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Military history is littered with some appalling blunders, many that led to major defeats. This book looks at eighteen battles and campaigns that the author judged to have included a major blunder - most ended in a major defeat, although the author also includes the Charge of the Light Brigade, an incident during an otherwise successful battle, and the Battle of Antietam, where the blunder is the failure to win a more major victory.
The book covers a lot of ground in its sixty four pages, so each chapter is really more of an overview of the battle than a detailed analysis, but some consistent themes do emerge, most often underestimating your opponent (again Antietam is the opposite, where McClellan performed just about as normal, massively overestimating the size of Lee's army). Each chapter gives a general overview of events and looks at the blunder in question.
This book will be of most interest to someone just getting into military history - those with more knowledge won't find much new. The range of topics is quite impressive, although is almost entirely taken from American and British history (only Stalingrad doesn't include one or the other of the two).
Chapters
The Battle of Stirling Bridge
The Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Flodden Field
The Battle of Saratoga
The Battle of Bladensburg
The Battle of New Orleans
The Retreat from Kabul
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Little Bighorn
The Battle of Isandlwana
The Gallipoli Campaign
The Battle of the Somme
Defense of the Philippines
The Fall of Singapore
The Battle of Stalingrad
Operation Market Garden
Operation Eagle Claw
Author: Bill Lucas
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 64
Publisher: Park Lane Books
Year: 2013