The United States military has won several key victories in its more than 240-year history.
However, not every U.S. operation has gone according to plan…and some went quite the opposite!
Here are 13 U.S. military expeditions and operations that went so horrendously wrong they were almost doomed from the start:
Battle of the Wabash
In late 1791 as part of the Northwest Indian War, a force of over 1,000 American soldiers were led by General Arthur St. Clair into the wilderness of Ohio to search for and destroy a force of Native Americans warriors. The Natives, however, evaded detection before encircling the American camp and attacking from all sides. In the ensuing massacre only 24 American soldiers escaped, representing a 97% casualty rate – the highest ever the U.S. military has sustained in a battle.
Paraguay Expedition
In 1858, President James Buchanan ordered nineteen American ships to travel to Paraguay by sailing across the ocean and then moving up river to the country’s capital of Asuncion. The purpose of the mission was to confront the Paraguayan government and threaten to take Asuncion for alleged wrongs that they had done to American citizens in the country. The expedition, however, was sent without full investigation of the facts and the vessels encountered numerous difficulties from incompetent leadership while navigating the treacherous waters of the Parana River. In the end, the poorly executed expedition cost the American government millions of dollars and it was regarded as a massive overreaction. Thankfully, however, American-Paraguayan relations were eventually restored.
Powder River Expedition
The Powder River expedition of 1865 was a military campaign the U.S. launchd against the units Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux Natives in Montana and the Dakotas. The campaign got off to an awful start due to harsh conditions, difficulties in maintaining supply lines, and effective guerrilla tactics employed by the Native forces. The mission failed to secure the Powder River country and the Americans were eventually forced to withdraw in defeat.
Formosa Expedition
In 1867, the United States launched a military expedition into the East Asian island of Formosa (also known as Taiwan) to retaliate against the Paiwan tribe that had massacred the crew of the Rover ship earlier that year. A combined Navy and Marine force landed on the island and marched inland to confront the Paiwan in battle, but the Paiwan wisely avoided engaging the Americans in a pitched battle and instead used guerrilla warfare and the jungle to wear them down. The American force eventually withdrew after their commander was killed and without a single objective having been accomplished.
Little Bighorn
The Battle of Little Bighorn was the culminating event of Colonel George Custer’s campaign into the Dakotas in an attempt to subdue the Native American tribes in the region. The tribes of the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho united under the war chief Sitting Bull and ambushed Custer’s men as they advanced deep into hostile territory. Almost 300 U.S. cavalrymen were massacred in the resulting battle and Custer himself was killed, with minimal losses for the Native Americans. In addition to the Battle of the Wabash, it was one of the worst defeats that America’s military has ever sustained at the hands of native tribes.
Korean Expedition
The Korean War of 1950 to 1953 was not the only military campaign in Korea that America has fought. In 1871, the U.S. Navy launched a punitive military operation against Korea after relations between the two countries had broken down, primarily due to Korea’s (at the time) isolationist policies that refused American ships to sail Korean waters for trade. The Korean forces fought much stronger than anticipated, and even though the Americans were victorious in the Battle of Ganghwa (the largest battle of the conflict) they were eventually forced to withdraw from the country as Korean reinforcements grew and the scales tipped in Korea’s favor.
Lady Franklin Bay Expedition
In 1881, the U.S. Army Signal Corps launched the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (led by Lieutenant Adolphus Greely) to establish a meteorological observation station and to gather vital astronomical and environmental data in the Canadian Arctic. Also known as the Greely Expedition, the endeavor became a disaster due to the harsh condition of the Arctic and significant logistical issues and supply shortages. Greely and his twenty-five men ended up becoming stranded, and only seven of them survived to be rescued no less than three years later. Few objectives of the expedition were accomplished and future explorations into the Arctic were discouraged.
Pancho Villa Expedition
In 1916, the United States Army launched a campaign against the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who had attacked towns north of the American-Mexican border. The purpose of the campaign was to capture Villa and bring an end to hostilities. Villa, however, skillfully managed to evade capture and Mexican military forces traveled north to confront the American advance. The situation then escalated dramatically as the U.S. and Mexico came very close to all-out war, but the issue was resolved diplomatically. Villa remained elusive to the Americans until he was assassinated by his political enemies in Mexico in 1923.
Operation Market Garden
In September of 1944, a combined American, British, and Canadian force launched Operation Market Garden. The objective was to land paratroopers behind German lines to seize key bridges in the Netherlands before further troops would advance forward to link up with the paratroopers; the success of the operation would have permitted an Allied invasion of Germany that winter. Instead, German defenses were stronger than expected and the Allied advance failed to make significant headway. Meanwhile, most of the thousands of paratroopers caught behind German lines were surrounded and forced to surrender. The operation marked the largest Allied defeat in the Western Front during World War II.
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The United States orchestrated the Bay of Pigs invasion in spring of 1961 in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government that was led by Fidel Castro. An army of Cuban exiles who had been trained by the CIA landed in Cuba to take control, but poor coordination and a strong defense by the Cuban military quickly repelled the invasion and resulted in most of the attacking force being killed or captured. The attack was widely regarded as a fiasco for the United States and one of the low points for President Kennedy’s administration.
Operation Eagle Claw
In late 1979, Iranian militants took control of the U.S. Embassy in Iran and took several hostages. In April of the following year, a team of Delta Force operators and Navy SEALs launched a rescue operation (called Operation Eagle Claw) to rescue the hostages. However, mechanical failures of vehicles and poor weather conditions doomed the plan from the start. A helicopter crashed into a transport aircraft over the Iranian desert and killed eight American servicemen, which brought the operation to a screeching halt.
Operation Gothic Serpent
Operation Gothic Serpent was a military mission the United States conducted in Somalia in 1993 to capture Somalian warlords who were responsible for disrupting humanitarian aid efforts to the country. However, several Black Hawk helicopters were shot down during the mission over the Somalian capital of Mogadishu, which resulted in a team of Army Rangers and Delta Force operators engaging in a protracted firefight with heavily armed Somalian militia. The Americans took heavy losses and were eventually forced to withdraw from the country. These events were made famous by the 2001 film Black Hawk Down, which was directed by Ridley Scott.
Operation Red Wings
In 2005, the U.S. Navy SEALs led a mission to capture high value Taliban targets in the Kunar region in Afghanistan. A four man SEAL team was inserted into the mountains only to be discovered and attacked by hundreds of Taliban fighters, of which only one SEAL (Marcus Luttrell) survived. A rescue helicopter sent to rescue the SEALs was shot down by an RPG, resulting in the deaths of a further sixteen men. The events of the disastrous mission were dramatized in the 2013 film Lone Survivor, which starred Mark Wahlberg.
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