Biggest Mistakes the Allies made iyo.

[Zkribbler]

This spin-off of Spec's thread is a reaction to the comment there that the Nazi Germans were stupid and made mistake after mistake. I have a feeling that if we put our heads together, we can show that the Allies were nearly as stupid.

Allied Mistakes:

1) Trusting in "impregnable" fortresses, such as the Maginot Line, Singapore, Pearl Harbor.

2) Early in the war, underestimating the effectiveness of airpower and tanks.

3) Failing in intelligence permitting Axis sneak attacks: Pearl Harbor, Operation Barbarosa, Battle of the Bulge.

4) Pre-war appeasement.

5) Lousy equipment, esp. in the years leading up to the war.

(*) On a moral level, the firebombing of Dresden, Toyko and other Japanese cities. This mistake didn't affect the outcome of the war, but did result in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds and thousands of civilians.

[C0ckney]

sending forces to greece in 1940 (which were almost entirely ineffective) instead of taking tripolitania after we defeated the italians in eygpt and cyrenacia. we could have prevented rommel from landing in north africa altogether.

[chequita guevara]

Re: Biggest Mistakes the Allies made iyo.

Originally posted by Zkribbler
This spin-off of Spec's thread is a reaction to the comment there that the Nazi Germans were stupid and made mistake after mistake. I have a feeling that if we put our heads together, we can show that the Allies were nearly as stupid.

Allied Mistakes:

1) Trusting in "impregnable" fortresses, such as the Maginot Line, Singapore, Pearl Harbor.

Actually, the Maginot Line was impregnable. The mistake they made was in not guarding the Ardennes.

[Krill]

The French wanted to. The Belgians would not let them...

[Dauphin]

Damn those Belgicans.

[Elok]

"Peace with honor...peace in our time."

That still cracks me up.

[Dr Strangelove]

Re: Re: Biggest Mistakes the Allies made iyo.

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Actually, the Maginot Line was impregnable. The mistake they made was in not guarding the Ardennes.

However by the time that German forces in the west had pinned the British at Dunkirk in the east their forces had been able to break through parts of the Maginot line. In many areas the Germans had been able to destroy the fortifications using explosives placed by engineers accompanying storm troopers. The French had relied too heavily on enclosed defenses. They should have placed some troops topside to keep engineers away from the parapets.

[Dr Strangelove]

Probably the allies biggest mistake was to not pay sufficient attention to the role of communications in modern warfare. Allied armor was particularily hampered by a lack of radios.

[Cruddy]

Well, putting the West Coast fleet into Pearl Harbour strikes me as a no brainer...

... that's with hind sight, of course. I daresay there's plenty more US ones but I'll stick to what I know.

British ones

1) Singapore defences - guns couldn't traverse towards causeway and were only supplied with AP ammo anyway.

2) Singapore (again) - not training infantry for jungle warfare (only Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders did).

3) The Dambusters raid - killed 10s of 1,000s of civilians but had almost no impact on German war production.

4) Refusing to fit 17 pdr gun into Sherman (Firefly was the fruit of efforts by junior officers, not officially sanctioned). Churchill was harangued in Parliament about this ("Please display a Tiger and one of ours for comparison".) His lame answer was that not a tank could be spared.

5) Propaganda leaflet drops. Complete waste of effort.

6) Lack of decent naval fighters. Seafire was good at low level but had a crummy range.

etc, etc, etc

[Alexander's Horse]

Not taking Berlin was the biggest blooper, along with agreeing to Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. The Western allies were far too compliant with Soviet demands on war strategy.

[Cruddy]

The Allies didn't take Berlin?

What planet are you on? The Russians were part of the Allies, whether you like it or not.

[Kuciwalker]

HOI2 doesn't agree with you.

[Drake Tungsten]

On a moral level, the firebombing of Dresden, Toyko and other Japanese cities. This mistake didn't affect the outcome of the war, but did result in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds and thousands of civilians.

What exactly was unnecessary about bombing Japan's capital and largest urban area?

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Cruddy
The Allies didn't take Berlin?

What planet are you on? The Russians were part of the Allies, whether you like it or not.

go and take your pills will ya

The Western allies could have taken Berlin but didn't.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse


go and take your pills will ya

The Western allies could have taken Berlin but didn't.

In the long run would it have made any difference if they had? eventually the soviets left all of eastern europe anyway. Taking Berlin would have meant thousands of additional western allied casualities with the result that thousands families alive and well today would never have even existed.

Furthermore, the economic contrast visible in divided countries like Germany and Korea probably played a siginificant role in the eventual abandonment of communism.