Sunday, August 01, 2010

How about "most notorious of December 1944"?

I like Max Hastings' work, but sometimes he tosses off some ill-considered lines:
The Allies' failure to anticipate Hitler's assault [at the Bulge] was the most notorious intelligence disaster of the war.
Really? Ya think?

5 comments:

  1. Can't tell from the quote, but there's also that "for which side?" question...

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  2. Not sure what Germany's worst failure would be -- either the lack of good intel on the Red Army's capabilities in 1941, or the failure to realize that the Allies had ULTRA, would be my two guesses.

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  3. my list for Germany would include also continually letting itself be mislead by Allied plans on invading Europe, including the body that washed up in Spain.

    But the worst two would probably have been in the Pacific, one for each side, and one of those would be the worst in December, don't you think?

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  4. December 1944? You've lost me. I would guess the Japanese intel failure most of note would be Midway.

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  5. I meant December of any year. That is, the Pearl Harbor ref in your post.

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