WW2 Wasteful operations
I would add:
The Battle of El Alamein; as bloody as your average WW I battle and totally unnecessary since the Allies were landing one week later 1.500 miles in Rommels back near his logistic base (Operation TORCH). Whether the battle would be won or lost or fought at all, the result was the same: Rommel would have been forced to withdraw. The Allies knew this of course, but a 'pure' British victory in the disasterous year 1942 was a political necessety to strengthens Churchill's negotiating position at the Conference of Casablanca. (Roosevelt had the Battle of Midway!).
The six months clearing of an irrelevant and doomed German Army in Tunesia (Dec. 1942 till May 1943).
The invasion of Sicily without blocking the German retreat route over the street of Messina (could otherwise have been a solid victory).
The invasion of Italy (Salerno) instead of France in 1943.
The attack on the Hürtgen Woods in Jan. 1945.
Actually the list is almost endless, but in my opinion the decision to knock Italy out of the war in 1943 instead of making France participate in 1943 is the worst.
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