The most contreversial operation of WW2

yurry

Active member
Wich operation do you think was unnecesary or even criminal in WW2? Skip the genocides this time, just the military operations!

IMO it would be the destruction of Monte Cassino or the firebombing of Dresden at the end of the war.
 
Monte Cassino is defenetly up there, seeing it killed a whole bunch of civilians. You also have to include Market Garden, it was high risk and objected by a lot of US brass.
 
in my book its operation werewolf..the german dressed as americans behind the lines trick in the Battle of the bulge

if its an outright atrocity by the germans..the town of Lidice is first (it was planned due to the death of Heydrich), the italian cave massacres would be second.

for the russians, the biggest atrocity would be the massacre of the polish officer corps. (Katyn forrest was definitely planned).

Atrocitys by the japanese that were planned: the execution of the remaining 98 civilians on Wake island is first on my list. I really don't want to go into anymore on the japanese, because they were natural unplanned atrocity people all on their own.

for American atrocitys that were planned..nothing beats the planned air operations against the life boats and landing craft that were trying to escape the great japanese ship massacre in the new guinea battle area. They killed at least 10,000 shipwrecked japanese in the water by strafing them with modified B-25s and A-20s. Of course, they may have effected a change in the battle for New Guinea if they had reached the shore. Personally, i think it was ammunition not wasted.

anyone got anything on the atrocitys of the other nations?
 
Britain was the primary responsible party for Dresden I believe. The blantent intent of killing mass amounts of civilians ranks pretty high on the atrocity list.

Germany has too damn many to count, but between the Holocaust, the Einsatztruppen and other such things, they handily outdid everyone involved. Of course, many of the Soviet Unions atrocities got "handed off" to Germany and I don't know if we'll ever have a true accounting for them.

True, the rape of Nanking was not an official operation, but it was probably a planned series of attrocities. The Japanese DID do a lot of official operations that directly led to the mass slaughter of millions of Chinese. I'm not completely certain whether history classifies those as "unofficial operations" (which would be completely ridiculous), but consider how well modern day Japan admits they ever did anything uncivilized in WW2. The death camps that the US POW's were subjected to were light by comparison contrasted with what happened to the Chinese.
 
Battle of the Ruhr Pocket in March / April 1945 it achieved nothing just cost thousands of lives destroyed all German factories that were dormant that the allies had to rebuild anyway. The only reason it did happen was So General Bradley and Eisenhower could get their bag of German Prisoners and for one last chance to make a nome for themselves back home. I encourage anyone to find material on it and read it.
 
Market garden would have succeded if it was give the airsupport it needed and proberly deserved "inspite of Montgomeries mistakes" and if General Browning had not decided to ignore recon photos of German Armour in the area. It wasn't a total useless operational idea but only seemed that way due to its failure to achieve all its goals.


Mod edit: Craig, please dont post back to back posts: just edit the previous one if you have to add more. Double posts are against the forum rules, and can lead to being severe spankings from the admin and mods. (and some other stuff...) :D l
 
yurry said:
Skip the genocides this time, just the military operations!

We can open a topic only about war crimes etc.

So altough
godofthunder9010 said:
Germany has too damn many to count, but between the Holocaust, the Einsatztruppen and other such things, they handily outdid everyone involved. Of course, many of the Soviet Unions atrocities got "handed off" to Germany and I don't know if we'll ever have a true accounting for them.
this guys were the worst skip'em this time ;)


I also remembered something else - at the end of the war Hitler gave an order to destroy all German heavy industry and thankfully the order was never carried out, just imagine Germany as a one big farm these days :D
 
GuyontheRight said:
Yes, but it was still "controversial". And that my friend, is the topic at hand ;)

As far as that goes, the Manhatten Project is STILL a much argued about subject. This is definitely the most CONTROVERSIAL operation of WWII.
 
Yurry, as far as the most “controversial” operation of World War II, I will assume you are referring to the Allied Forces? If this were the case, my choices would be 1) Normandy Invasion; 2) Operation Market Garden; 3) Operation Dragoon; and 4) Battle of Berlin. The Russian defeat of Berlin was inevitable for they vastly outnumbered the Germans in all areas. And with these numbers a “siege” would have been the ideal military strategy. However, Stalin’s eagerness to win the Battle for Berlin fueled by hate and marked by atrocities, was among the most controversial operations with an end result that was unpredictably bloody.
 
Battle of Berlin was just par for the course. More Russians die because they push the offensive unnecessarily and get lots of their soldiers killed pointlessly. Ever major operation undertaken by the Soviets has potetial for be most controversial.
 
Jason, Hitler was a nut about Private Security, It would of been very difficult, remember his own Generals tried to kill him a number of times (Most famously of course the July 20 plot)

Hitler even caried a steel plate In his Hat that could stop a rifle round.
 
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