XPost: soc.history.war.misc
"a425couple" <
a425couple@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:Mt32J.89967$
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Jon Mixon
Studied military actions from the Punic Wars to South Waziristan
What was a big mistake in WW2?
Question: What was a big mistake in WW2?
Just one?
Here are TEN:
Japan declared war upon the United States - Japan had almost no ability to attack the US mainland and thus no ability to prevent the United States
from building the arsenal that it did to defeat the country less than four years later.
The British declaration of war on Germany for similar reasons as above.
And like Japan the idea was to be part of the winning alliance.
Or Germany's attack on Poland starting the whole thing, or Japan's
on China, that gave the Japanese military combat experience but
at a large cost when it came to being able to fight anyone else.
Germany declaring war on the United States - Germany was under no
obligation to do so following Japan’s declaration four days earlier and like Japan it had no ability to impair the US’ war manufacturing capabilities in any significant manner. That also lead to its defeat less than four years later.
The German attack on the USSR and the failure of the attack on Moscow
preceded that, if the USSR stayed in the war the Germans were going
to lose. The US military was an allied bonus. The USN and Kriegsmarine
were already shooting at each other, the US was supplying lots of war
material and had introduced lend lease which effectively removed the
limits on what material could go to those fighting Germany.
Japan never developed an anti-submarine warfare program of consequence - Despite being an island nation and despite the United States making it
clear from 1943 onward that it was going to wage a unrestricted conflict against Japan’s shipping, the Japanese military never concentrated its resources upon securing the shipping routes that it need to prevent starvation on the Home Islands.
The USN declared from the start they would do commerce warfare.
The great USN torpedo scandal that meant for around the first half of
the war against Japan US torpedoes had serious problems.
The IJN could not put together a battlefleet to match the USN and the
anti submarine forces needed as well. Plus the IJN idea of anti
submarine warfare was about WWI level and had little thought
put into it.
The large scale shipping losses in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean
which handicapped the allies for much of the rest of the war, it took to
the end of 1943 to replace the tanker losses, the opportunity costs of
needing to build more merchant ships instead of invasion shipping.
The Holocaust - Beyond the horror of beginning a genocide that killed millions, Germany wasted time and resources it desperately needed
elsewhere with its insane project to kill Europe’s Jewish population as well as various groups like Slavs, the Romany, and people with medical disabilities.
In economic terms on top of failure to use the new industrial resources available from mid 1940.
Germany failed to conquer Malta - Germany needed to control the
Mediterranean and to do that it needed Malta. Despite the fact that the island was vulnerable until the US Navy entered the war, Germany failed to conquer it in the same manner that they did Crete in 1941.
How exactly did the USN make Malta non vulnerable in December 1941
and onwards? The supply lines within Africa stopped the axis from
using large forces there, coupled with the decision to attack the USSR.
The British Army's idea tanks were horses on wheels to live up to
Napoleon's note about British Cavalry, best equipped, worst lead.
Combined arms doctrine that enabled victories that kept the Africa
Corps in Western Libya would mean much easier supply runs to
Malta.
Mussolini declaring war with about a third of the Italian Merchant
Marine outside the Mediterranean, many took shelter in American
ports, many of those later sailed for the allies. Many of the remaining Italian ships were committed to routine duties, those extra ships
would have significantly boosted the shipping available for the
North Africa run.
Germany altered the plans of the Battle of Britain to attack cities and
not continue to attack airfields and manufacturing facilities - By wasting bombers and pilots on attacking cities instead of degrading Britain’s defensive and manufacturing capabilities, Germany did next to nothing to impair Britain’s ability to remain in the war.
Starting the Battle of Britain, costing in particular large numbers of
pre war trained aircrew, while doubling the 1940 aircraft losses.
Few day raids were done on cities and then were aimed at things like
the London Docks and did exactly what the Luftwaffe wanted, draw
just about every RAF fighter in range into combat that day, the Luftwaffe
then lost the air battles. The continued resistance of Fighter Command
meant there were too many bombers available versus the day fighter
escort numbers. So use the excess at night or not at all, and the
Germans had radio navigation systems that upped the effectiveness
of night raids.
The raid on Coventry, little of the production loss was due to hits on
the factories, the rest was due to the damage in the urban area,
energy, water and food supplies, housing loss and so on. Something
the British noted.
Japan’s brutality against the native populations in the lands that it conquered - Had Japan taken advantage of those nations hatred of their colonial masters, they could have recruited much needed manpower.
They did well in what is now Indonesia, though that needs to be qualified
by the numbers killed on the Thai Burma railway. A big cause of the
problem was the IJA idea of an economy, self sufficiency in all things.
The fundamental Japanese problem of the populations Japan took
control of was the ability of Japan to turn them into useful allies, few
had received a good "modern" education, Japan had trouble
making enough for its own forces. Plus the overall industrial under development, from an economic point of view only key sites needed
to be occupied. Look at the size of the garrisons, they only went up
as outside forces threatened the areas.
However the Japanese viewed the other peoples as being inferior and they treated them in that manner. That caused them to either assist the Allies against Japan or simply not work for the Japanese unless forced to do so.
The limit to Japan exploiting south east Asia was shipping, the
Chinese Diaspora in South East Asia were an official enemy,
the inferior idea was similar to the preceding administrations,
but the punishments were generally more arbitrary and brutal.
France’s decision not to relocate its military forces to North Africa following its defeat in 1940 - France’s failure to continue its fight against Germany by relocating its military and air forces to North Africa cost it a great deal. Had they not acquiesced to Germany’s takeover, they could have potentially forced the Germans to withdraw from the country
when it was clear that it would take far more effort to hold the country
that it could easily expend.
What are the costs France took that would have been avoided by
the ability to move hundreds of thousands of personnel across the
Mediterranean in 2 to 3 weeks, in around June 1940? The Poles,
Danes, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians etc. did not acquiesce to their
takeovers, how much more per capita did their occupations cost
Germany? Norway had Hitler's zone of destiny ideas.
When did the Germans actually have trouble holding France between
June 1940 and June 1944? The resistance did try a big uprising in
1944 and were comprehensively defeated by second line German
troops who had access to crew served weapons, machine guns and
artillery.
How about France updating its military communications system to match
the German one plus train its reserve troops to handle air attack? These
could have seen the Ardennes attack seriously compromised. If France
survives the 1940 attack it is unlikely Italy enters the war and therefore Japan and Germany starts to really need Stalin to stay in the war.
France had no ability to maintain French equipment with France occupied,
while aircraft could have been flown out the ground staffs etc. would have limited ability to make the crossing, similar for large numbers of troops.
No one at the time, including in the US, had any idea of how much stuff
the US could make and so the size of the forces it could equip.
The Soviet Union failed to prepare for the invasion that Germany was obviously going to launch against it - Despite being told by numerous
sources that Germany was going to invade and despite there being ample visible evidence that this was going to occur, Josef Stalin did very
little to prevent Germany’s invasion and near-destruction of his nation.
Just before the invasion of Poland Japan and the USSR agreed to
end their fighting, the Red Army had in 1938 and 1939 defeated
Japanese expeditionary forces including in 1939 air attacks on
Red Air Force bases. Thereby keeping the USSR far east secure.
Stalin did a great deal to prepare for war with Germany, the armed
forces were expanding. He also did a great deal to destroy effective resistance, starting with the 1930's purges and the jettisoning of the
"deep battle" ideas. Through to ignoring the warning signs and his
stand and fight ideas.
Like the French and British the Red Army had prepared for world war
1.5, Enigma was an important part of German success, along with
training about seizing the initiative. Without decent radio links the
Red Army was always going to be behind the German one, try then
modern air or tank war when they have radios and you do not.
Franklin Roosevelt didn’t resign despite knowing that he was no longer capable of leading the nation - By 1944 it was clear that Roosevelt was dying. While his personal physician covered up for much of the worst of things, yet was clear to those who were observing Roosevelt that he was no longer capable of being President. Instead of resigning, he continued on
and he was taken advantage by Josef Stalin at Yalta due to his frailty as well as failing to curb the Soviet infiltration of his government at all levels.
So as of January 1944 FDR was clearly that sick? What exactly would
change if Henry Wallace became president then? More so given the
communism ideas above and the reason Truman fired Wallace in
September 1946.
What exactly did "take advantage of" translate to at Yalta? How does
anyone stop Stalin taking over the areas he did?
The infiltration of fascists and communists into governments in the
1930's and into the 1940's was largely driven by the obvious and
assumed ongoing and total failure of democratic capitalism,
otherwise known as the depression.
There was no way allied wartime propaganda could promise a return
to the way things were. The fascists forced their followers into making
the big decision on which side they were really on and willing to fight
for about 10 years before the communists did. Pushing fascists out
of government was made simple by being in a war, the communists
were not in a formal war and there was the freedom of expression
and thought concepts.
The 1930's did a lot to discredit capitalism, hence the popular appeal
of fascism and communism, WWII discredited fascism (the way the
dictatorships weakened things, not made them stronger), initially the
public release of Stalin's crimes and then the fall of the USSR
discredited communism. Given the obvious failings of capitalism
which people living in the system see every day, there is now a swing
back to fascism, the failures of which are moving out of living memory
and only touched on in the taught histories, supporters of fascism are therefore infiltrating the governments, along with supporters of
"communist" China. The difference between communism and
fascism is rather small, often effectively non existent, for the average citizen, beyond the official slogans and reasons why those in power
can stay there forever and do what they like.
When Frank Capra was making the "Why We Fight" series he visited
the USSR embassy in search of footage, and was promptly interrogated
about the visit. As we know the head of the FBI was anti communist, so
the US security agencies were watching. What level of communist
penetration back then is due to FDR alone and what level of modern
penetration, communist and fascist, is considered due to the last few
US presidents?
Geoffrey Sinclair
Remove the nb for email.
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