Military blunders?

Question

What are you list of biggest military blunders- For me it's The Charge of the Light Brigrade in the Crimean war. The ineptness of the British to allow themselves to be trapped at Yorktown giving victory to George Washington. Plus both Napolean and Hilter ill-fated invasion of Russia

Answer 1

Operation Market Garden - it was executed despite intelligence reports that there were 2 panzer divisions in the vicinity of the AO.

The Gallipoli campaign - it was not executed with enough vigour & intelligence

Pearl Harbour attack - the 3rd attack wave was not launched to finish off what's left of the American Pacific Fleet. The attack itself was a blunder as it pushed America into war.

The charge of the Light Brigade - due more to command incompetence & ambiguous orders given.

Hitler's order for the German forces to stop & regroup for 3 days while within reach of Dunkirk, allowing British & Allied forces to escape.

Dien Bien Phu - occupying grounds surrounded by mountains & hills

Spion Kop - during the Boer War

Answer 2

A major blunder was the decision by Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg to order Pickett's charge.

I don't know if I would rank it as the biggest, but it proved costly to the Confederacy. Pickett's division was decimated, with one third to one half of its number becoming casualties, either dead or wounded. It also cost the south at least one of its more capable generals along with two more who might have been competent if not among the most capable.

Lee was normally brilliant at reading the terrain and responding to the military challenge. He totally blew it on that day in July 1863.

Operation Market-Garden, cited by another answerer, was something of a blunder, although not a total loss. The offensive failed to achieve its primary objective but did gain some ground for the Allies.

The decision by the normally brilliant Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to attack Midway proved to be an enormous blunder that cost the Japanese Navy four of its first-class carriers as well as several other major fighting ships, and failed to achieve its objective.

A truly major naval blunder was the Russian response to the Japanese threat that led to the Battle of Tshushima in 1905. This major naval battle is almost unknown to other than military history scholars, but was one of the most decisive battles of the 20th Century. In a matter of a few hours the Russians lost 42 ships. The Japanese lost none and retained control of the Pacific coast of Russia.

In discussing military blunders we often fail to give proper credit to the winning side. In each of these examples, the brilliance and bravery of the victors was a factor as much as the ineptness and failure of the losers.

Answer 3

The most obvious military blunder would be the Texas Oil Baron invasion of Iraq at the beginning of the 21st century.

For all you Republicans out there that would be the rich Texan asshole that lives in that big white mansion in Washington DC trying to fix the ****-up that his Daddy caused in the 1990's

Answer 4

Not sure if it's true or not, but I heard that during training for the Normandy Invasion an incident occurred where so many men were killed. The death toll was as high as the battle deaths during the actual invasion itself.

Answer 5

Don't forget Teddy Rosevelt and the Rough Riders at Cuba.

...and Operation Market Garden.
Damn you Feild Marshall Montgomery....Damn you to hell!!!

Answer 6

I would say the biggest would be when the Romans went out to fight Hannibal in Italy and the Romans lost 54,000 men that day while Hannibal only lost 4,000.

Answer 7

Operation Market Garden in WWII tops my list

Answer 8

Invasion of Iraq is the winner at the moment

Answer 9

letting George w bush be commander in chief of anything more important that the cub scouts.

Answer 10

Little Big Horn must go on the list.