
A professional military historian analyzes the most spectacular cock-ups in military history caused by everything from incompetent generals to interfering politicians hopeless planning & misplaced confidence. This graphic account has a great deal to say about the psychology of military incompetence & 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 & 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 Mussolinis invasion of Egypt & the fall of Singapore; many fiascos such as the Second Crusade Colenso & the Yalu River; & continuing right up to the present with Goose Green in the Falklands & the Bravo Two Zero SAS patrol in the Gulf War.