Great Military Disasters

Great Military Disasters PDF Author: Julian Spilsbury
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
ISBN: 178429215X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Great Military Disasters tells the dramatic stories behind the world's most calamitous conflicts. From the French army's failure to understand the impact of new technology at Crécy to Hitler's blatant overconfidence at Stalingrad, military historian Julian Spilsbury provides thrilling accounts of each disaster, covering exactly what went wrong, how and why. Of course, a disastrous outcome for one side meant victory for another, so as well as exploring the reasons the conflict ended in disaster, Great Military Disasters also reveals the key to victory. Eyewitness quotations add another dimension to this intriguing study of human incompetence of the gravest kind.

Great Military Disasters

Great Military Disasters PDF Author: Julian Spilsbury
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
ISBN: 178429215X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Great Military Disasters tells the dramatic stories behind the world's most calamitous conflicts. From the French army's failure to understand the impact of new technology at Crécy to Hitler's blatant overconfidence at Stalingrad, military historian Julian Spilsbury provides thrilling accounts of each disaster, covering exactly what went wrong, how and why. Of course, a disastrous outcome for one side meant victory for another, so as well as exploring the reasons the conflict ended in disaster, Great Military Disasters also reveals the key to victory. Eyewitness quotations add another dimension to this intriguing study of human incompetence of the gravest kind.

Snafu

Snafu PDF Author: Geoffrey Regan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Arrogant Armies

Arrogant Armies PDF Author: James M. Perry
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 0470347058
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Nothing goes wrong quite so dramatically as a disastrous military expedition."--from the Introduction ARROGANT ARMIES Spanning more than two hundred years of martial adventurism, aggression, and outright blundering, Arrogant Armies chronicles the profoundly misguided and utterly calamitous military expeditions of the great empire builders and overconfident expeditionary forces. From colonial America to South Africa, from Mesopotamia to Khartoum, an extraordinary number of presumably superior armies grievously underestimated native forces. Using contemporary newspaper accounts, military memoirs, diaries of soldiers who fought in the battles, and other firsthand letters and papers, noted journalist James Perry brings a sense of urgency and immediacy to these historic defeats. At times devastating, at times hilarious, his vast panorama of human folly is peopled by frightened soldiers, zealous native resistance, and, of course, a colorful gallery of arrogant, often inept officers. Many of them received their ultimate comeuppance in these battles: Generals Edward Braddock, Charles MacCarthy, William R. Shafter, Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend, Charles "Chinese" Gordon, William George Keith Elphinstone, Manuel Fernandez Silvestre, and others. What is most remarkable about Arrogant Armies is the cumulative power of these ironic encounters. Black humor, brutality, staggering incompetence, and genuine drama come together with devastating force. In Arrogant Armies Perry casts a sharply critical eye on what he describes as the "small wars, what Kipling called the 'savage wars of peace.'" It is fascinating history and a compelling commentary on politics and "the dark side of the human race . . . its deadly preoccupation with war." "As one of our nation's top political reporters, Jim Perry has covered his share of political disasters. Now he has turned his skills to this sad but brilliant chronicle of military disasters. In the process, he has produced a classic."--Sander Vanocur The History Channel "Jim Perry has long been one of America's great political reporters. This has been perfect training to write this marvelous book, Arrogant Armies. Having covered more than a few contemporary political disasters, Perry is able to brilliantly, often hilariously, capture the worst military blunders of the past several hundred years. These fiascoes span the globe from the Middle East to Southeast Asia to Haiti, and chronologically from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. There are common characteristics: commanders afflicted with drunkenness, debauchery, arrogance, and often just plain stupidity. With vitality, a sense of irony and history, Jim Perry gives you a battle-side seat at these debacles."--Albert R. Hunt Executive Washington Editor Wall Street Journal "Jim Perry has done, in Arrogant Armies, what he has always done. He has told us stories we haven't heard before. He has explored an unmined vein of history with enthusiasm, skill, and style. History buffs will delight in Arrogant Armies. I'm not so sure, however, about the generals."=Roger Mudd The History Channel

Great Military Disasters

Great Military Disasters PDF Author: Michael E. Haskew
Publisher: Parragon Pubishing India
ISBN: 9781407555638
Category : Battles
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Provides detailed coverage and tactical maps of various historic battles from Cannae to Mogadishu.

Military Blunders (Large Print 16pt)

Military Blunders (Large Print 16pt) PDF Author: Saul David
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant
ISBN: 9781459672765
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Book Description
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.

The 100 Worst Military Disasters in History

The 100 Worst Military Disasters in History PDF Author: John T. Kuehn
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
The 100 Worst Military Disasters in History is a fascinating collection that educators, students, and historians will all find useful in helping them understand the causes and consequences of the most infamous military failures in history. The dynamics of military disaster are equally, if not more, important as understanding how to achieve success on the battlefield. This comprehensive book covers the complete gamut of human history as it tells the compelling stories of the worst military debacles of all time. It covers battles, campaigns, and wars, starting with the ancient Persians and Greeks and finishing with the U.S. conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not limited to land warfare, however, the book also includes a number of the most disastrous naval engagements and campaigns in world history. The 100 Worst Military Disasters in History opens with a detailed introduction illuminating the role military strategy and politics played in some of the worst battlefield failures throughout history. The entries are augmented with several engaging sidebars related to various military disasters. This eclectic collection includes coverage of many lesser known military disasters such as the Taiping Rebellion, during which 20 times more Chinese died than the number of people killed in the American Civil War.

Great Military Disasters

Great Military Disasters PDF Author: Julian Spilsbury
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781435124455
Category : Battles
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Arrogant Armies

Arrogant Armies PDF Author: James Moorhead Perry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Great Military Blunders

Great Military Blunders PDF Author: Geoffrey Regan
Publisher: Madcap
ISBN: 9780233005096
Category : Battles
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
"From ancient times to the Bay of Pigs and the Falklands War, military history has been marked as much by misjudgements and incompetence as by gallantry and glory. In this fascinating and entertaining collection, author Geoffrey Regan recounts some of the staggering stories of military blunder. His anecdotes encompass every aspect of warfare from the insanity of commanders to the provision of inadequate supplies."--Back cover.

Great Military Disasters

Great Military Disasters PDF Author: Charles Messenger
Publisher: Gallery Books
ISBN: 9780831740160
Category : Battles
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description