Military Power

I understand this is a subject, which is very flexible to personal understanding and knowledge. As some of the members have pointed out the blunders can be categorized at different levels- Strategic, Operational, Tactical levels. While strategic blunders are attributed to politicians (like Stalin refusing to accept the intelligence against German buildup or Hitler declaring war on the US to honor the Axis pact with Japan), operational and tactical blunders are mostly credited to military commanders. Not all the mistakes and defeats can be dubbed as blunders or disasters. Often then not, they are associated with the blatant disregard to lives of under command, poor planning, faulty intelligence, unfit, inapt or ambitious commanders, and most alarmingly political muddling in the operational level. I intend to classify and present a few such events which/who according to my perspective, deserves to be in the Military Hall of Shame. Few known and successful generals/ commanders may deserve place here also for individual event/battle (Monty of Arnhem) but not necessarily for the whole tenure of the engagement. While the causes for a particular debacle may be endless, the root is limited to only a few such causes. Of course, individual view on the matter will set the stage for deciding the sublime cause behind.

I am sure there will be differences in opinion. I encourage that and hope to refine my understanding and knowledge from that. I would also request the informed members to contribute spontaneously with their view with some elaboration.

I have made following broad categories and will try to discuss one by one. You are welcome to chip in.

Ø Underestimating Enemy
Ø Unfit Leaders
Ø Planning Disasters
Ø Intelligence Blunders
Ø Political Influence

One of my favourite subject: the blunders and the blunderers …. littering the annals of military history.

Ok, time to have a bit of fun:
Underestimating the enemy: that one has to go to the Italians who underestimated just about everybody, but particularly the Ethiopians. They attacked an army of horse-mounted sword wielding cavalry with a modern (for the time) armoured force, and proceeded to win a war with a long drawn out campaign, when they should have trounced the Ethoipoans in two or three days. For good measure, they were then kicked out of Africa by the British, whose favourable kill ratios were the most spectacular of the war.

Unfit Leaders: General Ambrose Burnside.... 'nuff said!

Intelligence blunders: I would change this to "horrid decisions in the face of useful intelligence". The prize goes to Stalin, who did not prepare for Barbarossa in spite of the fact that his intelligence services knew the date, time, units commanders, axes of attack, reserves, and everything else. Stalin chose not to believe it, and we all saw the result.

Political influence: Has to go to Stalin for Barbarossa and to Hitler for his attempts to micromanage the war from before Stalingrad right up to the end. He managed to subjugate the German General staff, which was argueably one of the best in the world, and he replaced them with a buch of vapid, useless yes-men.

A Bridge To Far....Montgomery, well the openning says it all, not only was it an over ambitious plan, alot of his staff dissmissed dutch underground intell that near Arnhem , laid the SS panzer divisions that took back the city.......My hats off to the soilders that gallantly took and held Arnhem for as long as they managed and to the US forces that continued to push forward aginst orders to stay put.
Shame on Montys general staff and him for not listening to intell.

Vietnam was a major military blunder in the fact that we (the U.S.) somehow managed to lose the war despite winning most of the battles. It's a blunder in the fact that it demonstrates, painfully, what happens when politicians think they know more about warfare than the generals.

Strategic or Operational Errors:
Pearl Harbor - All warning signs were ignored and the US fleet which was caught about as unprepared as can be was destroyed by Japanese aircraft.

Gettysburg - Robert E Lee's brilliance goes AWOL when he attacks a enemy that:
1. Outnumbers him
2. Has the high ground
3. Is well dug in
That is when you DON'T launch a offensive.

Cold Harbor - This was for Grant what Gettysburg was for Lee. This was the most stupid move of his career he orders charge after charge against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia which is well dug in in trench works. This did nothing but get 15,000+ Union troops KIA.

Saddam's halt order during the Iraq/Iran war - In the 5th week of the invasion of Iran Saddam orders his forces to halt for a reason unknown even to the greatest of experts on the matter. This gives Iran much needed time to regroup and rebuild the forces they will use to drive him out. He is driven completely out of Iran and probably would have suffered total defeat had it not been for US aid.

Stalin pre-Barbarossa - Much like the Americans at Pearl Harbor. ignored all warning signs and was caught with his pants down and whole Soviet armies were erased.

Tactical Errors:
Stirling bridge - The English Northern Army goes through a choke point (a bridge) to get at Scottish rebels and are trapped at the other end of the bridge and are crushed because their army failed to deploy itself effectively.

MacArthur leaves his Air Force on the ground - Just days after Pearl Harbor...

1939-1945 Second World War

The bombing of civilians in Bagdhad, the French embassy in Libya and of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by American planes merely reaffirmed the terrible record America has in its use of aerial warfare. This is by no means new. During the Normandy campaign of 1944 a joke was told amongst Allied troops, "When the Germans carry out a bombing raid the British duck and when the British carry out a bombing raid the Germans duck, but when the Americans start bombing everybody ducks". As well as the many instances of "friendly fire" casualties one blunder committed by the American air force saw them instigate a war between the United States and Switzerland in 1944 and 1945, resulting from American pilots bombing Switzerland by mistake.



1943 The Invasion of Sicily: Operation Husky

While American paratroops of the 504th Regiment were flying in to invade Sicily, their comrades on the ground assumed the incoming transports were enemy planes. American anti-aircraft fire was thus unleashed on American men. A killing rage ensued, as the Americans on the ground continued firing, even though they knew they were killing their own men. Paratroops were mown down as they left their transports, and naval gunners massacred some soldiers who had survived crashing into the sea. In the end, 1200 men were massacred by soldiers who had fallen victim to blood lust. Unable to find an explanation, Eisenhower ordered a cover-up.



1991 The Gulf War

The American Patriot missile was hyped as the perfect defence for civilians and army alike against the danger of Iraqi Scud missile. The Patriot missiles were designed to destroy Scud missiles in mid air and the nightly firework displays above Tel Aviv seemed to prove that they were working. Yet despite the almost overwhelming positive media cover, a US government enquiry commissioned after the war discovered that not a single Scud warhead had been destroyed by a Patriot during the entire conflict.

KnightTemplar wrote:Vietnam was a major military blunder in the fact that we (the U.S.) somehow managed to lose the war despite winning most of the battles. It's a blunder in the fact that it demonstrates, painfully, what happens when politicians think they know more about warfare than the generals.

I don't see Vietnam as military blunder but as a political fiasco. While we were winning battles, the liberal mainstream media and liberal politicians were painting a bleak picture of our efforts. While the Tet Offensive was considered a success by those in uniforms, the news we received (print and TV) was bleak. This gave toe Communist a big propaganda victory which eventually lead to a loss of will to fight by the American public. Then came new rules for engagement. The politically correct war was born and thus the eventual disaster that we witnessed in 1974.

And we haven't learned our lesson from that chapter in history. History is repeating itself in Iraq. We must not lose our resolve. Me must have the desire and will to win. Or we won't.

1788 - The Battle of Karánsebes in which an Austrian army started firing at each other, thinking that they were under the attack of Ottoman Empire forces. The battle caused 10,000 casualties, while the enemy was a two day march away.

1854 - The suicidal and ill-advised Charge of the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. It was based on Cardigan's misunderstanding of, and failure to ask for clarification of Lord Raglan's orders. Of the action, French marshal Pierre Bosquet said C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre ("It is magnificent, but it is not war.")

1876 - The Battle of the Little Bighorn (also called Custer's last stand), the subject of a number of books and several films, was a catastrophic failure for George Armstrong Custer, leading to the death of Custer himself and all 210 men who were with him at the time. Many feel that this failure was a result of a series of blunders on the part of Custer, including poor communication, failure to wait for reinforcements, excessive cruelty in his treatment of the Native Americans, and general overconfidence. Others have argued that Custer was largely the victim of bad circumstance, and that his actions and decisions during the battle differed little from standard military strategy of the time. So, depending on which view you take, this may or may not belong here.

1930 to 1940 - The Maginot Line in France. The Maginot Line is widely considered a great blunder because the German armies went around it. However, the German forces did not dare attack the Maginot Line directly; Germany had to invade Belgium in order to circumvent it, and in the few incidents during World War II where the line was involved, it proved a highly effective defensive fortification. Thus, many historians feel that France blundered, not in building the Maginot Line (which was effective for what it was), but in relying too much on it for defense.

Maximus the Destroyer wrote:1876 - The Battle of the Little Bighorn (also called Custer's last stand), the subject of a number of books and several films, was a catastrophic failure for George Armstrong Custer, leading to the death of Custer himself and all 210 men who were with him at the time. Many feel that this failure was a result of a series of blunders on the part of Custer, including poor communication, failure to wait for reinforcements, excessive cruelty in his treatment of the Native Americans, and general overconfidence. Others have argued that Custer was largely the victim of bad circumstance, and that his actions and decisions during the battle differed little from standard military strategy of the time. So, depending on which view you take, this may or may not belong here.

Maybe. Maybe not. Check out my thread here