What was the biggest mistake made during WWII?

[wpr101]

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Western Allies: appeasing Stalin by agreeing to the division of Europe, thus setting the stage for WWIII, the Cold War. What leverage did Uncle Joe have if Roosevelt and Churchill had told him to go [censored] in his hat?


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Only the battle-hardened Russian Army, which was quite a bit larger than the U.S. and British Armies in Europe.

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And had already suffered over ten million in losses. How far would they have come if the Western Allies hadn't stopped their eastward push at the Elbe and waited for the Russians to take Berlin?

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From reading articles from the late 1950s from what I understand Stalin felt betrayed that America didn't begin the 2nd front earlier. If America was not involved he would have taken all of Europe. As far as Germany goes he got 1 sector of Eastern Germany. The British, American, and French divided 3 sectors. However, France had no power at this point.

[Greenfield]

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Invading Poland.

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Most definately agreed.

[wpr101]

The biggest mistakes include:

Axis:
- Not finishing off Britian when they could have and consolidated European power.
- Invading Russia thinking they could finish them off before the winter and ended up staying till the NEXT winter. Breaking his pact with Stalin was a terrible idea.
- Japan's Pearl Harbor attack. American public opinion was divided on joining the war before this. After this it skyrocketed and mobilized the U.S.
- Exiling the Jews... many of the designers of the atomic bomb were Jewish Americans from Europe.


Allies:
- Appeasing Hitler
- France allowing Hitler to invade as to avoid confrontation
- Not learning from the mistakes of the first World War
- The Weimar Republic not having safeguards in place for a takeover.
- Stalin believing Hitler's non-agression pact.

[wpr101]

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Invading Poland.

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Most definately agreed.

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You can't be serious? Hitler and Stalin divided Poland in half because it was in the way. It was insignificant; the West objected but had no where near the resources at this point to do anything about it.

[Andrew Karpinski]

A friend once told me (and I feel considering the website we are posting on it is of special relevance) that psychologists say Hitlers mentality towards world war II closely mimics that of a compulsive gambler. He took some extreme risks early on in his military endeavours and was rewarded due to 'variance'. Like the gambler who hits 14 on the roulette wheel twice in a row he feels invincible and began to take more and more risks because he knew he couldn't lose.

It is important to note that for all his flaws Hitler also had some unprecedented successes. Germany was essentially hogtied by the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles and he took the nation from being utterly defeated to a dominant world power in a few short years. On a similiar note, during the time period of before and following WWI, Russia on an economic and militaristic scale was the joke of the league nations. They were still primarily an agrarian nation and there military prowress, despite the vast population was something akin to Austrias. In fifty years they went from 'zero to hero' in an international sense, becoming without a doubt the second strongest nation in the world. While the costs of their forced industrialization were insane and undoubtably not worth it, it should be noted that both leaders accomplished a great deal, if via unsavoury methods.

[adsman]

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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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Germany declared war on the States because it had information that Japan would invade the Soviet Union from it's Chinese territory, thus opening a two front war for the Russians. Unfortunately for Germany, this was not in the Japanese plans.

[wpr101]

I like the compulsive gambler analogy. He gambled by invading the central European countries early and it paid off big time. He acquired a lot of resources that way. Similar to an aggressive poker player who accumulates a lot of chips early in the tournament but then pisses them away.

[Borodog]

I haven't read the other replies in depth yet (skimmed; lot of interesting stuff I'll get to), but the biggest mistake of WWII was not made during WWII. It was the Versailles Treaty. Or possibly the American entry into WWI in the first place. One or the other.

The next biggest mistake was also not made during WWII, but after, at Yalta.

After that would be Roosevelt maneuvering the United States into war, foolishly believing it would finally alleviate his Fabulous Depression.

[wpr101]

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I haven't read the other replies in depth yet (skimmed; lot of interesting stuff I'll get to), but the biggest mistake of WWII was not made during WWII. It was the Versailles Treaty. Or possibly the American entry into WWI in the first place. One or the other.

The next biggest mistake was also not made during WWII, but after, at Yalta.

After that would be Roosevelt maneuvering the United States into war, foolishly believing it would finally alleviate his Fabulous Depression.

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What decisions do you think made at Yalta were mistakes? What other options were there? Someone before said we should have attacked Russia. That is just an absurd and ignorant suggestion.

[Andrew Karpinski]

Borodog : You make a great point re the treaty of versailles. While I touched on it very briefly above, no discussion of world war II is complete without an examination of this subject.

Well, that's all for today folks, I have a date :P