What was the biggest mistake made during WWII?

[Utah]

Hi Cyrus,

I apologize if I am missing something in your post. However, I am curious as to what was going through the heads of the military brass when they declared war on the U.S. They must have thought that it bought them something - even if it didnt.

[BluffTHIS!]

Most of the major mistakes of the axis have been mentioned above, but really a lot of them have not to do with the substance of those actions, but the precise ways they were carried out due to Hitler not being a totally rational leader. Hitler was capable of great daring and intuition that his generals were not. But what he did wrong was having made a strategic decision to invade Russia for example, was to insist on micro-managing the details instead of leaving them to the generals. If although insisting on a 2 front war he left the timing and tactical details to the generals, he could well have succeeded.

Thus if the invasion of Russian had been left to early the next spring with a larger cushion for error in the case they got bogged down so that winter wouldn't have been pressing on as soon, then he could have more likely suceeded. And as noted above his not allowing his commanders to act quickly without prior approval to commit their armor forces when they saw fit, particularly when they could have had a better chance of stopping the allies on D-Day by quick action, he often doomed his stratgic choices to failure.

In regards to Germany making a mistake in declaring war on the US, at the point it was made it was not really a mistake. The real mistake was indeed the Battle of Britain and not attempting to leave Britain alone and hope as was reasonably possible, that the British public would not support continuing the war if they themselves were secure in their island. Since Germany had made that mistake, then bringing the US into the war wasn't really for one reason that applies to Japan as well. And that reason is that both they and Japan had internal lines of supply and communication which the allies did not. Had the allies not in fact been able to break German codes, the U-boat war could have effectively stymied US efforts to supply it's allies and themselves in Europe.

However, both Germany and Japan suffered from an inability to threaten the United States homeland directly except for the Japanese attacks on Hawaii and the Aleutians. Thus other than killing as many American soldiers as they could, they could not take the war to the US citizens and force the US to spend much more of its resources on self-defense.

So the biggest mistake for Japan was the attack on Pearl Harbor without also an ability to follow it up closely with an invasion and occupation of same in order to both give it naval and air bases that could threaten the US mainland and also deny those bases to the United States.

[Cyrus]

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I am curious as to what was going through the heads of the military brass when they declared war on the U.S. They must have thought that it bought them something - even if it didnt.

[/ QUOTE ]As every witness (in uniform* or not, at the time) subsequently confirmed, the German generals were NOT deciding NOR were they having any significant say against which country Germany would declare war. As far as they were informed, their Supreme Commander could declare war against Paraguay. World War II was Hitler's war.

So, did the German generals want a war against the United States? They did not. Did they want a war against the Soviets? They did not, aside from a few fanatical Nazis among them. What did the General Staff and the officer corps do when Hitler declared war against the USSR first and then the USA? Nothing. They went about their duty which was trying to win the war.

--Cyrus



* E.g. in Basil Liddell Hart's The German Generals Talk, 1st ed. 1948.

[Utah]

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However, both Germany and Japan suffered from an inability to threaten the United States homeland directly except for the Japanese attacks on Hawaii and the Aleutians. Thus other than killing as many American soldiers as they could, they could not take the war to the US citizens and force the US to spend much more of its resources on self-defense.

[/ QUOTE ]I think one of the most interesting thing about the war is the Japanese attempt to attack the U.S. with ballons. The Japanese attack on the U.S. mainland killed 6 civilians.

I found this interesting link:

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/jbb.htm

Japanese Balloon Bombs

One of the best kept secrets of the war involved the Japanese balloon bomb offensive, prompted by the Doolittle raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942 as a means of direct reprisal against the U.S. mainland. Some 9,000 balloons made of paper or rubberized silk and carrying anti-personnel and incendiary bombs were launched from Japan during a five-month period, to be carried by high altitude winds more than 6,000 miles eastward across the Pacific to North America. Perhaps a thousand of these reached this continent, but there were only about 285 reported incidents. Most were reported in the northwest U.S., but some balloons traveled as far east as Michigan.

The first operational launches took place on Nov. 3, 1944 and two days later a U.S. Navy patrol boat spotted a balloon floating on the water 66 miles southwest of San Pedro, California. As more sightings occurred, the government, with the cooperation of the news media, adopted a policy of silence to reduce the chance of panic among U.S. residents and to deny the Japanese any information on the success of the launches. Discouraged by the apparent failure of their effort, the Japanese halted their balloon attacks in April 1945.

On May 5, 1945, six picnickers were killed in Oregon when a balloon bomb they dragged from the woods exploded. The U.S. Government quickly publicized the balloon bombs, warning people not to tamper with them. These were the only known fatalities occurring within the U.S. during WWII as a direct result of enemy action.

Actual damage caused by the balloon bombs was minor. However, the incendiaries which they carried did pose a serious threat to the forests of the northwestern U.S. during the dry months. These balloons also offered a vehicle for germ warfare had the Japanese decided to use this weapon.

The balloon attack began after U.S. air defense facilities had been deactivated. To counter this threat, AAF and Navy fighters flew intercept missions to shoot down balloons when sighted and AAF aircraft and Army personnel were stationed at critical points to combat any forest fires which might occur. Also, supplies of decontamination chemicals and sprays to counter any possible use of germ warfare were quietly distributed in the western states. Before detailed AAF defensive plans had been put into effect, the attacks ceased.

Japanese bomb-carrying balloons were 32 feet in diameter and when fully inflated, held about 19,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. Launch sites were located on the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

Gun camera photos showing balloons being shot down by 11th Air Force fighters near Attu in the Aleutians on April 11, 1945. Nine balloons were downed in two hours. (Note P-38 in lower right frame).

[wpr101]

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The Germans made numerous mistakes as well. Engaging in battle with Russians, although it can be viewed as a mistake now, was inevitable. The clash of ideology between Totalitarian Hitler and Communist Stalin was enough to cause that altercation. Furthermore, the German population held a deep resentment towards Russians, as evidenced by their gruesome battle and treatment of POWs.



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Yes their ideologies were much different but Stalin had signed a non agression pact with Hitler. Stalin did not want to fight Germany. Stalin didn't even believe Germany had invaded because he took Hitler's word. Once Germany was like 500 miles in he realized he was getting attacked.

[wpr101]

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The allies not invading and whiping Russia off the face of the map after the fall of Berlin like Patton wanted to.

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Are you kidding? There was no way we were going to lose millions of lives to attack the Russians. You do know we lost like 300,000 people and the Russians lost approx 20 million? The Western world underestimated the strength of Russia. So did Hitler.

[wpr101]

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Japan: Failing to surrender early and causing the needless death of millions


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Japan tried to surrender both before the first bomb and before the second, America ignored them because they needed to test their new weaponery.

My choices:

Axis: Involving America
Allies: Not using the united spirit of the world to form a powerful UN to keep world affairs solidly in check.

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This is incorrect. The Japanese did not surender for 3 days after the first bomb. It was only after Russia declared war on them and the 2nd one way dropped that they surendered.

[Andrew Karpinski]

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The Germans made numerous mistakes as well. Engaging in battle with Russians, although it can be viewed as a mistake now, was inevitable. The clash of ideology between Totalitarian Hitler and Communist Stalin was enough to cause that altercation. Furthermore, the German population held a deep resentment towards Russians, as evidenced by their gruesome battle and treatment of POWs.



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Yes their ideologies were much different but Stalin had signed a non agression pact with Hitler. Stalin did not want to fight Germany. Stalin didn't even believe Germany had invaded because he took Hitler's word. Once Germany was like 500 miles in he realized he was getting attacked.

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Interestingly enough his own spies told Stalin that the Germans were going to invade days before the actual invasion took place. On the day of the attack truck loads of raw goods were going from Russia into Germany. Stalin retired to his dacha for a number of weeks after the invasion where he presumably drank himself comatose because he could not face the truth of what happened.

[wpr101]

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Hi Andrew:

I slightly disagree. My candidate would be Germany declaring war on the United States the day after Pearl Harbor. This meant that the US would immediately start supplying Russia which would give it a chance to survive. If that didn't happen, Germany might have won on both fronts.

best wishes,
Mason

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I wasn't aware that United States supplied Russia. We supported morally against Hitler. But did we really transport supplies over there? They weren't using our oil or weapons... so I'm not sure what your talking about. You might be correct though.

[wpr101]

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The Germans made numerous mistakes as well. Engaging in battle with Russians, although it can be viewed as a mistake now, was inevitable. The clash of ideology between Totalitarian Hitler and Communist Stalin was enough to cause that altercation. Furthermore, the German population held a deep resentment towards Russians, as evidenced by their gruesome battle and treatment of POWs.



[/ QUOTE ]

Yes their ideologies were much different but Stalin had signed a non agression pact with Hitler. Stalin did not want to fight Germany. Stalin didn't even believe Germany had invaded because he took Hitler's word. Once Germany was like 500 miles in he realized he was getting attacked.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interestingly enough his own spies told Stalin that the Germans were going to invade days before the actual invasion took place. On the day of the attack truck loads of raw goods were going from Russia into Germany. Stalin retired to his dacha for a number of weeks after the invasion where he presumably drank himself comatose because he could not face the truth of what happened.

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Yea apparently the Russians had 1,000s of planes destroyed because they didn't move them when Hitler invaded. Both Hitler and Stalin were terrible military leaders. Hilter basic direction was to just keep attacking; Stalin was completely incompetent as a general.