What was the biggest mistake made during WWII?

[lmcjaho]

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I was watching a documentary about the Battle of Midway a little while ago, and they were interviewing Japanese veterans to get their story. One of the veterans mentioned something extraordinary -- the Japanese officers were given their ranks based solely (or primarily) on when they graduated from the Japanese Naval Academy. It was strictly a seniority-based system. This allowed many incompetent admirals, vice-admirals, etc... to rise up through the ranks and make all sorts of foolish decisions that helped lose the war for Japan.

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Between this and the fact that it was unheard of for an officer to admit fault (losing face was very important) there were a ton of mistakes that could probably have been prevented in a different society...