One of the major aspects of war is logistics. You can't just rush a fighting force to the scene, you have to support them once they're there. So anything you can do to disrupt or waste enemy resources is to your advantage.
The famous Dam Busters mission not only knocked out electricity for many factories and did enormous flood damage, the aftermath directly affected the Normandy invasion. The manpower and resources involved in repairing the dams took away workers, steel, and concrete from building the Atlantic Wall.
Hitler's meddling by the desire for bigger and better led to stupid projects like the
Panser VIII MAUS tank, twice the size of a Tiger with an 5" / 128mm gun. A couple testers were built, at the expense of engineers, factory time, and 188 tons of resources to make a motorized blob that couldn't cross unprepared bridges or move fast enough to get out of the way. Not big enough for the German Ego you say? Why, let's crank out the
Landkreuzer P.1000 Ratte! (Rats are bigger than mice, you see). And a svelte 1000 tons, it sported a twin gun 8" Cruiser (yes, navy cruiser ship thing) on six tracks and a crew of 2-3 dozen of Germany's finest to load the damn cannons, AND operate the Anti-Aircraft Battery On The Back End Of This Beast! Because oh, you know, passing aircraft just might see a huge iron box the size of a small apartment building plodding along and decide to shoot at it. Better make that TWO anti-aircraft batteries.
Ok, maybe this would have made a nice portable siege weapon but you probably want it to move faster than 10 mph. Hey! There's an idea? Just skip the armor, put
railway wheels on the thing, and hope we can go through tunnels! Of course we have to hide it after spending the day shooting multi ton shells at the nearby (20+ miles) city, one per hour, so let's make our own tunnel to put it in. And hope the bombers don't seal the entrance. Drat. Maybe we need more bombers instead.
Back in my Air Force days, there were tons of professional reading material available, and one was a military review sort of thing, dealing with older conflicts with modern methods. One paper accounted for the Eastern Front vs Hitler. Hitler kept sending more tanks instead of spare parts (logistics again). The author calculated that 30 or more tanks could have been serviced for battle for the cost of producing one replacement tank. And the replacements were pretty useless quickly because the Same Parts were wearing out - seals, bearing, filters and so on. The comparison was the post Pearl Harbor response of sending a squadron (7 aircraft) of B-17 bombers to Australia to help defend the north from Japanese held parts of Borneo. By the time they got there, one aircraft was unserviceable. It was promptly cannibalized for the rest. More aircraft dropped out each day, so after a week or so of missions, the squadron was grounded. It was another month before the (ship borne) spare parts arrived. Logistics fail.
My WWII veteran father told me of a great but apocryphal story of the Boo-boo Maru. War planners knew of the Japanese warship buildup prior to Dec 41, and allowed a set of plans be captured by the Japanese. And, boy what a battle ship - 20" guns? These were 24". 14 Inch thick armor? How about 22 inches. Four propellers, try 5! And on and on, all of it larger and non-standard from what the Imperial Navy had or could make. The plans were carefully reviewed, then put into actions. More than two years later the ship was ready for launch - the most powerful war wagon on the planet, courtesy the USA. Speeches, Flags, Ceremony, and lo -- it slid down the ways, splashed into the water, bobbed, and rolled over.
Ho ho! Great idea if it actually happened, but hey - that's how you fight a war. Courtesy Sun-Tsu, the order of battle is:
- - Attack the plan
- Attack the man
- Attack the alliances
- Attack the resources
- Attack the army in the field
- Attack the cities
Resources is logistics. No logistics, no army in the field.