Thread: Biggest mistakes made in WW2

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

Originally Posted by sniper

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.