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Great Military Disasters: A History Of Incompetence
Military history is overflowing with successful campaigns by celebrated commanders. Less well known are the wartime tragedies of incompetence, miscalculation and misfortune that have dishonored the names of once-proud generals, wasted the lives of thousands of soldiers, and resulted in the loss of precious territory and power.
From the carnage at the Battle of Mount Tabor in 1125 BC to the humiliating French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Julian Spilsbury chronicles the most disastrous military operations of all time. Why did Napoleon fail to conquer Moscow in 1812? Which generals were responsible for such shocking losses on the battlefields of WWI? And what prevented Hitler's 6th Army panzers from capturing Stalingrad?
A host of factors can lead to military disaster. In 1876, at the Battle of Little Bighorn, General Custer's 7th Cavalry paid the price of his overconfidence and complacency, suffering a shocking defeat by the largest gathering of Native American warriors ever witnessed. At Tannenberg in 1914, technological ineptitude and bad luck spelled disaster for the Russians, when the interception of an un-coded message led to German victory and General Samsonov's suicide. Detailed here are 20 absorbing accounts of how the misguided actions of just a few men, be it through arrogance, ignorance or gross stupidity, brought about the downfall of some of history's greatest armies.
Accompanied by eyewitness quotations and 50 dramatic illustrations, Great Military Disasters is both an absorbing overview of the world's major conflicts and an intriguing study of military incompetence of the gravest kind.
From the carnage at the Battle of Mount Tabor in 1125 BC to the humiliating French defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Julian Spilsbury chronicles the most disastrous military operations of all time. Why did Napoleon fail to conquer Moscow in 1812? Which generals were responsible for such shocking losses on the battlefields of WWI? And what prevented Hitler's 6th Army panzers from capturing Stalingrad?
A host of factors can lead to military disaster. In 1876, at the Battle of Little Bighorn, General Custer's 7th Cavalry paid the price of his overconfidence and complacency, suffering a shocking defeat by the largest gathering of Native American warriors ever witnessed. At Tannenberg in 1914, technological ineptitude and bad luck spelled disaster for the Russians, when the interception of an un-coded message led to German victory and General Samsonov's suicide. Detailed here are 20 absorbing accounts of how the misguided actions of just a few men, be it through arrogance, ignorance or gross stupidity, brought about the downfall of some of history's greatest armies.
Accompanied by eyewitness quotations and 50 dramatic illustrations, Great Military Disasters is both an absorbing overview of the world's major conflicts and an intriguing study of military incompetence of the gravest kind.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 26, 2020
Overconfidence. Bad luck. Complacency. Ineptitude. Inferior technology. Gross stupidity. Adverse weather. Poor ground. These are all fairly good reasons for the calamities of war highlighted in this book. It's not a collection of all the military disasters of all time, but it's a good selection chosen for specific causes.
It begins in 1125 BC at Mount Tabor, the Canaanites versus the Israelites. When Sisera, the Canaanite prince, started to force the Hebrews into servitude, war became inevitable. The new arrivals had a devotion to just one god, Jehovah, and their austere creed gave them a fierce willpower to reject the overseers. The Canaanites had controlled the area for some time and thought a war would be quickly won. Sisera and his army believed they were the predators, when in fact, they turned out to be the prey. As Napoleon would later state, "The moral is to the physical as three is to one."
There is the Roman Army debacle at Teutoburger Wald in 9 AD. The German hordes tricked the cocky Romans into an ambush and it was nearly the end of Rome's territorial ambitions. 20,000 men were annihilated, their bones still being found years later. The few who were captured alive were sacrificed to the German pagan gods. The lesson here was poor leadership, Quintilius Varus being more accustomed to the pleasures of leisure than of war. Oops.
Most readers of history know of the 1812 Moscow campaign that started with Napoleon's great hopes and ended with the loss of 500,000 men, dead or captured. The few who made it back to France were mere skeletons, defeated as much by the Russian winter as by war itself. When Tsar Alexander I stated, "Winter will fight on our side", he knew Mother Nature was to be a true ally.
There are more disasters, including three in World War I alone (ineptitude, ineptitude, ineptitude). For me, the revelation was the battle of Dien Bien Phu, when the Viet Cong took down the French in 1954. Among the Vietnamese, it would be remembered as a great victory. Among the French it would be remembered as la cuvette, the 'toilet bowl'. Never underestimate an enemy, especially if that enemy is fighting on home ground for a moral cause.
This book definitely worked for me. I am not especially knowledgeable about historic battles, so the selections and explanations were quite succinct. It's not a huge book, more of a coffee-table type look at war. Easy to read with plenty of pictures and photographs and chapter boxes that focus on particular issues.
Book Season = Year Round (attack like a tiger)
It begins in 1125 BC at Mount Tabor, the Canaanites versus the Israelites. When Sisera, the Canaanite prince, started to force the Hebrews into servitude, war became inevitable. The new arrivals had a devotion to just one god, Jehovah, and their austere creed gave them a fierce willpower to reject the overseers. The Canaanites had controlled the area for some time and thought a war would be quickly won. Sisera and his army believed they were the predators, when in fact, they turned out to be the prey. As Napoleon would later state, "The moral is to the physical as three is to one."
There is the Roman Army debacle at Teutoburger Wald in 9 AD. The German hordes tricked the cocky Romans into an ambush and it was nearly the end of Rome's territorial ambitions. 20,000 men were annihilated, their bones still being found years later. The few who were captured alive were sacrificed to the German pagan gods. The lesson here was poor leadership, Quintilius Varus being more accustomed to the pleasures of leisure than of war. Oops.
Most readers of history know of the 1812 Moscow campaign that started with Napoleon's great hopes and ended with the loss of 500,000 men, dead or captured. The few who made it back to France were mere skeletons, defeated as much by the Russian winter as by war itself. When Tsar Alexander I stated, "Winter will fight on our side", he knew Mother Nature was to be a true ally.
There are more disasters, including three in World War I alone (ineptitude, ineptitude, ineptitude). For me, the revelation was the battle of Dien Bien Phu, when the Viet Cong took down the French in 1954. Among the Vietnamese, it would be remembered as a great victory. Among the French it would be remembered as la cuvette, the 'toilet bowl'. Never underestimate an enemy, especially if that enemy is fighting on home ground for a moral cause.
This book definitely worked for me. I am not especially knowledgeable about historic battles, so the selections and explanations were quite succinct. It's not a huge book, more of a coffee-table type look at war. Easy to read with plenty of pictures and photographs and chapter boxes that focus on particular issues.
Book Season = Year Round (attack like a tiger)
February 2, 2019
Relata as fazes das batalhas onde os Mandantes(Reis, Generais, Imperadores, Etc) acham que é batalha ganha e por questões de temporais(Tempo), ou descuido e incompetência, lavam à morte de milhares de vidas(Soldados) e sua derrota! Este livro leva-mos a reflectir o que é a guerra, deve ser evitada a todo o custo, mas há tempos em que a guerra é inevitável(Caso da II Guerra Mundial)!!!
February 22, 2021
I realised a few things after reading the book:
1/ I'm not entirely a fan of history books
2/ I'm even less enthusiastic about military history
3/ Military history books are indigestible without visual aids like maps and charts.
1/ I'm not entirely a fan of history books
2/ I'm even less enthusiastic about military history
3/ Military history books are indigestible without visual aids like maps and charts.
May 9, 2020
Filled with facts - and some great quotes and anecdotes - but not easy to relate or interpret. Pictures, maps and timelines would have have added to readability.
January 3, 2011
Generally a good book as it gives a summation of 20 military disasters. History has rather more than that and it would be difficult to cover them all in the space of a single book. It is a very readable book as the author has a chatty style and covers the human side of disaster fairly well with quotes from the participants. One chapter is devoted to each battle and includes the prelude to the battle, the battle itself and a summation of what happened. The ostensible goal of the battle is described as well as, in some cases, the participants actual reason for fighting (where known). The reasons for failure - above and beyond the usual ones for every battle is a failure for one side and a success for the other - are given and also the consequences in tactical or strategic terms. The personalities of the main players are also set out as it is often the case that personality is the cause of misjudgment.
It suffers from one glaring omission and that is the absence of maps. It is difficult to follow the description of which group went where and why they might have taken longer than expected.
Interesting inclusions in his list are Mount Tabor, taken from the bible account, Little Big Horn, significant for the effect on the American psyche rather than the death toll which was fairly minor and Dien Bien Phu, a modern battle that can still be remembered by many living today.
I don't agree with all of the inclusions in the book. Some disasters, like Isandhlwana should not really be considered disastrous given the fairly small death toll. Some disasters, like the Dieppe Raid were not included despite having a significant - and one-sided - death toll.
It should be noted, and the author did note it, that every disaster for one side is a great victory for the other. Reading about great victories does not always inform in the same way that reading about great defeats does as there is more to be learned from failure than from success.
I would recommend the book for those wanting an overview of military disasters but the lack of maps prevents me from giving it 4 stars.
It suffers from one glaring omission and that is the absence of maps. It is difficult to follow the description of which group went where and why they might have taken longer than expected.
Interesting inclusions in his list are Mount Tabor, taken from the bible account, Little Big Horn, significant for the effect on the American psyche rather than the death toll which was fairly minor and Dien Bien Phu, a modern battle that can still be remembered by many living today.
I don't agree with all of the inclusions in the book. Some disasters, like Isandhlwana should not really be considered disastrous given the fairly small death toll. Some disasters, like the Dieppe Raid were not included despite having a significant - and one-sided - death toll.
It should be noted, and the author did note it, that every disaster for one side is a great victory for the other. Reading about great victories does not always inform in the same way that reading about great defeats does as there is more to be learned from failure than from success.
I would recommend the book for those wanting an overview of military disasters but the lack of maps prevents me from giving it 4 stars.
June 12, 2012
Very informative and easy to read, interesting to see the evolution of warfare from Hannibal through the Middle Ages,Bannockburn,Crecy and The Somme, Stalingrad.
The one issue with this book is it would have benefited from a few maps to give a better picture of the battlefields.
The one issue with this book is it would have benefited from a few maps to give a better picture of the battlefields.
October 26, 2024
I liked the idea - perhaps I am blood-thirsty and like to read about people making mistakes - but the book suffered through a lack of maps (at least, the paperback version I had). Much of the details went over my head - I was unable to carry in my head a picture of what was going on,
May 24, 2023
A great introduction to some of the flash points of Military history, especially keen to read more about Dien Ben Phu now.
September 17, 2025
A map would be so helpful to understand all of the troop movements the author describes.
January 3, 2018
Interessante geschiedenisverhalen, maar het verhaal zelf kon een stuk beter en begrijpbaarder met wat illustraties en schema's Bv. Verdun's geografische ligging, de verschillende fronten en de evolutie ervan in de tijd maken de situatie veel vatbaarder en inzichtelijker. In die zin vind ik Belaagd en Belegerd iets beter. Vertaling ook niet altijd top. Een nipte 3-ster.
November 16, 2010
this book is very good. Very informative!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews