Day-Tripper
5-Year Member
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- May 16, 2014
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I was recently reading about British military debacles in World War 2 and, boy, there were a lot of them.
Dunkirk in June 1940. British army, which fought the Germans all across Europe in 4.5 years of World War One (Western Front, Italian theater, Gallipoli, Bulgaria, Greece, etc.) & won, was kicked off the continent after a month of fighting in the spring of 1940. Then defeated in Greece & Crete in 1941, with more evacuations. Defeated repeatedly by Rommel in 1941-1942. Defeat & loss of Hong Kong & Malaya colonies to the Japanese, culminating in humiliating defeat at Singapore in February 1942 (120,000 British surrender to 60,000 Japanese.)
But what of the greatest US defeats of the war? Excluding the first 6 months of the Pacific War (December 1941 to May 1942), when the US was attacked without warning & without being prepared, what were the greatest US military losses in The Good War (as Studs Turkel called it)?
Some notable nominations are as follows:
Kasserine Pass - February 1943. First US battle against the Wermacht & a stunning defeat. Nothing like this happened in World War One when the US Army first went into combat against the Germans in 1918. US forces were well-equipped, supplied and trained (or so it was thought) but Rommel's seasoned Afrika Korps & superior panzers soundly defeated the US forces.
Anzio - January to June 1944. Joint US-British operation, seeking to land from the sea behind German lines in Italy & march on Rome. It fails. Germans hold the Allies to a small beachhead, a la Gallipoli in WW1. 3,000 GIs & 4,000 British troops die, another combined 40,000 become casualties. No major impact on the Italian campaign.
Peleliu - September to November 1944. A resounding US military victory, with the Japanese garrison wiped out almost to a man. But terrible casualties suffered by both US Marines & Army. 11,000 casualties, about 1/4 of them KIA. And the island held no significant strategic value. It could have easily been bypassed altogether (as General MacArthur did with numerous Japanese-held islands on the way to the Philippines.)
Hurtgen Forest - September to November 1944. US Army attacks the Germans in this terribly dense forest for 3 months, attempting to break into the Roer Valley. They Germans hold. The Americans fail. 8,000 GIs die for nothing. Another 33,000 become wounded.
Any other suggestions? Comments?
Dunkirk in June 1940. British army, which fought the Germans all across Europe in 4.5 years of World War One (Western Front, Italian theater, Gallipoli, Bulgaria, Greece, etc.) & won, was kicked off the continent after a month of fighting in the spring of 1940. Then defeated in Greece & Crete in 1941, with more evacuations. Defeated repeatedly by Rommel in 1941-1942. Defeat & loss of Hong Kong & Malaya colonies to the Japanese, culminating in humiliating defeat at Singapore in February 1942 (120,000 British surrender to 60,000 Japanese.)
But what of the greatest US defeats of the war? Excluding the first 6 months of the Pacific War (December 1941 to May 1942), when the US was attacked without warning & without being prepared, what were the greatest US military losses in The Good War (as Studs Turkel called it)?
Some notable nominations are as follows:
Kasserine Pass - February 1943. First US battle against the Wermacht & a stunning defeat. Nothing like this happened in World War One when the US Army first went into combat against the Germans in 1918. US forces were well-equipped, supplied and trained (or so it was thought) but Rommel's seasoned Afrika Korps & superior panzers soundly defeated the US forces.
Anzio - January to June 1944. Joint US-British operation, seeking to land from the sea behind German lines in Italy & march on Rome. It fails. Germans hold the Allies to a small beachhead, a la Gallipoli in WW1. 3,000 GIs & 4,000 British troops die, another combined 40,000 become casualties. No major impact on the Italian campaign.
Peleliu - September to November 1944. A resounding US military victory, with the Japanese garrison wiped out almost to a man. But terrible casualties suffered by both US Marines & Army. 11,000 casualties, about 1/4 of them KIA. And the island held no significant strategic value. It could have easily been bypassed altogether (as General MacArthur did with numerous Japanese-held islands on the way to the Philippines.)
Hurtgen Forest - September to November 1944. US Army attacks the Germans in this terribly dense forest for 3 months, attempting to break into the Roer Valley. They Germans hold. The Americans fail. 8,000 GIs die for nothing. Another 33,000 become wounded.
Any other suggestions? Comments?