i was wondering if any of you know of instances of stupid orders being issued to commanders that were impossible to carry out? with what they had.

Capt. H.T. Kienzle got this ludicrous order:C.O. to make arrangements to fulfil requirements up to a maximum of 1000 native labourers. To construct a road from Port Moresby to the village of Kokoda to commence not later than the 29th june 1942. Road to be completed by 26th august 1942.


in other words make a road over the new guinea highlands without heavymachinery(like it would of made a difference). That was roughly 150 kms long and went over mountains that were up to 4000mts high in some areas. with 1000 labourers in less then two months.
his reply was " get stuffed" or words to that effect

From Peter Brunes book "ragged bloody heroes"

That's even more of what our prime minister promises to build in my country: bridges, roads, freeways, airports....

How about the time Hitler made the commander of the German forces in Stalingrad a Field Marshal...with the intention that instead of surrendering, the field marshall would take himself and his troops down fighting...because of the legend that no field marshall in the german army had ever surrendered?

It didn't work by the way...and Hitler was mad!

Originally Posted by Mark Conley

How about the time Hitler made the commander of the German forces in Stalingrad a Field Marshal...with the intention that instead of surrendering, the field marshall would take himself and his troops down fighting...because of the legend that no field marshall in the german army had ever surrendered?

It didn't work by the way...and Hitler was mad!

That field marshal probably thought: "At least I'm the first at something..."

that was also the reason why the commanding officer of the troops stationed in western france was promoted to a field marshal.

that was also the reason why the commanding officer of the troops stationed in western france was promoted to a field marshal.

Who was this? von Runstedt was already a GFM when he was appointed OB West as were von Kluge and Busch.

Originally Posted by Mark Conley

How about the time Hitler made the commander of the German forces in Stalingrad a Field Marshal...with the intention that instead of surrendering, the field marshall would take himself and his troops down fighting...because of the legend that no field marshall in the german army had ever surrendered?

It didn't work by the way...and Hitler was mad!

Hitler was quite prepared to sacrifice the 6th Army so that he could extract the rest of his army groups from the Caucasus. You are right it didn't help in the long run! A shocking battle was Stalingrad but I can't stop reading about it. Does anyone have up to date casualty figures on the Battle for Stalingrad. There seem to be a lot of conflicting ones out there.

Originally Posted by johnmckeogh

Hitler was quite prepared to sacrifice the 6th Army so that he could extract the rest of his army groups from the Caucasus. You are right it didn't help in the long run! A shocking battle was Stalingrad but I can't stop reading about it. Does anyone have up to date casualty figures on the Battle for Stalingrad. There seem to be a lot of conflicting ones out there.

Although the feeding of 6th Army into the Stalingrad mincer was an insane military decision, it did tie up several Soviet Armies and therefore *may* have helped stabilize the Southern front. I'm not sure that Hitler was prepared to sacrifice 6th Army as such, more that he expected it not to give up any ground and was assured by Hermann Goering that it could be supplied by air, which was hopelesly optimistic.

As for accurate casualty figures it's pretty hard to get those. I think the most common accepted numbers are 250,000 German, 250,000 Romanian/Italian and 1,100,000 Soviet. These numbers are for the entire battle. It was probably the most intense battle in human history. No other battle in WW2 comes close.

Thanks for the data about the casualty figures for the battle of stalingrad.

Yes, Hitler's intention was not to "sacrifice" the 6th Army but I believe many of the encircled German soldiers felt that way after the breakout attempts failed. Von Paulus was no Rommel. I doubt Rommel would have hesitated if he was at Stalingrad and had the earlier chance to break out.

Anyway nice talking to you.

Quite frankly, there are no such thing as accurate casualty figures for the battle of Stalingrad. Basically, Germany lost its 6th army plus attached formations, while Russia lost another whole pisspot full. Estimates are easy to come by, but the exact figures will never be known. For good estimates and descriptions of the battle, read Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. He can speak and read both German and Russian fluently, so his research is first-rate.

Hope this helps.


Dean.