quote from, just my thoughts. Marcus
     
  14. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    Aaaah, the ultimate arbiter of so much 'what if' activity.
    It does stir up much angst.
     
  15. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    It also deflates any other argument!!!
     
  16. Glamorgan

    Glamorgan Member

    I think the biggest mistake was Operation Market Garden. This is because there was a massive loss of life on the british and amarican forces. also it was a high risk operation that had a bigger chance of failer than sucsess. I think that the war could of been won without the could of been won with out this operation, but it would of been a longer war.
     
  17. Failure to defeat England in th Battle of Britian, should have focused on air bases instead of cities. this halted the germans and turned the tide.

    Good point, the germans would have targeted the British airbases, however the clever limeys placed thier air bases in the north of england
    out of range of the luftwaffe.

    GM
     
  18. What do u think the biggest mistake of WWII was?
    personaly i think there are 2

    1.Russia Invasion-After germany lost the battle of britian they should have halted there offenceive and rebuild and invaded britian and not bomb it..but they instead invade russia unprepared for winter and lose costing them many lives..they still had a chance 2 win if the USA was not in the war..thus read on

    2.Pearl Habor-Im not saying Pearl Harbor wasnt a good attack but it came too soon..if japan would have waited for germany 2 win over europe w/o usa they could have attacked and had germanys navy help w/ theres and beaten the usa..

    The Japanese were running against the clock. The new that time was on te US side. They struck when they did against an enemy that they knew to be weak and unprepared at the time (which was true) it is vey unlikely that even if the German's had the Navy for such operations they would have offered it or that the Japanese would have asked. The Japanese had a far far larger Navy at the start of hostilities than Germany and the germans had no aircraft carriers.
    As to biggest mistakes
    Hitler's Russian campaign I agree with you there for sure.
    The Ardennes offensive
    The invasion of Greece
    Occupying all of Checkoslovakia (sp) (he put the western powers on
    notice prematurely)
    The Allied Landings at Anzio
    The assault on Narvik
    Th Bombing of Monte Cassino
    Market Garden
    Anvil (unnecesary after overlord and opposed by Eisenhower
    The sidlining of Patton in favor of Bradley
    The carpet bombing of civilian targets
    FDR's declaration of unconditional surrender without so much as a BY-your-leave to Churchill)
    Inordinately costly frontal assaults on Japanese held islands by Nimtz and
    King.
    Mark Clarks failure to cut off Kesselring in Lieu of his grand entrance in to Rome.
    The stupid and costly snubbing and opposition to DeGaul (prompted by FDR) Opposed by Eisenhower.
    The waste of time and sources on the fictional "National Redoubt". Churchill advised strongly against this.
    The boneheaded loss of shipping off the American coast because the Americans stupidly refused to listen to Brits in 42.
    Failure to push for upgrading American tank quality and armament when it was obvious immediately that they could not compete against german.
    Germany wasting it's limited resources on"wonder weapons" when more practical weapons were desply needed.
    Employing their jet propelled plane as a bomber instead of fighter.
    Hermann Georing
    Hitler taking tactical control of his armies.
    Occupying France. (Had Hitler just gotten a French surrender and peace treaty the allies would have been denied France as a jumping off place on the continent not to mention freeing up all those divisions for Russia. It would have changed the dynamic in Africa and the Mediterraneon.)
    The list goes on and on.
    Yours GM
     
  19. 4th wilts

    4th wilts Discharged

    some very inteesting thoughts gm,very interesting indeed.op anvil in particular.yours,4th wilts.
     
  20. Zoya

    Zoya Partisan

    From the little I know, not being half as much an expert as you guys, as far as Hitler's biggest mistakes go, I would point to the invasion of Russia, and the subsequent war on two fronts as a given, and wrt the war on the Eastern front, a number of other factors. As has already said, Hitler being supreme commander of the army; whilst sometimes he displayed tactical insight, at other times his vision was clouded by his ideology. What was his ultimate purpose at Stalingrad? To cut off the Russian supply lines, capture the Caucasus oilfields, or to subdue the city that bore Stalin's name? Why was he so slow to ok the advance to Moscow, despite Guderian's inisistence on the need to advance before the autumn/winter set in? The battle of Kiev, although technically a victory for the Wermacht lost them 1 million men, and commited the army to a winter assault on Moscow, further forces being diverted to Leningrad.

    Later on, the fiasco of Kursk/Zitadelle was also a disaster on many fronts. Not least the problems with the new German tanks, Porsche Ferdinands without the gunshields and with vulnerable fuel lines and lack of machine gun fire necessitating artillery cover etc. etc. and Panthers still not able to match up to the versatility of the T34s (Guderian himself said ""...they (Panthers) burnt too easily, the fuel and oil systems were insufficiently protected, and the crews were lost due to lack of training.") The sheer amount of different tank designs meant that spare parts were not forthcoming to repair them during the battle, whilst the Russians use of the T34, and little else, meant that they could be recycled during lulls in the battle, and tank numbers quickly built up again.

    Another issue is the misuse of resources by Hitler and those around him, in particular Himmler in his appropriation of new armaments manufactured in 1944 for the Volksturm and SS regiments, meaning the Wehrmacht weren't adequately re-equipped, never mind starving, the bread ration in many cases having been reduced to 70g a day. Add to this the supply difficulties, the weather, indaequate winter uniforms. After the failure of Zitadelle, it was all over.

    Someone has probably said all this before, I didn't have time to read the whole thread! Forgive me for not answering the question also, as I realise I have listed a whole load of mistakes which add up to a big one, rather than one big one in itself!
    :rolleyes:
     

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