The greatest WWII blunder

[carebear]

It could be argued that the success of a lightly armed airborne unit defending a bridge crossing gave allied high command a case of over-confidence in their ability to do it again at Arnhem. Was it Matthew who criticised Rommel for over-extending his supply lines before el Alamein? Same thing at Arnhem. Infantry can't defend anything without supplies.

Alan

Twas I and tis true. The Airborne would have been better off if the radios had been properly tested so they could have communicated with the relief columns and other bridgeheads and some means of ground/air communication had been worked out. Tons of needed supplies were dropped on the original (captured) DZ's kilometers from the troops at the bridges because the planes were instructed to ignore ground signals and no radio comm was set up prior. IIRC

Rommel, on the other hand, really should have known better. He made the same mistake on each of his pushes toward Egypt. It could have been as simple as counting trucks and available fuel.

 

[Spitfire]

Very true. The British inability to recognize that their 3.7" AA gun was a better anti-tank gun than the German 88 is a perfect example. The Afrika Korps was blasting the blazes out of the British tanks with their 88s, while the 3.7" guns sat and waited for the Luftwaffe as the German tanks rolled through their positions. British leadership (at that time) was just not accustomed to that sort of innovative thinking.

For the German High Command, of course, that situation was further complicated by the whole "insane fuhrer" dynamic.

Which reminds me of the story about a named british general, who said:
"I do not believe in theese flying machines in war. They will scare our horses!":eusa_doh:

 

[Mojave Jack]

Rommel, on the other hand, really should have known better. He made the same mistake on each of his pushes toward Egypt. It could have been as simple as counting trucks and available fuel.

Rommel and Patton were both great strategists and tacticians (moreso the latter) but were lousy logisticians. For the Torch landings, Patton had allowed the Navy to do his packing. They, of course, packed all the heaviest stuff at the bottom. Upon arrival the troops had easy access to spare shirts, but no radios. Kind of mucked things up for a while, considering our boys had to fight off the French while they dug through the holds to find the stuff they really needed.

 

[dhermann1]

I agree

Carebear and Baron Kurtz: I totally agree with you guys.
I think we have to distinguish between accidents and blunders. Bombing London was an accident, an almost unavoidable one eventually. I agree that almost everything Italy did was a blunder. Nobody has mentioned Dieppe. Now that was a real fiasco.
So many things that look stupid to us now made a lot more sense in the heat of battle. Baron Kurtz's explanation of Churchill's rationale for going into Crete is a prime example. The political dimensions of war must always be understood. Just because you do something for political reasons, and it fails, doesn't mean it was the wrong move.
This is a sort of disjointed post, but I'm responding to a number of comments.
You can't change the past, but it's fun and instructive to deconstruct it.

 

[Story]

Lemons from Lemonade

One spinoff of this thread worth considering is 'who learned from their mistakes'.

In November/December 1940, General Slim was leading the 10th Indian Brigade against the Italian outpost at Gallabat (on the Ethiopian-Sudanese border).
He A) allowed an untrained English battalion to be substituted for one of his well-trained Indian battalions (to 'shore up' the Indians) and B) during the attack, he hesitated and failed to push into the second Italian fort.

Afterwards, he learned that the Italians were not as strong as his "intell" claimed and regretted this moment of timidity. During the Burma campaign, Slim used this to drive into the Japanese all the harder.

History-Lite (TM) bio on Slim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Slim,_1st_Viscount_Slim

 

[Stony]

A side note on the greatest blunder. Hitler was actually the Allies greatest ally. Why? Because of his "micro management" style and not finishing one job before starting another.

EDITED: CURRENT POLITICAL COMMENTARY REMOVED.