Spanish Armada Military Failure

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So far in this series of military blunders, we’ve witnessed military failures due to incompetent, overconfident generals, lack of planning, faulty intelligence, ambushes, smug complacency and terrible communication skills, but these are only a few of the reasons for boneheaded battles. The two military disasters discussed here reveal even worse results from multiple errors of judgment and mistaken overconfidence.
Defeat of the Spanish Armada 1588
The story of the great Spanish Armada—a fleet of 130 ships crammed with everything the Spanish need for an invasion of England—is so chock full of badly executed maneuvers dictated by bad planning that a brief summary is all that’s possible here. The Spanish fleet sailed, intending to pick up Spain’s …show more content…

His Grand Armee had never lost a battle, and Napoleon was sitting pretty as Emperor of all he could see—even Prussia, Austria and Russia were cowed. Then this brilliant military genius decided to invade Russia and force Tsar Alexander to a ruinous treaty. Napoleon set off in June, 1812, taking his army of 450,000 to 600,000 men—only half of them French—across the Neman River into Russia. The Russians, under General Kutuzov, could only field 200,000 soldiers. The Russia general knew he’d lose a pitched battle, so instead he strategically retreated. So did Russia’s population—when Napoleon’s army drew near, they left their farms and cities, burning everything behind them.
Napoleon’s Grand Armee found nothing to plunder and all food sources removed or destroyed. Small bands of mobile Russian soldiers harassed the French every step of the way. Stubborn and determined, Napoleon continued on, unsuccessfully trying to feed his army through the long, stretched out supply line. Grand Armee soldiers were dying of disease and starvation and deserting in droves. Only one great battle took place, at a town called Borodino, seventy miles from Moscow. This battle killed 70,000 on both sides. The Russians withdrew, never allowing Napoleon the decisive victory he

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