A professional military historian analyzes the most spectacular cock-ups in  military history caused by everything from incompetent generals to interfering  politicians, hopeless planning and misplaced confidence. 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. It covers more than 30 engagements, beginning in AD9 with the  massacre of Varus and his legions in the Black Forest; including nightmares of  the Victorian Age such as the Retreat from Kabul; crushing reverses of two World  Wars such as the Siege of Kut, Mussolini's invasion of Egypt and the fall of  Singapore; many fiascos such as the Second Crusade, Colenso and the Yalu River;  and continuing right up to the present with Goose Green in the Falklands and the  Bravo Two Zero SAS patrol in the Gulf War. 
Contents: Unfit to command - aged, ill, inexperienced,  indecisive or plain incompetent generals; meddling ministers - fiascos caused by  politicians interfering with or overriding their generals; planning for trouble  - military operations that were doomed to fail because of flaws in the planning  stage; misplaced confidence - catastrophes brought about by a fatal  underestimation of the enemy; a failure to perform - battles and campaigns lost  because of the poor performance of the ordinary soldier.





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