All sides in war make innumerable blunders and successes that could have won or lost them the war.

My favorite was Hitler's biggest mistake. Prior to invading Russia, Hitler persuaded Italy to invade Greece and secure his right flank against attack by British forces in the Mediterranean.

Mussolini attacked Greece in the fall of 1940, and was totally humiliated. The Greeks had trained extensively for mountain warfare, and used their country's rugged terrain to their advantage. The Italians got a bloody nose and were totally bogged down, forcing the Germans to postpone Barbarossa and strike south to bail out Il Duce's forces. The Greeks, caught in a vise, were eventually forced to capitulate.

However, because of this, the German attack on Russia was delayed until summer of 1941, and crucial months of spring were denied to the Wehrmacht. By December 6, the day before Pearl Harbor, the Russians stopped the Nazi blitz outside the gates of Moscow and rolled the Germans back. Although they were able to counter-attack the following year, the Germans were never able to regain the ground they had lost. The war was lost for Germany on Pearl Harbor Day, for more reasons than one. And Greece, like at Thermopylae and Salamis, saved Western civilization.