Percival - certainly had his faults and probably does deserve to be on this list - but he was presented with an unwinnable battle, surrounded by useless subordinates, actual number of 'fighting men' was smaller than the Japanese - he initially had 6 fighting Brigades in 3 Divisions with incomplete TO&E - many of the units had not completed their training - some had been effectively Militia formations several months before - one of the British Indian Army battalions for example was literally made up of untrained 18 year old Gurkhas. Against this the Yamashitas 25th Army had brought 11 Regiments in 3 Divisions each of 2600 men or 3500 strong in the case of the 18th Division (all of Veteran Infantry) with 3 Tank Regiments in support (with a 4th arriving later). Tell me again who had more soldiers?
Lumsden & Gatehouse - Monty told Lumsden what he wanted him to do in the Battle of El Alamein ie work with the infantry not to go swanning off and get smashed up etc (After the Australian Commanders had told him that is what the armoured units would do) - and Lumsden blunty told him no. And preceded not to do it. Monty had no one immediately to hand to replace him with otherwise I think he might have fired him on the spot. Gatehouse not so familiar with but Lumsden belongs on the list.
Corbett, Dorman-Smith, Ritchie - maybe? Dorman-Smith was apparently crazier than a shit house rat and wa a real outside of the box thinker when perhaps he ought not have been.
Ritchie - I am going to give him a pass - he lost Gazala but we now know that Rommel had a better appreciation of British Commonwealth dispositions than he did.
He was reading Richies mail!
If it was not for the radio intercepts and other op sec failures then it is highly unlikely that Rommel would have won. Ritchie later went on to command XII Corps from Normandy to VE day
Corbett does seem to be getting on a bit in 1942 and was Indian Army (Monty had a poor opinion of Indian Army officers)
HMS Glorious forgetting she was a man of war was the fault of her
Captain He was a trained Pilot and thought he knew better than his pilots
One of his Pilots disagreed with him to the point that D'Oyle-Hughes beached him and the reason Glorious was steaming with half her boilers unlit on half steaming watch, no aircraft warmed up etc etc with just 2 escorting DDs? He wanted to return to Scapa to court Martial his senior pilot. That's it. As reasons go it's pretty pathetic - he won the VC in WW1 and was undoubtedly a brave man but he belongs on the list for the loss of Glorious.
Admiral Tovey was the officer in charge at Denmark Strait
If not Hood then who do you send? At the time only Hood, Renown, Repulse, KGV and POW had the speed to catch Bismarck.
Renown was in Gib with the Ark as part of Force H and so initially played no part.
I seem to recall that KGV and Repulse were covering the other potential exit south of Iceland?
I give Tovey a Pass. Hood died doing her job. And he tried to ensure that Bismarck was always going to be opposed by 2 Warships.
Portal and Harris - get a high 5 for the Ruhr campaign where in 1943 destruction and damage to this region the Germans effectively suffered more tank, aircraft and gun losses due to lost production than the Russians destroyed on the Eastern front during the same period. The then switch to City bombing which did not contribute nearly as much and allowed the Ruhr to recover does probably belong on this list. Fun Chastise facts - the Dams were not fully refilled for fear that they would be breached again. Harris moight have considered the raid a disaster but he could not have known the damage to mines factories and lost production (due to loss of Hydroelectric power) that it caused. The Germans put out tenders to French companies to rebuild the dams and the one that won.....had been building bunkers on the Normandy beaches....which it stopped doing for half a year.
Not sure why Gort belongs here. He saved the BEF by pretty much ignoring out of date and idiotic orders from his French Superiors and equally idiotic Political leaders in London and recognised the real threat that his entire command could be surrounded and destroyed in a campaign that had already been lost. Had he not acted when he did knowing that he would not be thanked for it - there is a POD for you. As examples of Moral bravery goes it a pretty good one IMO - he saved 5 out of every 6 men under his command - men that would form the core of Britains WW2 army.