Biggest Lost Opportunity: Entente in 1916

Which event, mistake, etc proved most costly for the Allies in 1916; inother words, if one thing that year could have happened differently or not at all (with required PoDs January and December of said year), which would be most likely to end the war earlier and more favorably for the Entente?
 
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Well Romania could only be described as a clusterfuck. Completely.

And then Verdun has its own special kind of clusterfucks. They forgot to garrison the forts! So German rambo managed to walk in and crippled the French defenses for the rest of the battle.
 
AIUI, wasn't the Entente's big gamble the two major summer offenses -- the Brusilov and the Somme? To say they fell short of hopes would likely be an understatement...
 

Deleted member 1487

And then Verdun has its own special kind of clusterfucks. They forgot to garrison the forts! So German rambo managed to walk in and crippled the French defenses for the rest of the battle.

The forts were dismantled and disarmed in 1915, so they were basically useless unless there was a major artillery bombardment, which no one anticipated; the Germans advanced too fast for them to garrison them and there was a lot of political/military disagreement about holding the area where the forts were during the battle.

and if you are into the Predator comics, the defenders were all slaughtered by a Predator:
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb...redator-_The_Bloody_Sands_of_Time_Vol_1_2.jpg
 
The forts were dismantled and disarmed in 1915, so they were basically useless unless there was a major artillery bombardment, which no one anticipated; the Germans advanced too fast for them to garrison them and there was a lot of political/military disagreement about holding the area where the forts were during the battle.

and if you are into the Predator comics, the defenders were all slaughtered by a Predator:
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb...redator-_The_Bloody_Sands_of_Time_Vol_1_2.jpg
I never know how to feel about Marshal Joffre because while the man was basically right about most things, for example the French army had been direly short on heavy artillery for decades due to misguided armaments policy and the only way to supply the field army properly was to requisition fort guns, plans like that often lead to unintentional disaster.
 

Deleted member 1487

I never know how to feel about Marshal Joffre because while the man was basically right about most things, for example the French army had been direly short on heavy artillery for decades due to misguided armaments policy and the only way to supply the field army properly was to requisition fort guns, plans like that often lead to unintentional disaster.

I think they were right not to keep it fortified. They needed the field artillery badly and an attack in that area should not have been a military threat due to the ability to hold the West Bank of the Meuse pretty easily, but politicians made it a point of necessity to hold, which Petain, who is easily France's best general of the war, was against. Still, he was able to do it, but at high cost.
 
Does a more successful Brusilov Offensive have more potential than the Somme to end the war this year?

Yes - the Somme was never going to be anything but a disaster for the Entente, but Brusilov very nearly knocked Austria-Hungary out of the war and would have succeeded in this regard had Evert launched his part of the offensive - the Russian Army would have broken out onto the Hungarian Plain and Austria-Hungary would have collapsed two years early. Germany would've had to sue for peace in this scenario, although the terms would be far more lenient than OTL, due to no Entente breakthrough in the west (Germany almost certainly gets to keep all of her prewar territory, for one, and likely ends up with Austria as well).
 
Another thought -- what about the Battle of Jutland? OTL, it was pretty inconclusive, but did the Royal Navy lose its chance to crush the German naval defenses?

I don't think so. Really it achieved all it was going to considering it was more successful than originally planned by Brusilov.
Yes - the Somme was never going to be anything but a disaster for the Entente, but Brusilov very nearly knocked Austria-Hungary out of the war and would have succeeded in this regard had Evert launched his part of the offensive...

I'm by no means well read on this part of the war, but FWIR, the battle is, at most generous, described as a "learning experience" for the Allies. So even if, for example, Haig had realized that bombing the barbed wire wasn't enough to remove it as an obstacle, the offensive would still have been catastrophic?

It's ironic that the campaign that, OTL, went much better than expected would be the one with more potential, but, as of the moment, it looks like that's the case. Actually, the even bigger irony is, currently, it appears the Brusilov Offensive is also the PoD with the most potential for the CP to win the war in 1916.
 
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