Top 10 Military Operations That Went Bad

WatchMojo

These military blunders had shocking and long-lasting consequences. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for military campaigns, expeditions, and decisions, mostly American, that went deeply awry.

Transcript

00:00 "There is a pandemonium of voices as well as the perfect roar of musketry and a storm

00:04 of bullets."

00:06 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for military campaigns, expeditions,

00:10 and decisions – mostly American – that went deeply awry.

00:13 "All of these men and women fight for a common cause.

00:18 The identity of an emerging nation."

00:20 10.

00:23 Pancho Villa Expedition – Mexican Border War

00:26 Modern-day Americans sometimes forget that before America entered World War I, it was

00:30 already fighting in Mexico.

00:32 After Mexican folk hero and revolutionary General Pancho Villa attacked U.S. mining

00:36 executives in 1913, President Wilson ordered a punitive expedition.

00:41 General John J. Pershing took 10,000 soldiers into Mexico.

00:44 While Pershing achieved some victories against Villa's forces, they were unwelcome by Mexico

00:49 and never captured the general himself.

00:50 Pershing claimed to have been outwitted and outbluffed at every turn.

00:53 Ultimately, the U.S. military tried to spin the expedition as a learning experience for

00:57 the inexperienced U.S. forces.

00:59 Pershing disagreed.

01:00 He described their return to America as "sneaking home undercover like a whipped cur with its

01:04 tail between its legs."

01:05 9.

01:07 Battle of Kasserine Pass – World War II

01:10 In 1942, the Allied forces led by American troops successfully launched Operation Torch,

01:15 an invasion of North Africa.

01:16 French and British troops provided support.

01:19 Unfortunately for the Allies, they quickly learned why Hitler trusted the region to Field

01:22 Marshal Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox.

01:25 The Americans were led by a relatively green commander, General Lloyd Friedendahl.

01:29 Friedendahl positioned himself well behind the front, making timely communication with

01:33 his more seasoned Allies difficult.

01:35 This left the Americans exposed to attack, and Rommel pressed his advantage.

01:39 Allied forces took 10,000 casualties and lost hundreds of tanks and other vehicles in the

01:43 Tunisian mountain pass.

01:44 Rommel lost less than 1,000 men.

01:46 Suffice it to say, Friedendahl immediately lost his job and subsequently replaced by

01:50 George Patton.

01:52 8.

01:53 Battle of Paoli – American Revolutionary War

01:56 Americans sometimes look at the Revolutionary War through rose-colored glasses.

01:59 In truth, it was a war filled with military setbacks and defeat.

02:02 After Washington was trounced at the Battle of Brandywine, he desperately tried to protect

02:06 Philadelphia from the British.

02:07 He sent Mad Anthony Wayne to go after British supply lines.

02:10 Wayne set up camp for his 1,500 men at Paoli, a mile away from a camp of 2,000 Maryland

02:15 militia troops.

02:16 Thanks to superior spies, the Brits knew exactly where Wayne was ensconced.

02:20 They launched a surprise bayonet attack on his camp, massacring the Americans while they

02:24 slept.

02:25 They routed both camps with a smaller force, losing only four men.

02:27 The attack demoralized American troops and led to their withdrawal from Philadelphia.

02:31 7.

02:32 Battle of Wabash – Northwest Indian War

02:35 Various indigenous nations took different sides in wars against European colonizers.

02:40 Some fought with the French, some fought with the British and Americans, some fought them

02:43 all.

02:44 In 1791, the Western Confederacy of Native Peoples achieved the greatest victory in Native

02:48 history against the United States.

02:50 The Shawnee, Miami, Huron, and Delaware nations occupied what was then the Northwest Territories.

02:55 American forces out of modern-day Cincinnati marched to what is now Fort Wayne, Indiana.

02:59 The force suffered from disease and desertions, all the while Native forces bled them dry.

03:03 Little Turtle of the Miami people drew General St. Clair's forces into a guerrilla forest

03:08 fight.

03:09 By the end of the fight, St. Clair suffered a 97% casualty rate, a worse defeat than Little

03:13 Big Horn.

03:14 6.

03:15 Invasion of Canada – War of 1812

03:23 Territorial expansion and anger towards British naval blockades lay at the heart of the calamitous

03:27 War of 1812.

03:28 James Madison, spurred on by Congressional war hawks, declared war on the British in

03:32 June.

03:33 By October, the Americans realized they had bitten off more than they could chew with

03:35 their Canadian invasion.

03:37 America only had a meager 12,000-man strong army at the breakout of the war.

03:41 State militias refused to participate.

03:43 As a result, American forces were woefully unprepared.

03:53 By August, lead commander General Hull surrendered Fort Detroit.

03:56 General Henry Dearborn tried to launch another northern invasion, but his forces refused

04:00 to go beyond America's borders.

04:02 In the following year, the British had set Washington, D.C. ablaze.

04:09 5.

04:10 Battle of Bataan – World War II

04:21 The Imperial Japanese military didn't waste time after they attacked Pearl Harbor on December

04:25 7th.

04:26 By Christmas, tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers had landed on Luzon, the main island

04:30 of the Philippines.

04:31 General MacArthur stood his ground with a small force of American soldiers bolstered

04:34 by almost 100,000 Filipino reserves.

04:49 The brutal offensive of the Japanese forced MacArthur to withdraw over half his forces

04:53 from Manila to the Bataan Peninsula.

04:55 Between the soldiers and thousands of refugees, the Allies struggled with hunger, malaria,

04:59 exhaustion, and dysentery.

05:00 On January 9th, the Japanese attacked Bataan.

05:03 The Allied soldiers were overwhelmed in weeks and by May, they surrendered, resulting in

05:06 the horrific Bataan Death March.

05:17 4.

05:20 Disbanding the Iraqi Army – Iraq War

05:31 Due largely to claims of WMDs, the U.S. convinced their coalition allies to invade Iraq in March

05:36 2003.

05:37 Baghdad fell within three weeks.

05:39 Unfortunately, the coalition was woefully unprepared for the significant question, "What

05:43 next?"

05:44 Iraq is a large country filled with disparate and conflicting religious and ethnic groups.

05:54 Saddam Hussein kept order through savage brutality in a large military.

05:57 That military, though, was disbanded by coalition forces.

06:00 Many experts think that the army could have been an asset for preventing insurgencies

06:04 and maintaining peace.

06:05 Instead, many former military commanders formed the backbone of ISIS a decade later.

06:15 3.

06:17 The Chinese Intervention – The Korean War

06:28 These great failures are born from miscalculation in the wake of a great victory.

06:32 The U.S. began its intervention in Korea with the landing at Inchon, one of the greatest

06:36 successes in modern military history.

06:38 But an overconfident U.S. subsequently invaded the North, hoping to take out Pyongyang quickly.

06:43 Dismissing multiple warnings from Beijing, this choice proved to be an utter disaster

06:46 as the Chinese counterattacked in November of 1950.

06:49 It was a horrific war with massive casualties for all involved.

06:52 The U.S. Army and Marines were thrown back and for a brief moment, it looked like the

06:55 Chinese would purge all other forces from Korea.

06:58 While that didn't happen, America's hopes for a speedy end turned into a two-year stalemate.

07:08 2.

07:12 Battle of Antietam – U.S. Civil War

07:20 Abraham Lincoln called Antietam a victory, a dubious claim at best.

07:24 Robert E. Lee beat back Union General McClellan's attacks while waiting for reinforcements.

07:28 McClellan was stunned by the human cost.

07:30 There were over 22,000 casualties and deaths at Antietam.

07:33 He had the chance to potentially end the war then and there, but the human toll was too

07:37 much for him to bear.

07:38 After 12 hours of almost non-stop fighting, America's bloodiest day had ended.

07:43 He allowed Lee to retreat so that he could set up mass burials and field hospitals.

07:47 Instead of ending at Antietam, the war raged on for years with even more blood and death

07:51 to follow.

07:52 Even though McClellan's own colonels described Antietam by writing, "More errors were committed

07:56 by the Union commander than in any other battle of the war."

08:05 Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified

08:09 about our latest videos.

08:10 You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.

08:14 If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.

08:19 1.

08:21 Operation Barbarossa (WWII)

08:29 Over a century after Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia, Adolf Hitler committed

08:33 the same classic blunder of opening an Eastern Front.

08:36 Operation Barbarossa was the Nazis' six-month campaign to conquer the Soviet Union.

08:40 More than 10 million soldiers fought in Barbarossa, making it the largest land invasion in human

08:44 history.

08:53 The Nazis' brutal quest for oil, slave labor, and resources started out well for the Germans

08:57 as Hitler's soldiers pushed deep into the Soviet Union.

09:00 But the harsh winter eventually ground the operation to a halt, just as it had for Napoleon.

09:05 By the time the Wehrmacht lost the Battle of Moscow, the invasion cost Germany more

09:08 than 830,000 men.

09:11 Fighting in the East contributed massively to the outcome of World War II.

09:21 What military operation do you think should be on this list?

09:24 Let us know in the comments!

09:26 Check out these other clips from WatchMojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell

09:29 to be notified about our latest videos.

09:32 Thanks for watching!

09:43 (electronic music)

Category

Transcript

Recommended