What were they thinking: Great military blunders
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Everybody has a bad day at the office once in a while, but if your job involves decisions that determine thousands of lives and you falter, history will make you infamous.
Most bad decisions in war are caused by individual egos, miscommunications or faulty strategies.
As with many of these columns, short explanations of conflicts are described to trigger your curiosity, prompting you to want to know more.
COLD HARBOR | CIVIL WAR
In the spring of 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant had the Confederates on their heels. Two massive battles, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House had just taken place as the Army of the Potomac continued to try and outlast and out flank Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
The North’s strategy of attrition was working.
Grant brought in fresh green troops from the defenses around Washington D.C. Lee didn’t have that luxury, but the delay gave the Confederates enough time to build what was described as “the most ingenious defensive configurations the war had yet witnessed.” The zig-zag barrier of logs and dirt stretched over six miles, with both ends protected by water, making any Union flanking attempt impossible.
After several days of limited attacks, Grant pressed the issue by ordering Corps Commanders to attack on a foggy morning with little reconnaissance. As the plan became apparent many veteran Union soldiers knew what was coming, an all-out frontal assault against the entrenched enemy. One Northern soldier’s journal stated what most thought, “We feel this is murder, not war, or at best a very serious mistake.”
Numerous Union soldiers pinned full names on the back of their jackets so bodies could be identified, this action initiated the Dog Tag. One found soldier's journal entry simply read, "Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, I was killed.”
Of the 50,000 men who charged those breastworks that morning, it’s estimated there were 7,000 Union casualties in the first 10 minutes.
Years later in his memoirs, “I have always regretted that final charge at Cold Harbor.” Ulysses S. Grant.
GALLIPOLI | WORLD WAR I
The world had never seen a war on this scale before in World War I. Millions of trenched men were in a meat grinding stalemate along the western front.
A young Winston Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, he ascended through the ranks because of his pedigree and fearless thinking.
What Churchill thought -- needing to take pressure off the trench fighting in France and Belgium -- was another front.
The Strait of Dardanelles, which separated Europe from Asia and connected the Black Sea with the Mediterranean, has been strategic throughout history. Churchill believed the inferior Ottoman Army could be beaten by superior equipment and a better trained military force, he was wrong.
Gallipoli is the peninsula overlooking the strait occupied by the Turks. The allies tried to burst through, having assembled an armada consisting of 18 battleships with dozens of support vessels. Sending two destroyers up the narrow strait, the assault had trouble at the onset. Mines and artillery crippled the ships, ending the attempt.
The allies turned to plan “B.” Which was landing thousands of troops to overwhelm the outnumbered defenders. Landing craft were a thing of the future as the invaders had to be towed in wooden boats close to the coastline, then row ashore. Most made it but the artillery fire and unexpected tenacity of the Turkish fighters quickly forced the Allies to dig in, within days the Battle of Gallipoli mirrored the deadlocked trench warfare of the Western Front.
Machine guns and cannon fire took their toll on both sides, for nine months the two massive armies fought to a mutually destructive draw, finally the allies withdrew in humiliating defeat.
Churchill was the scapegoat, having to hear “remember Gallipoli,” as a chant by crowds and political foes for years to come.
In all, the Allies committed 550,000 sailors and soldiers to the campaign, fighting against 300,000 Turks. English, French, Australian and New Zealanders suffered 300,000 casualties with 100,000 of those infected with typhoid and cholera, compared to 200,000 Turkish combatants lost.
It was a monumental failure for the Allies and propelled the Turks into a proud new era that ended in the creation of present day Turkey.
Military history is strewed with lost battles and shoddy strategies that hopefully leaders learn from, if not, soldiers did sadly sacrifice in vain.
“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other poor ba----- die for his.” George S. Patton
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Bob Ford’s History will appear in each edition of the Midweek and Weekender. You can see more of Bob’s work on his website bobfordshistory
