Biggest Mistake of WWII

[von Poop]

Originally Posted by Slipdigit

Atom Bomb.

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.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

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

[marcus69x]

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

[Slipdigit]

Originally Posted by Von Poop

Aaaah, the ultimate arbiter of so much 'what if' activity.

It does stir up much angst.

[Gotthard Heinrici]

It also deflates any other argument!!!

[Glamorgan]

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.

[General Mayhem]

Originally Posted by blacksheep

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

[General Mayhem]

Originally Posted by Paratrooper

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

[4th wilts]

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

[Zoya]

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!