How to Lose a War: More Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders

Publisher: William Morrow

Year: 2009

From the Crusades to the modern age of chemical warfare and smart bombs, history is littered with truly disastrous military campaigns. How to Lose a War chronicles some of the most remarkable strategic catastrophes and doomed military adventures of overreaching invaders and clueless defenders—whether the failure was a result of poor planning, miscalculations, monumental ego, or failed intelligence . . . or just a really stupid idea to begin with.

  • Alexander invades India and ends up in deep vindaloo.
  • Sacre bleu! The French are humiliated by Prussia in 1870.
  • Spain’s “invincible navy” breaks up off the coast of Britain while attempting an invasion.
  • the Mau Mau rebellion against the British in Kenya shows us how not to run an insurgency.
  • Chiang Kai-Shek’s pathetic army fails to keep Mao’s Communists from grabbing China.

I wrote about:

The Six Day War

The Egyptian-Wahhabi War

The Weeping Spanish War Wound

 

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