Customer Reviews

Military Blunders the How and Why of Milit

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My apologies to Saul David. Four or five years ago, I saw a mention of this book here on Amazon and wrote a positive review. Somehow it escaped me that the book I was actually applying my four-star opinion to was called "Military Blunders" alright, but was written by Stephen Eden! It only covered up to WWI! You had to read the sequel to get the rest of the 20th Century! Not the book I read at all! OOPS!

This was the edition I had read, and used as reference, and have recommended to the handful of friends I know who are halfway interested in the "how and why of military failure". Therefore, below is the text of that "other" book's review, which I'll delete tonight.

And, to make up for it, I'm giving this one FIVE stars. Firstly, because I remember agonizing over what to give way back then, four or five. It's really a 4.5 star book, and I usually round up. I really enjoyed it and have read several chapters and sections over since my purchase in 1998. And secondly, because I feel that if a man can give a book he's never read four stars, he should have the right to go back and give the right book five. Make sense? Well, I'm confused. Probably because there are too many books called "Military Blunders".

Anyway, enough of my childishness, here's the old review:

I've had this book for a few years, and have turned to it as reference several times since. The chapters are concise and exciting, with lots of footnote sidebars and decent maps. Especially appreciated by me were the chapters on Goose Green (a battle in the Falklands War which I had never read details of before reading this), Kasserine Pass and the Raid on Dieppe. It also has an outsider's recounting of the events detailed in Andy McNab's excellent Bravo Two-Zero.

I also enjoyed the fact that the chapters are grouped in sections according to why these mistakes were committed. For example, the section on "Meddling Ministers" highlights various governments' failures to support their armies or operations which suffered from critically poor, but politically demanded, timing. Other sections prove the consequences of underestimating the enemy, lament poor performance from the soldiers involved, detail logistical oversights and ommissions, and cast deserved blame on the ineptitude or ignorance of battlefield commanders.

Sectioning makes the book easier to reference and more of a textbook on military disaster than a mere collection of war stories, although it serves admirably in that fashion as well.

This book would make an excellent addition to the library of anyone who has an interest in military strategy, or who has or is about to seize the reigns of command. Highly recommended in any regard.

This is a good popular history of military blunders. Covering battles from Teutoburger Wald to the Falklands this is a readable book that dissects the reasons for military failure. Worth reading for managers too (you can learn a lot about modern business from a book like this).