"Retelling the most spectacular cock-ups in military history, this graphic account has a great deal to say about the psychology of military incompetence and the reasons even the most well-oiled military machines inflict disaster upon themselves. Beginning in AD9 with the massacre of Varus and his legions in the Black Forest all the way up to present day conflict in Afghanistan, it analyses why things go wrong on the battlefield and who is to blame."Jalyss got me this book for Christmas and I finally devoured it before the wedding.
It's exactly what it says on the tin; a look at military blunders. Divided into various chapters focussing on different modes of blunder, from incompetent leaders, to poor planning and intelligence to disastrous excecution.
Some of the stories are tragic, most farcically stupid. Incompetence tends to be a key theme. Many of the same people appear again and again. Churchill appears more often than one might expect.
There's a definite bias towards English disasters, with a very obvious historical bias towards the period of 1850 to 1920 (i.e, Victorian and World War One English military disasters) which is a slight let down, as these are fairly similar in scope and mostly rely on the fact that the Imperial generals underestimated anyone who wasn't white or British.
Still, entertaining, and I learnt some interesting stuff in it, especially the chapter on the American civil war.
Also Try:
Amazon has bout 30 books called Military Blunders, try one of those!
