The greatest WWII blunder

[Spitfire]

Which was the greatest blunder during WWII?

Just to start it up:
In late summer 1940 a german bomber got lost over southeast England.
The Luftwaffe had strict orders NOT TO BOMB CITIES OR CIVILLIANS.
Being lost the observer in that plane believed they finally found their target and dropped the boms. Over London.
Which caused Churchill to send out RAF bombers the next night to bomb Berlin. Which made Hitler so furious that he decided to pay back by bombing all british cities!

A blunder? A human error? It certainly started something.

 

[reetpleat]

Which was the greatest blunder during WWII?

Just to start it up:
In late summer 1940 a german bomber got lost over southeast England.
The Luftwaffe had strict orders NOT TO BOMB CITIES OR CIVILLIANS.
Being lost the observer in that plane believed they finally found their target and dropped the boms. Over London.
Which caused Churchill to send out RAF bombers the next night to bomb Berlin. Which made Hitler so furious that he decided to pay back by bombing all british cities!

A blunder? A human error? It certainly started something.

Sounds like an urban legend to me. BUt it could be correct. what do I know?

 

[Spitfire]

Urban legend? - I dont know, but I have read about the incident in several different books on the blitz and Battle of Britain.

 

[Warden]

I can't quote a referance but that is my understanding of how the 1st bombs where dropped on London.

In directly it saved Britian as the Luftwaffe started to leave the airfields alone and gave the RAF time to recover.

Greatest blunder, not stopping Germany occupying the Rhineland. I saw a TV programme on UKTV history which said if the Allies / French re-acted the German high Command had orders to withdraw. Mind you I do not personally think that would of stopped WW2, just delayed it.

or

Hilter invading Russia before knocking out Britian first.

Warden D

 

[reetpleat]

Hitler made many blunders. Invading Russia was big. Not invading England was another. Letting the Japanese draw the US in was a big mistake.

I just wateched a movie about the planting of misinformation on a corpse washed up on the spanish shores. The Man Who Never Was. True story with some great clothes. Further reseach informed me that the Germans were fooled and drew many unitts and artillary away from Italy to Greece and other places, making thre invasion of Sicily successful, and even drew two Panzer divisions from the Russian front when they were badly needed.

 

[Smithy]

Spitfire, the bombing of London did happen accidently on the night of the 24/25 August which prompted Churchill's ordering of the retaliatory raid on Germany, and subsequently caused the switch of German bombing to cities and London in particular.

Without doubt if the Luftwaffe had kept up the pounding of RAF stations then it would probably have been a very different story. Both Dowding and Park acknowledged this.

Hitler did make a great many stuff ups and without doubt this was one of his worst thankfully.

Cheers,

Tim.

 

[Spitfire]

"Hitler did make a great many stuff ups and without doubt this was one of his worst thankfully."

You can say that again!:eusa_clap

 

[Paisley]

Did you know that we bombed Switzerland? I read about it in a biography of James Stewart.

 

[griffer]

Hitler fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha...

 

[Spitfire]

Did you know that we bombed Switzerland? I read about it in a biography of James Stewart.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap Nice! I did not know that.

Oh yes maybe...the small town Schaffhausen - where they produce some of the finest watches, IWC - just on the other side of the German/Swiss border - was bombed at the end of the war.
But you did not hit the IWC factory.

 

[Paisley]

Those responsible for the bombing were court-martialed and acquitted. If memory serves, James Stewart presided over the court martial.

 

[reetpleat]

Spitfire, the bombing of London did happen accidently on the night of the 24/25 August which prompted Churchill's ordering of the retaliatory raid on Germany, and subsequently caused the switch of German bombing to cities and London in particular.

Without doubt if the Luftwaffe had kept up the pounding of RAF stations then it would probably have been a very different story. Both Dowding and Park acknowledged this.

Hitler did make a great many stuff ups and without doubt this was one of his worst thankfully.

Cheers,

Tim.

Well, I demure to greater intelligence. Learn something new every day.

It may have also made things worse for Hitler by the fact that bombing of the cities, while difficult, did very little to hurt the english war effort, and only made their resolve and morale greater.

 

[Harp]

Failure of imaginative tactical and strategic conceptualization;
coupled with a lack of historical perspective.

The professional officer is an overly conservative and disciplined
individual wedded to established core doctrine; and displays little, if any
unorthodoxy so vital to victory.

Notable WWII Exceptions
Gen. Geo. S. Patton
Gen. James Doolittle
Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery
Adm Raymond Spruance

 

[CanadaDoll]

In my humble opinion the greatest blunder was that it actually happened!:eusa_doh:

 

[Harp]

In my humble opinion the greatest blunder was that it actually happened!:eusa_doh:

Of course.

 

[Spitfire]

In my humble opinion the greatest blunder was that it actually happened!:eusa_doh:

Interesting thought. And of course you are right!:eusa_clap

Hitlers parents should have used a condom!!!

 

[reetpleat]

Yes, it could be argued that the greatest three blunders of ww II were the treatment of Germany after world war one, this creating the vaccum in which Adolph Hitler came to power and was able to sell his vision to the demoralized German people, (not to mention the Us and British dominance and imperial ambitions in Asia shutting out Japan) the demand of unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan, and the insistance that the emporer of Japan could not remain in power, which surely prolonged the european and asian wars much longer than needed, this costing many lives, and thirdly and fourthly, the fire bombing of Dresden and the nuclear bombing of Japan. Shameful really. Neithr were necessery to end the wars. Of course the murder of millions of jews was right up there. But not really part of the war.

Obviously, I am not too inclined to buy the allies good, axis bad simplictic
scenario.

I guess I would say the blunders were in creating the scenario from which the war resulted.

 

[reetpleat]

Failure of imaginative tactical and strategic conceptualization;
coupled with a lack of historical perspective.

The professional officer is an overly conservative and disciplined
individual wedded to established core doctrine; and displays little, if any
unorthodoxy so vital to victory.

Notable WWII Exceptions
Gen. Geo. S. Patton
Gen. James Doolittle
Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery
Adm Raymond Spruance

I have hard that this is a myth, that the German officer was married to strict discipline and did not have the flexibility to compete wht the scrappy british and american officeers.

In fact, the german command operated under a guiding theory of warfare that emphasized flexibility, individual initiative and creative problem solving. Or so I have been told.

 

[Spitfire]

I have hard that this is a myth, that the German officer was married to strict discipline and did not have the flexibility to compete wht the scrappy british and american officeers.

In fact, the german command operated under a guiding theory of warfare that emphasized flexibility, individual initiative and creative problem solving. Or so I have been told.

Erwin Rommel is the wellknown proof of that.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Greatest blunder?

I'd say the Italian attack on Greece.

(1) This led them to almost certain defeat and demanded that Hitler divert necessary troops and supplies away from the upcoming Russian campaign, meaning that that campaign time-scale was lengthened into winter . . .

(2) The necessity of the German battle against the Brits in Greece, though ultimately successful, was costly to the German war machine in materiel, men, and morale.

(3) The ouster of the Brits from Crete - and this is perhaps the most important - resulted in the decimation of the German SS glider-invasion forces, the absolute best soldiers they had, and led to the postponement of the invasion of Britain.

It's all Mussolini's fault, you see, that the Germans didn't win.

bk