pixi666

What do you think is the biggest debacle in military history? My first thoughts are the Sicilian Expedtion, the battle of the Teutoberg Forest, Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and the Dieppe landings. What do you guys think?

Salah

For Antiquity, the Teutoberg Forest sounds best to me.

Frank81

The second Sui invasion of Korea was sounding debacle: Goguryeo

tjadams

I know it isn't the 'greatest' ( hard to really say ), but one that sticks
out in my mind is the July 1864 Union debacle that was the "Battle of the Crater".

It was during their siege of Petersburg, Va. (CSA) that the Union just
totally messed up costing them nearly 4,000 killed, wounded or captured.

Salah

Agreed TJ, the Crater was a mess. Fredericksburg and Franklin are two other examples from the Civil War that quickly come to mind. Both reek of sheer stupidity.

pixi666

Fascinating stuff. They head off with an army of 350,000, and return with 2,700 Can anyone top this in terms of loss of life?

Jake10

I would say the second Mongol attempt at invading Japan.

pixi666

I'm inclined toward the Sicilian expedition. The Teutoberg just halted Roman expansion, it didn't cause a weakening of overall power. The Sicilian expedition, on the other hand, cost Athens the Peloponnesian War.

irishcrusader95

hard to imagine a more worse debacle then the 1812 invasion of russia. the greatest and largest army of its time lead by the greatest military mind of the century, utterly annihilated in a huge depressing fiasco.

irishcrusader95

that was definitely something alright, a whole invasion force gone because of unlucky weather