[colorado tanker]

The other examples that come readily to mind all involve Hitler, who turned himself into an Allied secret weapon. Driving southeast into Russia before securing Moscow. Refusing to evacuate Stalingrad. Refusing to release the armor reserve during the Normandy invasion. This is a little vague, but I think he also refused to release a reserve in East Prussia that could have helped defend Germany proper from the last Russian offensive.

[SAMWolf]

Hitler also launched an offensive around Lake Balaton to relief Budepest in 1945, while the troops could have been used to defend the approcahes to Berlin.

He also diverted troops to the Caucasus before securing Stalingrad, dooming both offensives to failure.

Then there was his whole "no withdrawal orders" during the entire war that cost hundreds of thousands of troops to be lost. Pouring troops into Tunisia after not supporting Rommel earlier wasn't exactly a good idea.

[Iris7]

I think your examples are good.

The Lake Balaton business used up the Reich's last really effective and mobile units. Perhaps some readers are not familiar with it.

From Wikipedia, "The Lake Balaton Offensive (codenamed Operation Frühlingserwachen, "Spring Awakening"), was the last major offensive action by the Germans during World War II. Launched in great secrecy on March 6, 1945, the attack took place in Hungary around the Lake Balaton area, and involved mostly units withdrawn from the failed Ardennes Offensive (December 1944 - January 1945.)

Despite the extremely muddy terrain conditions, the offensive, spearheaded by Sepp Dietrich's 6.SS-Panzerarmee, took the Soviets by surprise and made an impressive advance for such a late stage in the war. However, once the Soviets became aware of the presence of elite SS units (Hitler's personal unit, the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler took part in the operation) they counterattacked in strength on March 16. But the operation had already been in serious trouble since March 14, with Joseph Goebbels admitting in his diary that failure was likely; three days later, the Germans were back at their original positions. Hopelessly outnumbered and with few armored vehicles remaining (Dietrich sardonically remarked, "6th Panzer Army is well named - we have just six tanks left") the surviving German forces withdrew into Austria in order to defend Vienna.

The operation was a failure, despite early gains, and was a perfect example of Hitler's increasingly erroneous military decisions towards the end of the war. It was aimed at raising the siege of Budapest and defending the Nagykanizsa oilfields (Germany's last source of oil.) Hitler's senior commanders had felt that these elite troops and sizeable amounts of equipment and supplies could have been put to better use elsewhere, particularly on German territory on the Eastern front, and they pleaded with him to "throw everything into the East". However, Hitler insisted on his grand plan to somehow destroy the whole of the Russian Southern/Ukrainian Front."

To much cocaine, morphine, and methamphetine in old Adolf's diet. Adolf had a way with women, too. Of the four women in his life two committed suicide, and one was committed to an asylum, as I recall. Padded wall asylum. The fourth, Eva, Adolf shot.