The Mistakes Of Choas

[GhostHunter]

Ok what do you think the worst military moves over time were? And why?

[Acriku]

Sniper, rofl that was horrible, but a classic in itself.

[DjCiD]

You know I watched Behind Enemy Lines and thought it was pretty good till it got to that part were he looked at Gene Hackman and looked back at the ejected booster seat and the compartment he so despratly was trying to get open just happened to get shot open and he did that uh ah I gotta go back look.... I lost it.... that is one scene that should of ended up on the cutting room floor. It runined the whole movie for me. :-

[SurlyPIG]

Australian forces attacking Turkish lines in WWI. They had single-shot rifles with stabbing devices attached to the barrels. By order of the blatantly incompetant British commanders they tried to attack the Turkish trenches WITHOUT ammunition. Yes, using meelee weapons they tried to take down a trench loaded with machine guns and auto rifles. And not just once. Several times.

It's just one gross example of the sheer disregard for the lives of their soldiers on behalf of the sublimely stupid British commanders. Their incompetance is the only reason WWI lasted that long.

[DjCiD]

Sniper, rofl that was horrible, but a classic in itself.

Did you know ther is a Sniper 2, I heard its the one the held from releasing because of the Beltway sniper. Did he get let go?

[Acriku]

Oh jesus, thought you said movies. Sorry :)

*Dunno Dj, kinda sketchy on the ending of the movie*

My answer would be Julius Caesar's military moves. Not really specific, but generally how he kept on taking over other lands, widening the empire, when he knew that he nor anyone else could have possible ruled it all competently. He should have conquered a few lands and left it at that. Just like what Hitler did, and we all know he couldn't have possibly ruled the whole world, probably not even Europe and Asia, competently.

[DjCiD]

no I ment the real beltway sniper... I heard that Sniper 2 was with held from releasing beacuse of the shotings.

And I also heard the Beltway guy might get let go for lack of eveidence or something... and yeah I was going with the thread on movies... my bad... :-

[SurlyPIG]

Beltway? Is that what they're calling the recent DC area sniper? Or do you mean someone else...

...how is the sniper a military move...

[IxianMace]

Australian forces attacking Turkish lines in WWI. They had single-shot rifles with stabbing devices attached to the barrels. By order of the blatantly incompetant British commanders they tried to attack the Turkish trenches WITHOUT ammunition. Yes, using meelee weapons they tried to take down a trench loaded with machine guns and auto rifles. And not just once. Several times.

It's just one gross example of the sheer disregard for the lives of their soldiers on behalf of the sublimely stupid British commanders. Their incompetance is the only reason WWI lasted that long.

Every year, I hear about how the soldiers that died for the "freedom that Australians enjoy today" are remembered and honoured for their "sacrifice" and "bravery". It's been awhile since I looked into the history, but your comment there is extraodinarily similar to my view on how the soldiers fought and died. Every time the day comes when we're supposed to honour the war veterans, I think to myself:

"It's not my f*****g fault if they're just bloody stupid. Why should I feel bad and remember them for their idiocy?"

Other 'Australians' would probably want me kicked out of the country for saying that, but unfortunately, that's just how I see it. Thanks for that comment. I really needed it ACElethal. I could go on further about the monarchy and Australia refusing to become a republic, but that would be getting too off topic.

[ordos45]

I believe you refer to the British/Australian assault at Galipoli, the failed invasion attempt in World War One that cost Winston Churchill his job as First Lord of the Admiralty.

I personally think the biggest military blunder of all time happened during World War 2. I can't remember the name of the island, but US troops stormed and island and took it from the Japanese with only 38 casualties. Historians believe casualties would have been higher if there had ever been any Japanese on the island...

Second biggest blunder...I'd have to say Yorktown. I mean that was sheer luck on our part. Cornwallis entrenches and the Colonial forces have him surrounded. He knows he can retreat to the sea if all goes bad, but then the French Fleet arrives. It would've been brilliant of Cornwallis to entrench there, except for the fact once the French arrived he couldn't retreat, and was being pounded on all sides by artillery. The Colonists would've probably not won the war if it weren't for the French Fleet arriving that day. Thus Cornwallis being surrounded on all sides earns my second place award.

Third Place goes to Adolph Hitler, for the extreme stupidity of breaking his treaty of non agression with the Soviet Union, and then doing so during the Winter! You do not invade the Soviet Union during the harshest conditions possible! That is just a huge blunder in itself. (Actually if you liked to live you didn't invade the Soviet Union at any time.) Hitler brought his own demise as soon as he ordered the invasion of the Soviets, the blunder that probably cost him the war.

Okay those were my top three military blunders. Let's hope we never make mistakes like those again...well unless we're maniacal dictators that insist on killing millions, but what are the odds of that?

[Usul]

Actually Hitler didn't invade in winter. It started at 0300 hours on June 22nd 1941 and it would have worked as well if Hitler hadn't ordered his forces headed for Moscow to head south to encircle more enemy forces. However the worst military blunders apart from the entire first world war and Hitler's changes I mentioned here are a few. During Operation Market Garden the British 1st Airborne division was landed right next to a German supply base thanks to poor recon. Conected to this was a glider which went of course and landed behind German lines. This glider contained the entire Allied stratagy however increadably it was almost completly ignored by the German generals who saw it. Also was the fall of France, without going into detail I will sum it up saying that the French Air Force had more operational aircraft at the signing of the Armstise than when the German invasion began!

[Anathema]

Yeah, Market-Garden was a huge screw up. Because of their failure to free the Netherlands, 20,000 people starved to death.

Another huge failure was an attempted landing on Dieppe (France). It had all sorts of obstacles, like cliffs and wasn't an ideal landing site at all. They failed miserably.

[DjCiD]

Beltway? Is that what they're calling the recent DC area sniper? Or do you mean someone else...

...how is the sniper a military move...

Yeah I think the media or someone dubbed him the Beltway Sniper.

And I thought it was about bad military movies not moves. My head was in a cloud of smoke.... ^-^

[exatreide]

Australian forces attacking Turkish lines in WWI. They had single-shot rifles with stabbing devices attached to the barrels. By order of the blatantly incompetant British commanders they tried to attack the Turkish trenches WITHOUT ammunition. Yes, using meelee weapons they tried to take down a trench loaded with machine guns and auto rifles. And not just once. Several times.

It's just one gross example of the sheer disregard for the lives of their soldiers on behalf of the sublimely stupid British commanders. Their incompetance is the only reason WWI lasted that long.

Actully. It was not a british commander who orderd the charging of the turkish lines. It was a austrailian.

[Terror]

Interference of US in vietnam. Their fear for communism was so big that they attacked north vietnam to stop the expansion of communism. This way many vietcong and americans have died, and actually for nothing.

well, at least that's my opinion.

[exatreide]

We needed to fight in viet nam like it or not. if we would have let the south fall they would have tried to atack a more democratic nation, sweeden or norway or something like that.

[Terror]

? in sweden there was not going to be a communist faction anytime soon, i do not fully understand... and north vietnam did became communists out of their own free will, russia did not realy interfere, even though they did provide them with weapons

[exatreide]

well you know what i mean. i didnt mean it literly :P. just a generalization....

[nemafakei]

Hehehe! Military movies!

I've read a few books on such moves, but I can never remember the details of the anecdotes... What was the one about H-something hill, where a general spent half his army tkaing it, then decided to retreat?

Ohterwise, the battle of the Somme was pretty bad...

[GhostHunter]

1) Attacking Russia. This was a bad mistake all together because past itself has shown the Russians will not stop till victory or every one last of their soldiers is stock pilled on a battle field. Trying to screw with them in a winter cant be much of a better idea....

2) Pearle Harbor. Ok yes the infamous attack yes yes etc etc.... But getting the USA THAT pissed off into angerly entering a war......Bad mistake......Should of landed men and taken over island to.....

[Acriku]

Was that Hamburger Hill nema?

[thomas]

i got a good one ;) k germany invades poland using hte infamous blitzkreig and poland retaliates (yay!) with over 2,000 men (probaly ALOT more) and attack the germans (good) but the thing is those 2,000+ poland soldiers are all mounted on houses armed with only lances (huh?) needless to say they were slaughtered. really happened

[DukeLeto]

Napoleon attacking Russia in the dead of winter..And Hitler attacking Russia AT ALL. Both were extrodinarily stupid moves, given the already-stretched positions of the involved armies.

[Andrew]

The taliban attacking WTC's....the country they lived in got bombed and "taken over", US added a couple billion $'s to military. beefed up security. Sure it got american attention and killed a couple thousand, but now the american eyes are on them.(more now than ever LOL ::) )

Good thing about it is that it means that US is being more protective and may result in stagnation.(or whatever the quote in dune books is about stagnation)

[Anathema]

[quote author=ExAtreides