Name: Top 10 Stupid Moves of World War 1 - Mid 1915/1916 I THE GREAT WAR Ranking
Uploaded: 2018-06-24T02:27:27.000Z
Duration: 7 min 13 s
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We did a top list a while ago of what we thought
were the stupidest moves of the first year

Adverbs of degree

of the war, by all nations, and it went over
pretty well.

Transition words & phrases

Not just because a lot of people watched it,
but also because a lot of people wrote in

with things they felt also had a place on
that list.

It was the kind of interaction we love, and
so... we're back!

I'm Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War
Top List of the ten stupidest moves of the

war from summer of 1915 to the end of 1916.

Remember, you are under no obligation to agree
with me and I urge you to vent your disagreements

Number 10, Tsar Nicholas takes over personal
command of the Russian armies.

This happened at the beginning of September
1915, when he appointed himself to replace

Grand Duke Nikolai, who was shuttled off to
command in the Caucasus.

Now, the new Chief of Staff, Mikhail Alekseev,
was really the one in actual charge, but the

future of the Tsar, as personal leader, was
now tightly bound to the success or failure

or his armies, and while there would be some
great successes, the people remembered the

In the spring of 1916 the Italian press and
even the French press were full of stories

of an Austro-Hungarian build up of forces
on the Italian front that were going to make

Italian army Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna
makes this list for being “surprised”

Austro-Hungarian army Chief of Staff Franz
Conrad von Hötzendorf also makes this list

for going ahead with the offensive - ironically
called “Punishment Expedition” - anyhow

even after it's plans are announced all
over the enemy press.

Number 8, Germany Army Chief of Staff Erich
von Falkenhayn's “unyielding defense”

It's true, he demanded of his men that if
they gave up any ground they must immediately

counter attack and retake it, no matter the
cost.

This turned out pretty much as you'd expect
it to in hindsight, with thousands upon thousands

of needlessly dead German soldiers that could
have retreated to better defensive positions.

Number 7, Luigi Cadorna makes the list for
a second time, as the Italians delay taking

advantage of the momentum of their victory
in capturing Gorizia and Mont San Michele.

They had the Austrians in disarray and completely
on the run, and while the road to Vienna wasn't

entirely open, it was at least open a crack
and the Austrian heartland beckoned.

Cadorna stalled to strengthen his flanks and
the Austrians had three days to get their

Number 6, the Germans not rotating their troops
at Verdun.

See, at that battle, the longest of the war,
German losses were just topped up and the

men who survived there just stayed on and
on and on.

The French, on the other hand, rotated in
fresh divisions and rotated out exhausted

You can see what this meant - as the months
wore on the Germans grew ever more weary and

demoralized, as many of their battalions took
casualties of over 100%.

While I'm talking about Verdun, I'll throw
another German error there into the list at

The failure to destroy or at least disrupt
traffic on the sacred road.

This road was the one and only French supply
route into Verdun.

All of the men, ammunition, and supplies for
Verdun arrived from that road in endless 24

Men stood by on the road to push any trucks
that broke down off the road so the traffic

In the first few months of the battle, Germany
had total air superiority and yet they did

Doing so with even partial success would have
crippled the French at Verdun.

Number 4, the failure of the British and French
to coordinate at the Somme.

There seems to be a lot of the Western Front
on this list so far.

This lack of coordination was disastrous.

Plans would be made and then attacks of five
battalions would happen at completely different

Artillery from one unit would fail to support
its neighbor because it didn't know what

And attacks on areas where there was clearly
no breakthrough possible would not be called

The lack of communication and coordination
was staggering in scale.

Number 3, over in Mesopotamia, the arrival
of the British at Kut-al-Amara.

Charles Townshend had led his men up the Tigris
River too far for their supplies and reinforcements

to follow, completely underestimating the
Ottoman opposition.

He soon found his army under siege at Kut.

As the months rolled by and relief repeatedly
failed to break through, starvation finally

It was one of the great humiliations in British
military history, and coming on the heels

of the failure at Gallipoli - on our last
list - was a huge blow to British pride.

Number 2, Russian Generals Evert and Kuropatkin
refuse to attack.

In the summer of 1916, Russian General Alexei
Brusilov's offensive was smashing through

the Austro-Hungarian lines like a hot knife
through butter and there was a very real possibility

that Austria would be knocked out of the war.

Those two other Generals, far to the north,
had 750,000 men and 75% of the Russian artillery.

All they had to do was tie down the Germans
in the north to prevent them from reinforcing

They did not attack until it was way too late
and the moment of possible victory had passed.

And at number one on this second list of failures,
the timing of the Romanian entry into the

Had Romania entered the war in June 1916 alongside
Brusilov's offensive, Austria-Hungary would

likely have fallen, whatever the northern
Russian Generals had done.

Romania, however, did not enter the war until
late August, by which time Brusilov's offensive

All four Central Powers immediately sent forces
to invade Romania, who could only count on

Russia was also forced to extend its front
lines for hundreds of kilometers to the south,

which would prevent any new Russian offensives
for the time being, and when Romania fell,

Romanian oil and grain would fall into the
Central Powers hands at just the time when

they needed it most to be able to even continue
the war.

So there you have it, our top ten list for
now.

I'll say once again that any others you
think should be on this list, you should tell