What was our greatest strategic error in WWII and what woukd you have done?

[Picaro]

The biggest mistake was not getting into the wars in 1938, or even slightly earlier, as Roosevelt would have liked to do.. It would have been a far less bloodier conflict and over quicker, in about two years, and denied Stalin the opportunity to seize Poland and half of Germany.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Greatest strategic error was that FDR was Stalin's sock puppet

 

[whitehall]

Iwo Jima could have and should have been bypassed. The stated mission in Feb. 1945 was to take the airfield to stop Japanese fighters from harassing bombers headed to Japan in daylight raids. After 6,000 Marines were killed in a month taking the God forsaken smelly hunk of crap the administration changed their mind about the mission and claimed that the island would become a refuge for crippled plains. The Navy had nothing better to do at the time but it was too busy to give the Marines all the time they requested for naval gunfire. The intent wasn't to obliterate Japanese defenses but to see how intense the Japanese would defend the island which they considered their homeland. About 6,000 Marine lives were sacrificed three months before the end of the war in the Pacific in an experiment to see how well the Japanese would defend their homeland and to justify the use of the Bomb.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Excellent post.

What are u 2 thinking? The Soviets could have handled the Germans? Maybe. The December 1941 counter offensive pushed the Germans back but I dunno. By 43 a good number of Germans were guarding France and the Brits just were not going to land in force in France. Plus EVENTUALLY Hitler was bound to get them bomb. Well if he could keep from chasing "undesireable" scientists out of his country.

While I may have donated Germany to the Russians after the war (as I would give them Afghanistan in 1985 given hindsight!), I'm not sure what a Russian occupied or liberated France would have been like. If Hitler did not get the bomb.

Who said the Soviets could have handled the Germans? I would have preferred the Soviets and the Nazis finish each other off, and let the Japanese try to deal with the Chinese communists.

 

[regent]

Iwo Jima could have and should have been bypassed. The stated mission in Feb. 1945 was to take the airfield to stop Japanese fighters from harassing bombers headed to Japan in daylight raids. After 6,000 Marines were killed in a month taking the God forsaken smelly hunk of crap the administration changed their mind about the mission and claimed that the island would become a refuge for crippled plains. The Navy had nothing better to do at the time but it was too busy to give the Marines all the time they requested for naval gunfire. The intent wasn't to obliterate Japanese defenses but to see how intense the Japanese would defend the island which they considered their homeland. About 6,000 Marine lives were sacrificed three months before the end of the war in the Pacific in an experiment to see how well the Japanese would defend their homeland and to justify the use of the Bomb.

Had a friend in the Ninth Marines, he survived. But wasn't Iwo and other marine battles a battle for the for the survival of the corps after the war? What was the Forestall comment about the marine survival?

 

[Toronado3800]

Who said the Soviets could have handled the Germans? I would have preferred the Soviets and the Nazis finish each other off, and let the Japanese try to deal with the Chinese communists.

I was trying to guess your view of what would be going on in any year if we had not entered the war.

What do you think about 1943? Germans would have lost at Kursk.... The British would be fighting Rommel in North Africa still MAYBE getting the upper hand but I bet just ending up getting pushed back into Egypt before Rommel's replacement equipment was redirected to stop the Russians before they entered Poland.

 

[Politico]

The errors wer endless. Letting Stalin take Berlin was a big one though.

 

[Picaro]

Excellent post.

What are u 2 thinking? The Soviets could have handled the Germans? Maybe. The December 1941 counter offensive pushed the Germans back but I dunno. By 43 a good number of Germans were guarding France and the Brits just were not going to land in force in France. Plus EVENTUALLY Hitler was bound to get them bomb. Well if he could keep from chasing "undesireable" scientists out of his country.

While I may have donated Germany to the Russians after the war (as I would give them Afghanistan in 1985 given hindsight!), I'm not sure what a Russian occupied or liberated France would have been like. If Hitler did not get the bomb.

Hitler abruptly called off the German offensive at Kursk right on the verge of Manstein's breakthrough because of the Allied invasion of Sicily. I don't think the Soviets could have handled the Germans without Allied aid, even with Hitler being incompetent. His panic over the developments on the western front played a big role in his mistakes on the eastern front, not to mention the Soviets acclaimed materiel 'production miracle' was because they were able to concentrate on building tanks and guns and not things like locomotives, and they also relied on Allied aviation fuel and fuel boosters to keep the Soviet air force flying. The very best Stalin could have hoped for was a stalemate without western aid, and that would only last until the Germans secured their supply lines and sent more materiel for a new offensive. Hitler was an hysterical idiot, but his generals could have overcome that against the Soviets.

 

[Toronado3800]

Hitler abruptly called off the German offensive at Kursk right on the verge of Manstein's breakthrough because of the Allied invasion of Sicily. I don't think the Soviets could have handled the Germans without Allied aid, even with Hitler being incompetent. His panic over the developments on the western front played a big role in his mistakes on the eastern front, not to mention the Soviets acclaimed materiel 'production miracle' was because they were able to concentrate on building tanks and guns and not things like locomotives, and they also relied on Allied aviation fuel and fuel boosters to keep the Soviet air force flying. The very best Stalin could have hoped for was a stalemate without western aid, and that would only last until the Germans secured their supply lines and sent more materiel for a new offensive. Hitler was an hysterical idiot, but his generals could have overcome that against the Soviets.

I disagree with the idea Manstein was about to break through at Kursk. If for no other reason look what happened to the Germans aftsr Kursk they were pushed back madly not like an army that "almost" won.

 

[rightwinger]

Greatest strategic error was that FDR was Stalin's sock puppet

FDR was Stalins "sock puppet" but it was Stalin who ended up with 20 million dead

Some sock

 

[jasonnfree]

Biggest error in WWII. There were so many....too many to outline here...but here are a few.

We should never have gotten into the war in the first place. Had Americans not re-elected that fool and Stalin tool FDR, we likely would have avoided the war.

Another big mistake was the dropping to those two nasty bombs on a beaten and defenseless nation, killing innocent women, child, and old men purely to impress Stalin and the world...and thanks to Truman's terribly racist view of the Japanese.

Then the foolish island hopping campaign in Pacific, that resulted in lots of dead American boys, for nothing other than for making a name for the generals and admirals.

Add to all this the outrageous military material given to the stinking commies, while our men were not properly supplied early in the war...

Then the terrible aerial bombing of Germany and Japan, killing scores of innocents.

There are just too many mistakes.....but FDR's sycophantic adherence to assisting at all costs, histories most murderous dictator, has to be near the top.

War is always the health of the state...when will we ever learn?

I knew a lot of WW2 vets from those days, including family members, teachers, co workers. Never heard this kind of rant from any of them. Almost all of them respected FDR for helping the nation win the war as well as what he did for the country after the crash and the depression that followed. But what the hell did they know, right?

 

[Moonglow]

The greatest strategic blunder was isolationism and letting the military lag in concepts and modern machines...

 

[Camp]

Biggest error in WWII. There were so many....too many to outline here...but here are a few.

We should never have gotten into the war in the first place. Had Americans not re-elected that fool and Stalin tool FDR, we likely would have avoided the war.

Another big mistake was the dropping to those two nasty bombs on a beaten and defenseless nation, killing innocent women, child, and old men purely to impress Stalin and the world...and thanks to Truman's terribly racist view of the Japanese.

Then the foolish island hopping campaign in Pacific, that resulted in lots of dead American boys, for nothing other than for making a name for the generals and admirals.

Add to all this the outrageous military material given to the stinking commies, while our men were not properly supplied early in the war...

Then the terrible aerial bombing of Germany and Japan, killing scores of innocents.

There are just too many mistakes.....but FDR's sycophantic adherence to assisting at all costs, histories most murderous dictator, has to be near the top.

War is always the health of the state...when will we ever learn?

I knew a lot of WW2 vets from those days, including family members, teachers, co workers. Never heard this kind of rant from any of them. Almost all of them respected FDR for helping the nation win the war as well as what he did for the country after the crash and the depression that followed. But what the hell did they know, right?

Seems Gipper has the oppisite opinion of things most historians and WWII buffs credit with having been instrumental in winning the war.

 

[gipper]

Greatest strategic error was that FDR was Stalin's sock puppet

FDR was Stalins "sock puppet" but it was Stalin who ended up with 20 million dead

Some sock

Yes...but he cared not for his dead citizens. But you likely do not know this, as you have failed to learn the history of Stalin. His enslavement of half of Europe, should give you a clue...

The admiration of history's most murderous dictator seems to be a trait held by many American leftists.

 

[gipper]

Biggest error in WWII. There were so many....too many to outline here...but here are a few.

We should never have gotten into the war in the first place. Had Americans not re-elected that fool and Stalin tool FDR, we likely would have avoided the war.

Another big mistake was the dropping to those two nasty bombs on a beaten and defenseless nation, killing innocent women, child, and old men purely to impress Stalin and the world...and thanks to Truman's terribly racist view of the Japanese.

Then the foolish island hopping campaign in Pacific, that resulted in lots of dead American boys, for nothing other than for making a name for the generals and admirals.

Add to all this the outrageous military material given to the stinking commies, while our men were not properly supplied early in the war...

Then the terrible aerial bombing of Germany and Japan, killing scores of innocents.

There are just too many mistakes.....but FDR's sycophantic adherence to assisting at all costs, histories most murderous dictator, has to be near the top.

War is always the health of the state...when will we ever learn?

I knew a lot of WW2 vets from those days, including family members, teachers, co workers. Never heard this kind of rant from any of them. Almost all of them respected FDR for helping the nation win the war as well as what he did for the country after the crash and the depression that followed. But what the hell did they know, right?

Seems Gipper has the oppisite opinion of things most historians and WWII buffs credit with having been instrumental in winning the war.

That is putting it most mildly...

 

[Moonglow]

Greatest strategic error was that FDR was Stalin's sock puppet

FDR was Stalins "sock puppet" but it was Stalin who ended up with 20 million dead

Some sock

Yes...but he cared not for his dead citizens. But you likely do not know this, as you have failed to learn the history of Stalin. His enslavement of half of Europe, should give you a clue...

The admiration of history's most murderous dictator seems to be a trait held by many American leftists.

Is that why Daddy Koch enjoyed fracking the oilfields of the USSR?

 

[Camp]

I have often pondered whether the strategic bombing campaign of using the big four engine bombers was a mistake. What would it have been like if we had used more 38's, 41's and even helped in production with the DH-98. Could we have developed a more target specific and efficient system of a combined recon and strike force? Would we have been able to deplete the the Luftwaffe with this kind of strategy the way we did with the big bombers?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Who said the Soviets could have handled the Germans? I would have preferred the Soviets and the Nazis finish each other off, and let the Japanese try to deal with the Chinese communists.

I was trying to guess your view of what would be going on in any year if we had not entered the war.

What do you think about 1943? Germans would have lost at Kursk.... The British would be fighting Rommel in North Africa still MAYBE getting the upper hand but I bet just ending up getting pushed back into Egypt before Rommel's replacement equipment was redirected to stop the Russians before they entered Poland.

I think the U.S. not entering the war would have changed things too drastically to even say. Regardless, in my initial post I said that the U.S. entering WWI was the biggest mistake of WWII. Had the U.S. not gotten involved there would have been a more equitable peace at Versailles and Hitler likely would have never come to power in the first place.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Biggest error in WWII. There were so many....too many to outline here...but here are a few.

We should never have gotten into the war in the first place. Had Americans not re-elected that fool and Stalin tool FDR, we likely would have avoided the war.

Another big mistake was the dropping to those two nasty bombs on a beaten and defenseless nation, killing innocent women, child, and old men purely to impress Stalin and the world...and thanks to Truman's terribly racist view of the Japanese.

Then the foolish island hopping campaign in Pacific, that resulted in lots of dead American boys, for nothing other than for making a name for the generals and admirals.

Add to all this the outrageous military material given to the stinking commies, while our men were not properly supplied early in the war...

Then the terrible aerial bombing of Germany and Japan, killing scores of innocents.

There are just too many mistakes.....but FDR's sycophantic adherence to assisting at all costs, histories most murderous dictator, has to be near the top.

War is always the health of the state...when will we ever learn?

I knew a lot of WW2 vets from those days, including family members, teachers, co workers. Never heard this kind of rant from any of them. Almost all of them respected FDR for helping the nation win the war as well as what he did for the country after the crash and the depression that followed. But what the hell did they know, right?

And there are plenty of people from that time who would disagree with them and agree with everything Gipper said. That's not exactly a convincing argument.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The greatest strategic blunder was isolationism and letting the military lag in concepts and modern machines...

What "isolationism?"