Signal Catastrophe: The Story of the Disastrous Retreat from Kabul, 1842

by Patrick Macrory

An excellent account of the British Army's Afghan campaign which resulted in disaster, 1839-1842,
1966 publication, book society alternative choice.

Genres: History

288 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Eric Chang · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book you'll realize John Le Carre was right: many glorious empirical adventures are not about national interests at all, instead they were nothing more than petty schemes concocted by desk clerks who were desperate for promotions after a lifetime shuffling papers, and as long as he can recruit other desperate desk clerks like himself up the chains, they can build a case for invasion of any country. Don't matter it's Afghan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc.. You see the same thing even in private corporations too. The only difference is: military adventures like these can turn into a disaster for everyone involved, in this case the desk clerk himself and his family got wiped from the human gene pool and got what they deserved, along with 12,000 British invaders and their families.

[Elliot Hadley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a lot of backstory which I got a bit bogged down in but then once the a action started I was hooked