Biggest mistakes made in WW2

What are according to you the three biggest mistakes made in WW2 war theatre.
Please also indicate why this in your opinion.

My view on this matter is:
1. Airborne action Market Garden in Arnhem 1944 (on top of a SS panzer division)
2. Stalingrad 1942, defending the left- and rightflanks with weak Romanian and Italian troops.
3. Kursk 1943, quiting the battle by Hitler during the battle

 

1. not following up the dams raid the night after
2. Arnhem for the above reasons and not lisening to the intelligence
3. Not securing Scapa Flow with submarine nets.

 

(1) Hitler declaring war on the United States.

He did not need to do it. This was the only country that Hitler ever declared war upon.
Doing so, he signed his own death warrant by allowing the full might of US forces to move into the European War.

 

Biggest mistake i think was the invasion of Russia by Hitler. You would of thought he would of learnt by previous mistakes in trying to invade that country by the French. Bad move Herr Hitler, you would have had more resources for the battle of Europe when the invasion you knew was bound to come happened.

Sniper

 

1) Singapore, believing it was a impregnable fortress with the large coastal guns unable to traverse 360 degrees. Not evacuating the civilians. Not forcing the issue with the Thais so they could set up defences along certain lengths of coast on the Thai side.

2) Germany invading Russia. A campaign that would never have been successful.

3)(maybe not a biggest mistake but to a lesser extent) Greece and Crete, having some of the most experienced British and Allied troops moved from the Desert to fight a ( what General officers and most others allready knew as a) unwinnable battle against the Germans in Greece then with even less forces the battle for Crete.
Both battles resulted in major losses for the Brit and Allies, important equipment such as heavy support weapons and most of other supplies of all kinds, were left behind, these troops who were very well experienced and who if left in place in the western desert with the extra numbers from other British and Commonwealth Divisions available for action at this time,
they may just have given Rommel a decent scare and at the very least made Rommel pay even more for every metre forward he moved


I do believe the Greek campaign did good in one unpredicted way after the war thousands of Greek migrants sailed to Australia and settled down with their families. I know here in Melbourne we have one of the largest Greek populations outside of Greek capital cities.
And a good thing these people have migrated as they have helped in their own ways to improve Australia.

 

I think I'll add Rommel's rush in North Africa to the point he outstripped his own supply chain.

The failure of the Luftwaffe to finish off the British airfields before turning to the cities.

And the Japanese failing to check all the American navy were in port before bombing Pearl Harbour.

 

Another big mistake was that Hitler did not invade the British mainland.

Sniper

 

To use a BoB quote:

The last person that tried that came a cropper.

I think they may have landed however they never would have been supplied.

They needed air supremacy for their plan to work and they never got it.

Cheers

Geoff

 

If they had continued hammering the airfields instead of turning to the cities, they could have landed and probably got a good foothold before the Royal Navy could intervene to a great extent. But the failure to follow up the gains they were making against the RAF was a major mistake, which meant the landing could never happen. The wargame carried out in the 70's at Sandhurst showed that.

 

1) Germany not gearing their industries to full war time production till the mid war years???
2) Hitler not allowing the Panzer and other divisions loose to attack the Normandy invasions.
3) Hitler thinking he knew more than his Generals and directing the war himself from Berlin often several thousand miles from the front

 

All I can say is - Thank god the eneny did make all these misstakes otherwise we may have lost the war
John

 

Mistake not bringing the women into the factories like we did, but they still held that women should take care of the home rather than be involved in the war effort directly.

 

And thats where they belong, hahaha

 

Your a brave man Sniper - make sure you sleep with on eye open as Kitty is going to get you.

 

1/ Not building many more uboats
2/ Attacking Russia (idiot move probably the worst mistake)
3/ Declaring war on US ..almost as stupid as invading Russia
Tony

 

thats ok, I can wait years, and I'm not the one losing my hair :>

 

Sending troops in piecemeal during early days against Japanese, most especially the Australians who in the Desert and else where had fought tooth and nail with the Brits to keep their forces together at minimum Divisional level and they would of made sure they were used as corps if they had stayed in the Desert post 1942 fighting Rommel.
Yet against the Japanese they sent Btns in to defend Islands that should of been abandoned or the troops concentrated on a island with what air and shipping capabilities, are available, but no they sent the only available AIF troops one brigade willy nilly after sending the other two Brigades of the 8th AIF to their doom at Singapore, they were even reinforcing Singapore while the garrison was preparing for surrender. That's how out of touch the senior people were at this time.

The 2/21st and small amount of mixed support weapons units along with several hundred Dutch soldiers were sent to Ambon, they no chance what so ever they surrendered within 12 hours on 30th Jan 1942

The 2/40th sent to Timor as Sparrow Force surrendered on 23 Feb 1942 they also had a small amount of support forces and a independent commando company which split from the Btn and fought for a quite long time, the 2/40th did not last long and went into captivity


The 2/22nd at Rabaul surrendered 23rd Jan (my great gran dad died fighting with the 1/22 in 1916) they were sent as a single Btn with small support forces to possible the best defensive island at the top of Australia.

And lets not forget the idiocy of Black Force who were sent to Java under the command of the recently promoted Brig Arthur Blackburn VC, he had his MG Btn acting as Infantry a Pioneer Btn and other odd bods to make up the third Btn and a total; of 3000 men the GOC (Blamey) knew it was a disaster waiting to happen, that's why the whole 7th Div or parts of serious infantry units were not dropped off their.
Black force 3000 AIF soldiers not infantry but trained men, along with many Dutch units . Black Force surrendered on 10th March

Put many of these units together and you have a reasonable defensive force if you can keep them as a large force, place them in one or two certain positions of importance and they probably would of held them.

Another mistake was again from the Aussies and that was sending untrained militia to protect port moresby and not train them but use them as cheap labourers, then send them into the mountains to fight a strong experienced force.

Intelligence the use of intelligence by MacArthur and Blamey was a mistake because they kept sending the forward troops the wrong intelligence especially in numbers of enemy being faced.

MacArthur he was a mistake to let such a person have so much control and power. I say that others could have done it better.

 

Thanks Cobber - another great article re mistakes being made. MacArthur seemed to have everyone bluffed.

 

One of the biggest mistakes of WW2 was the fact that Japan did not keep up with technology and develop thier own radar. Had they done so its possible they would of done a lot more damage to the allied navy.

 

Japan was up till the 1945 a nation that had copied many of the weapons etc that western militaries had. That is why if you look at any arm of the Japanese military up to 1945/46 most of their weapons were a indirect copy of something they had seen in western militaries prior to WW2. They may have increased the calibre of Naval guns however they were still basically the same as the allied nations had prior to and just after the start of WW2. They really did not invent or manufacture any new weapons, support weapons and other things like radar because they had never seen one up close enough to know how it works. As well as just not having the imagination to come up with the type of weapons and support equipment that the USA, GB and even Germany came up with.
Thank the Gods that the Aussie PM stood up to President Wilson in 1919 who wanted the island of Papua and New Guinea to be given to the Japanese for their stirling (sic) work in escorting convoys across the Indian ocean. The snetance spoken by Aussie PM, "I speak for 60,000 dead was what changed Wilsons mind on that one. This conference at end of WW1 was where the Brit empire started to die off,