Biggest military blunder ever.

[dud]

Gonna have to go with black hawk down. It's like something out of BF3 where people spam RPG's at helicopters and get lucky. It was stupid to fly them so low next to buildings as they ran up to the roofs to fire randomly on the helicopters. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

18 American soldiers were killed in that series of engagements while it is estimated that about 1,000 Somalis were killed. The Somali warlords were willing to take horrific losses to take out Americans ... but if this is the US's biggest "blunder" then the generals haven't made many mistakes.

I think you are wrong ...

 

[OlafSicky]

Roswell

 

[amish]

I'm starting to think that people aren't getting what a blunder is. It would have to be something that created a great loss of life either through error or situation, effectively halted a campaign (animagas' example), caused a key objective to be lost, or overextended one's army during a campaign causing the eventual failure in obtaining the objective.

bay of pigs wasn't a military exercise and Mogadishu (while it sucked) was minor.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Im thinking the invasion/occupation of Iraq. A single military action caused a massively expensive and longest war ever.

The situation in Iraq breaking down was 100% TOTALLY the USA's fault. When Iraq was first invaded, we had a shoddily put together post invasion plan that wasn't followed at all. The Iraqi people WANTED a democratic government and expected that the US would have a way of rebuilding the government that was completely dismantled by the US invasion.

However, the US didn't even bother to establish any sort of law system at all in the early days of the occupation. There was no authority at all whatsoever after the fall of the government and the military was standing around watching as people with no food/money/jobs got desperate and started looting. Along with that, the military ignored the fact that they had to protect government buildings in order to actually have a government. Many were destroyed and ones that were destroyed by the initial invasion were looted. So you have a situation where there is no government, no authority, the buildings the government would have been situated in were all gone, no computers, nothing to work with, no one knew who previous government officials were because we had lost every record of who was where in the government.

ALONG with that, some dumbass in the US simultaneously fired every single member of the Iraqi military who was attempting to help the united states and had thousands of military police that would have been able to restore order in the country. He fired every single one of them and thousands of people with military training lost their jobs and had no way of providing for their families, which forced THEM to start looting and joining the insurgency in order to attempt to get money to spend on food.

The Iraqi invasion was a massive misstep of US policy which had no plan at all the stabilize the country after you destroy the infrastructure and government of the entire country. And you wonder why Iraq broke apart.

The only thing that the US did in the post invasion iraq was secure government buildings that were directly related to oil.

 

[dennilfloss]

The Shah of Samarkand and his uncle rejecting an alliance with Genghis Khan and showing disrespect by beheading an ambassador and shaving the head of two others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalchuq

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Khwarezmia

 

[MaxPayne63]

All these posts putting iraq/afghanistan in the same league as events like Teutoburg Forest or Barbarossa are pretty depressing. I guess schools stopped teaching history to make time for more propaganda.

 

[OutHouse]

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

not even remotely correct.

our navy by VJ Day, this is what it took to win the war.

Date 8/14/45*
Battleships 23
Carriers, Fleet 28
Carriers, Escort 71
Cruisers 72
Destroyers 377
Frigates 361
Submarines 232
Mine Warfare 586
Patrol 1204
Amphibious 2547
Auxiliary 1267
Surface Warships 833
Total Active 6768

at the start of the war with the Japanese they had more and better ships than we did. Plus we still had not even started building the 66,000 Higgins landing craft we needed for the island hopping.

 

[iGas]

The Worst Battlefield Blunders: Five Battles That Ended Badly

Most recent is the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

 

[lk2500]

The rebel fleet attacking a fully operational battle station.

Lol, no it was the Empire underestimating the Ewoks.

Seriously though I'd go with Napolean invading Russia or more the series of blunders Hitller made in WWII. If an acutal military tactician were in charge of Germany in WWII they would have been much tougher to beat.

 

[OutHouse]

Gonna have to go with black hawk down. It's like something out of BF3 where people spam RPG's at helicopters and get lucky. It was stupid to fly them so low next to buildings as they ran up to the roofs to fire randomly on the helicopters. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

biggest military blunder?? yea for the dumb-ass warlords.

In one battle. they got 18 of us, we got over 1000 of them.

 

[techs]

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

not even remotely correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Ocean_Navy_Act

On June 17, a few days after German troops conquered France, Chief of Naval Operations Harold Stark requested four billion dollars from Congress to increase the size of the American combat fleet by 70% by adding 257 ships amounting to 1,325,000 tons. [4] On June 18, after less than an hour of debate, the House of Representatives by a 316–0 vote authorized $8.55 billion for a naval expansion program giving emphasis to the aircraft

The Act authorized the procurement of:

18 aircraft carriers
2 Iowa class battleships
5 Montana class battleships
6 Alaska class cruisers
27 cruisers
115 destroyers
43 submarines
15,000 aircraft
The conversion of 100,000 tons of auxiliary ships
$50 million for patrol, escort and other vessels
$150 million for essential equipment and facilities
$65 million for the manufacture of ordnance material or munitions
$35 million for the expansion of facilities


And this was in addition to the new ships authorized by the Naval Acts of 1936 and 1938

 

[randomrogue]

Looking back over history, there have been very few invasion style military victories that didn't result in terrorism. Retaking land and giving it back to the country's population as we did in World War II is easy in comparison to taking over a country hostile to you.

In fact, in the past, the only reason countries were successful at taking over other was because they were so brutal that they cowed the population into going along lock step - or killed them all. The population of the United States, even as backwards as we are at times, would never allow that type of barbarity by our own government on that large a scale. The outcry would be immediate and loud. The government drones are so worried by this that they know they can't try it - it would be the end of their political careers.

In summary, militaries are great at killing people. Not so good at rebuilding nations and trying to win friends.

I'm currently reading a book about the middle ages. Say a new King had an insurgency somewhere in his realm. He would go there and simply kill people until they bent the knee. In some cases he would send letters first and try to reason with them since this was much cheaper than risking lives and spending weeks on the road but if rebellion continued he would head out and brutally squash it. He might Catherine Wheel the leader in front of the whole town or simply tear the limbs off the man where he stood.

This is basically what our enemies do today but we don't. The Taliban don't tolerate insubordination.

 

[OutHouse]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Ocean_Navy_Act

On June 17, a few days after German troops conquered France, Chief of Naval Operations Harold Stark requested four billion dollars from Congress to increase the size of the American combat fleet by 70% by adding 257 ships amounting to 1,325,000 tons. [4] On June 18, after less than an hour of debate, the House of Representatives by a 316–0 vote authorized $8.55 billion for a naval expansion program giving emphasis to the aircraft

The Act authorized the procurement of:

18 aircraft carriers
2 Iowa class battleships
5 Montana class battleships
6 Alaska class cruisers
27 cruisers
115 destroyers
43 submarines
15,000 aircraft
The conversion of 100,000 tons of auxiliary ships
$50 million for patrol, escort and other vessels
$150 million for essential equipment and facilities
$65 million for the manufacture of ordnance material or munitions
$35 million for the expansion of facilities


And this was in addition to the new ships authorized by the Naval Acts of 1936 and 1938

sorry but you are still wrong. that bill was obsolete the second the first bomb dropped on Pearl. and those numbers are not even close to "whipping" japans ass as you said. i suggest you read my post #82 to get a better understanding how many warships it took to whip Japans ass along with fighting the German navy.

 

[lupi]

not even close.

 

[DesiPower]

Again not even close. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not even wars. Casualties for the U.S are extremely small, as painful as they are to families who lost loved ones.

War has evolved, you will never have two superpowers bombing each other and aircraft carriers battling themselves out and dogfights, these are never going to happen. Any country who has enough money to build ships and airplanes will be so much economically dependent on the other that they will not attack each other. Attack from come from lowlifes, who have nothing to loose, going after them is like biting a dog back, big mistake, we lost Trillions of dollars and are still bleeding heavily. Body count was lower but in this age, money > human life and we lost money heavily and dragged our country and future into ruins from which we will never be able to recover...

 

[OverVolt]

Alright than I'm going to have to say Iwo Jima.

Damn campers.

 

[Ns1]

The rebel fleet attacking a fully operational battle station.

Lololol

 

[PowerEngineer]

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

not even remotely correct.

our navy by VJ Day, this is what it took to win the war.

Date 8/14/45*
Battleships 23
Carriers, Fleet 28
Carriers, Escort 71
Cruisers 72
Destroyers 377
Frigates 361
Submarines 232
Mine Warfare 586
Patrol 1204
Amphibious 2547
Auxiliary 1267
Surface Warships 833
Total Active 6768

at the start of the war with the Japanese they had more and better ships than we did. Plus we still had not even started building the 66,000 Higgins landing craft we needed for the island hopping.

Let me suggest that what the US Navy had at the end of the war and what the Navy needed to win the war are two very different things.

As tech says, the new ships already under construction when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor are a big piece of the naval strength you cite in your posting. Nimitz's strategy at the beginning of the war was to contain the Japaneese long enough for construction of those ships to be completed. Those ships alone were enough to completely turn the tide against the Japaneese (and would have been even with a less lopsided result at Midway).

Techs is at least remotely correct!

 

[Smoblikat]

Canada

 

[grrl]

Dieppe also comes to mind. A horrific loss of Canadian troops.

Not really. It was always intended to be a raid. And even though it went very badly, many lessons were learned. It also alerted the western Allies to how very difficult it would be to invade continental Europe. The lives saved because of the intense preparation that went into D-Day more than made up for the Canadians and Brits lost.

 

[dennilfloss]

Another famous blunder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana

 

[hg321]

Major Blunder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae

 

[Baked]

Battle of Helm's Deep. Did you see the size of the Orc Army? Who knew the humans would get reinforcement and win the next morning?

 

[dennilfloss]

Moctezuma II welcoming Cortez and his troops and housing them in his capital of Tenochtitlan for several months until they seized an opportunity and made him prisoner in his own house. Allowed European military foothold on the continent and from there the conquest of central America, parts of North America, and South America.

 

[Arkaign]

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.

This is so true it hurts. They were within spitting distance of Moscow, but just didn't nail it down. They did not commit properly to the objective, badly underestimating Soviet capability, and of course famously botched winter preperations.