I dont really see why its sad that he was a poor strategist...Id hate to speak geman today....

Originally Posted by FutureRANGER

Pearl Harbor. Once the US is in the fray, you know who's coming out the victor.

Agreed, General.

a little off topic, but why is it that the winning country dosnt ussually punish their soldiars for war crimes, or am i just nutty

ETO : Operation Barbarossa

PTO : Battle of Midway(Coral Sea included)

Stalingrad - for there died so much highly trained german soldiers that the loses in quality could not be replaced - this was the begining of the end for the german army.
Also if the forces used for that battle were thrown towards capturing Baku and the oil there or at some other strategic direction could change the course of the war on the eastern front as we know it.

A couple of important turning points would have to be the invasion of russia( napoleon failed there too).
in relation to the pacific thearte the aussies on the kakoda track (mainly militia battalions which did a fantastic job in stoping the japs even though they were heavily outnumbered before the other AIF units arrived.
The work of the coastwatchers who radioed in warnings of jap attacks to US and AUS forces from behind enemy lines.
cheers

Originally Posted by Panser 003

In my opinion, the major tactical errors, costing the Axis the war were:

A.) Dunkirk: 140 000 French and 200 000 British soldiers were allowed to escape back to England, forming the bulk force of the allies initially. The Germans could have prevented this, but instead stopped their advances and allowed the rescue to take place. Oh well.....

Whilst it would have been better for Hitler to destroy these forces, I do not believe their escape had any determining factor on the outcome of WW2.

Originally Posted by Panser 003

B.) Battle of Britain: Hitler shifted the Luftwaffe to attack civillian spots, rather than finishing off the RAF, giving the RAF time to organize and form an actual decent resistance. If they would have just taken them out, Europe would have been Hitler's.

Again, would have been better for Germany had Britain been subdued but not a major influence on why Germany lost. Hitler would have been fairly content to block UK shipping lanes with his U-Boat Wolfpacks. There isn't any way the UK could have launched a land offensive by itself and they would have been isolated as indeed they were until the US began to deploy forces there.

Originally Posted by Panser 003

C.) Operation Barbarossa: BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER. Those 3 million soldiers Hitler used to invade Russia could have been used elsewhere, and it only dragged Russia into fighting Hitler. This 2 front war is pretty much what ruined Hitler's whole thing. The non-aggression pact was probably the best thing Hitler had going for him, and as soon as he broke it, he pretty much doomed himself.

With hindsight yes it's easy to say what a big mistake this was. However, IMO this conflict was UNAVOIDABLE given the completely opposite ideologies of both nations and Hitler's intense hatred and contempt for the Slavic peoples. German strategic studies indicated that 1941 was in fact the *best* time for Hitler to attack the Soviet Union and IMO Germany would have defeated the Red Army had Hitler not interfered and constantly meddled with the objectives/plans of the Wehrmacht.

Originally Posted by Panser 003

D.) Pearl Harbor: BIG BIG BIG BIG MISTAKE! What SHOULD have happened was, Germany whipe out Britain and force them to surrender, THEN Germany, Italy, and Japan all crush inward on Russia. I'm pretty sure Russia wouldn't be able to hold off against all three of them. Oh well.


And there's my 2 cents,

-Regards

Yeah it was a BIG mistake by Japan to attack Pearl Harbour and a mini disaster for the Axis Powers. This definately was a HUGE factor.

BTW, Italian forces did fight on the Eastern Front, but they were found to be wanting when the going got really tough. Plus their numbers were miniscule compared to the 3,700,000 German troops they fought beside. Had the Japanese elected to attack Russia from the East, the 25 Siberian divisions that Stalin used to help save Moscow in 1941 might not have been available. So Japan really did kinda screw up a great chance of an almost total Axis domination of Europe and Asia.

Originally Posted by Achilles

a little off topic, but why is it that the winning country dosnt ussually punish their soldiars for war crimes, or am i just nutty

you know, its a little bit funny but someone asked this very same question in another post. i believe under war crimes.

[quote="Doppleganger"]

Originally Posted by Panser 003

In my opinion, the major tactical errors, costing the Axis the war were:

A.) Dunkirk: 140 000 French and 200 000 British soldiers were allowed to escape back to England, forming the bulk force of the allies initially. The Germans could have prevented this, but instead stopped their advances and allowed the rescue to take place. Oh well.....

Whilst it would have been better for Hitler to destroy these forces, I do not believe their escape had any determining factor on the outcome of WW2.

I beg to differ. We look apon most significant events involving battle or leadership.but we ignore morale of a people as a positive factor. I beg to say dunkirk was different in that it gave back England her hope, and gave their leadership a shot in the arm to pick it up from defeat to a victory of some sort. The rescue of those soldiers showed the english people their government still cared about its people...and sometimes morale is what turns the battle, with the help of a few bullets.

1. El Alamain - The British Imperial Army wins and the Axis lose the initiative in North Africa.

2. Battle of the Atlantic. The U-Boats lose the initiative and the convoys get thru to the UK.

3. Stalingrad- Bagration. The Axis lose a tremendous fight and then the strategic initiative in the East.

4. Midway - the Imperial Japanese Navy lose the initiative in the Pacific War.

5. Impal-Kohima. The Japanese Imperial Army is decisively defeated by the British/Indian forces and is forced to retreat from India and finally Burma.