How to Lose a Battle

Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders

Bill Fawcett

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9780060760243
• eBook ISBN:
  9780061976940
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Theory & Criticism
• Index: History

A remarkable compendium of the worst military
decisions and the men who made them

The annals of history are littered with horribly bad military leaders. These combat incompetents found amazing ways to ensure their army's defeat. Whether it was a lack of proper planning, miscalculation, ego, bad luck, or just plain stupidity, certain wartime stratagems should never have left the drawing board. Written with wit, intelligence, and eminent readability, How to Lose a Battle pays dubious homage to these momentous and bloody blunders, including:

Cannae, 216 B.C.: the bumbling Romans lose 80,000 troops to Hannibal's forces.

The Second Crusade: an entire Christian army is slaughtered when it stops for a drink of water.

The Battle of Britain: Hitler's dreaded Luftwaffe blows it big-time.

Pearl Harbor: more than one warning of the impending attack is there, but nobody listens.

How to Lose a Battle includes more than thirty-five chapters worth of astonishing (and avoidable) disasters, both infamous and obscure -- a treasure trove of trivia, history, and jaw-dropping facts about the most costly military missteps ever taken.

SEARCHABLE TERMS

Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

Abdullahi, Khalifa, 206

Aemilius Paullus, 19–20, 21

African troops

at Cannae, 18, 21, 24

See also Numidian troops

Agincourt, 48–56

Ahmad, Mahdi Muhammad, 201–7

Alamo, 83, 84–85, 87, 88, 89

Alexander the Great, 1–10

Algiers/Algeria, 290, 307

American Revolution, 57–62, 185–86

annihilation, concept of single

battle of, 124

Antietam, 99–105, 120, 121, 123, 126, 155

Arabs, 304–10

Arafat, Yasser, 305, 309

Arbela, 1–10

Aref, Abdur Rahman, 307

Arimanes, 27, 28

Armenia, 27, 28

Arminius, 37, 38, 39, 41

Arnhim, General Hans Jurgen von, 296, 297–98

Artabazus, 26, 28

Austerlitz, 124, 145, 147

Australia, 269, 278, 279

Austria, 73–81

Austro-Hungary, 221, 222, 242

Bagration, Prince, 78

Bainbridge, William, 68–72

Baker, Newton D., 241

Balaclava, Crimea, 91–98

Balian of Ibelin, 46

Ballynamuck, 63–67

Barbarosa, Operation, 286

Barbary pirates, 68–72

Baring, Evelyn, 207

Bataan, 268–69

Belgium, 226–33, 248, 249, 250

Ben-Gurion, David, 306

Bingham, George C. See Lucan, Earl of

Black Prince (Edward, Prince of England), 48, 49

Black troops, in American Civil War, 162–68, 170, 177, 179–80, 181, 182, 183–84, 185, 186

Boers, 188, 193–200, 240

Bonaparte, Napoleon

at Austerlitz, 73–81, 124

Humbert compared with, 64

and luck, 158

and Russia, 156

Santa Anna compared with, 84, 85, 86, 89

at Waterloo, 124, 125

and winter campaigns, 58, 156

Boot, Max, 69

Bosquet, Pierre F. J., 98

Boxer Rebellion, 219–25

Bradley, Omar, 114, 120, 170

Britain

and Agincourt, 48–56

and American Revolution, 57–62, 186

and Ballynamuck, 63–67

Battle of, 246–56

and Boer Wars, 193–200, 240

and Boxer Rebellion, 219–20

and China, 219–20

and Crimean War, 91–98

and Egypt, 201–7

and El Alamein, 294

and France, 48–56, 63–67, 227, 231, 232

and Germany, 215–18, 246–56, 290, 294–98

and Ireland, 234–40

and Isandhlwana, 187–92

and Japan, 268, 269

and Khartoum, 201–7

and Majuba Hill, 193–200

and Napoleonic Wars, 73, 74

and Operation Torch, 290, 294–98

and Palestine, 304, 305

and Samoa, 215–18

and...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• The Battle of Arbela
• Exodus
• The Battle of Cannae
• The Battle of Carrhae
• Teutoburg Forest
• The Horns of Hattin
• The Battle of Agincourt
• The Battle of Trenton
• The Battle of Ballynamuck
• Bad Luck of Billy Bainbridge
• Austerlitz
• The Battle of San Jacinto
• The Charge of the Light Brigade
• Antietam
• Chancellorsville
• Gettysburg:
• Gettysburg:
• The Crater:
• The Crater:
• Battle of Isandhlwana
• The Battle of Majuba Hill
• Gordon and the Siege of Khartoum
• The Philippines Theater
• Samoa
• The Boxer Rebellion
• The Schlieffen Plan
• The Easter Rising
• European Siberian Invasion
• A Clash of Eagles
• Pearl Harbor
• Midway
• Guadalcanal
• Stalingrad
• Kasserine Pass
• Okinawa
• The Six-Day War
• Dien Bien Phu
• Epilogue
• Searchable Terms
• About the Editor
• Copyright
• About the Publisher