Biggest military blunder ever.

[techs]

"Yes, lets attack Pearl Harbor. What could possibly go wrong?"

 

[Pantoot]

"Yes, lets attack Pearl Harbor. What could possibly go wrong?"

Something about a land war in asia.

 

[Mermaidman]

I think Hitler invading Soviet Union was worse.

Realistically--Who thought that the USA could mobilize and administer an ass-whooping across the vast Pacific Ocean? (While simultaneously fighting the Nazis!)

 

[Dari]

I think Germany going on the offensive in Russia AND in the West was a bigger blunder...

Hitler was allied with Russia but hated the Russians too much to let logic dictate his military strategy. He could have defeated the British and all of Western Europe...

 

[Printer Bandit]

biggest blunder was the gov't letting pearl harbor happen even though they had advanced knowledge.

 

[techs]

Realistically--Who thought that the USA could mobilize and administer an ass-whooping across the vast Pacific Ocean? (While simultaneously fighting the Nazis!)

Just about anyone who had ever seen America.

Heck, we kicked their butt with only about 15 percent of our economy. And if Hitler hadn't declared war on us we might have had 90 percent available.

We already had all the ships we needed to kick Japans ass under construction at the time they attacked Pearl Harbor.

 

[Iron Woode]

Biggest military blunder ever?

Battle of the Somme

 

[ichy]

Who thought that the USA could mobilize and administer an ass-whooping across the vast Pacific Ocean? (While simultaneously fighting the Nazis!)

Admiral Yamamoto for starters. He was the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but he did it because he was ordered to. Privately he was completely against starting a war with the US.

 

[mizzou]

It was a pretty good shot by Japan honestly, and it had a really great immediate effect. The entire western fleet was crippled.

"Japan would lose 29 out of the 350 aircraft they attacked with."

If they would have actually permanently damaged more ships, who knows, it could have delayed the US comeback a little longer, making it even more difficult to take back those islands.

Japan's own issues were later exploited by the US Navy, so it's doubtful that would have made a different outcome.

 

[ichy]

biggest blunder was the gov't letting pearl harbor happen even though they had advanced knowledge.

You're an ignorant piece of shit.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I think Hitler invading Soviet Union was worse.

Realistically--Who thought that the USA could mobilize and administer an ass-whooping across the vast Pacific Ocean? (While simultaneously fighting the Nazis!)

A lot of people in Japan.


Among the worst

Hitler invading Russia
Napoleon invading Russia
USSR invading Afghanistan
Custer at Little Big Horn

 

[techs]

A lot of people in Japan.


Among the worst

Hitler invading Russia
Napoleon invading Russia
USSR invading Afghanistan
Custer at Little Big Horn

None of the above got their cities firebombed and two nukes dropped on their cities.

 

[Dari]

Japan never stood a chance anyway. They were hated by, save for a few, most of their colonies. No way they could have held all those colonies against the rebellious onslaught that was coming whether or not they attacked America. They bit off way too much.

 

[Jeffg010]

Battle of the Little Bighorn was pretty bad.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn

 

[techs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgX1WBf2SjE

 

[crashtestdummy]

I think Hitler invading Soviet Union was worse.

Realistically--Who thought that the USA could mobilize and administer an ass-whooping across the vast Pacific Ocean? (While simultaneously fighting the Nazis!)

Yamamoto warned his superiors that any war with America would have to end within 18 months, or the productive capacity of the US would overwhelm them.

 

[clamum]

Hitler invading the Soviet Union.

 

[ichy]

It was a pretty good shot by Japan honestly, and it had a really great immediate effect. The entire western fleet was crippled.

Actually the US was better off having its old battleships sunk in Pearl Harbor. If they hadn't been & the US had tried to execute War Plan Orange for relieving the Phililpines chances are the Pacific Fleet's battleships would've been sunk in the open ocean instead. Casualties would have been far higher and the ships could have never been salvaged. It also helps that no carriers were hit during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In the long run though there is no possible way the Japanese could have won. I once read an interesting article showing a hypothetical Pacific war where the US is defeated at Midway and loses all of the carriers they committed to that battle. Even in that kind of a disaster scenario the US would have had a massive numerical advantage over the Japanese by 1944. There's no substitute for the ability to build massive amounts of shit.

If you want blunders by the US in the Pacific in WW2, the Battle of Savo Island was in some ways worse than Pearl Harbor.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

None of the above got their cities firebombed and two nukes dropped on their cities.

The thread was not about the biggest consequences for failure. You should know that as you're the person that started it.

Japan was beat, they were kind of damned if they do and damned if they don't as leaving us alone was doomed to failure as well. Napoleon sure as hell didn't have to invade Russia. That was just a way to distract people from what was going wrong in the rest of the French empire at the time. If he consolidated his power elsewhere instead things might have gone better for him.

 

[techs]

Hitler invading the Soviet Union.

No. That was a failure of tactics. If the Germans had treated the captured areas well they could have easily won. Also, if they had struck for Moscow the Soviet Union would have disintegrated when it fell. It was an easily winnable war for Germany.

 

[uclaLabrat]

I think Hitler invading Soviet Union was worse.

Realistically--Who thought that the USA could mobilize and administer an ass-whooping across the vast Pacific Ocean? (While simultaneously fighting the Nazis!)

Surprisingly enough, Isoroku Yamamoto. Which is why he wanted to knock out our ability/will to fight immediately. He even said himself they had six months to destroy us, or Japan was fucked. Then they went on a winning streak, thought they could do no wrong, he was killed over bougainville, and they shit the bed.

 

[ichy]

None of the above got their cities firebombed and two nukes dropped on their cities.

What the Soviets did in Germany was just as ugly as the bombings in Japan.

 

[Jadow]

napolean in russia?
xerxes attacking greece
falklands
pearl harbor
germany invading russia
operation market garden
gallipoli

editing - bringing the trojan horse inside the city

 

[Puppies04]

You're an ignorant piece of shit.

 

[dainthomas]

Just about anyone who had ever seen America.

Heck, we kicked their butt with only about 15 percent of our economy. And if Hitler hadn't declared war on us we might have had 90 percent available.

We already had all the ships we needed to kick Japans ass under construction at the time they attacked Pearl Harbor.

Japan was planning on the carriers being in port. The battleships were nowhere near as tactically significant as the carriers. If those had been taken out, the war in the Pacific would have been extended quite a bit.