A professional military historian analyzes the most spectacular cock-ups in military history caused by everything from incompetent generals to interfering politicians, hopeless planning and misplaced confidence. This graphic account has a great deal to say about the psychology of military incompetence and the reasons even the most well-oiled military machines inflict disaster upon themselves. It covers more than 30 engagements, beginning in AD9 with the massacre of Varus and his legions in the Black Forest; including nightmares of the Victorian Age such as the Retreat from Kabul; crushing reverses of two World Wars such as the Siege of Kut, Mussolini's invasion of Egypt and the fall of Singapore; many fiascos such as the Second Crusade, Colenso and the Yalu River; and continuing right up to the present with Goose Green in the Falklands and the Bravo Two Zero SAS patrol in the Gulf War.

Contents: Unfit to command - aged, ill, inexperienced, indecisive or plain incompetent generals; meddling ministers - fiascos caused by politicians interfering with or overriding their generals; planning for trouble - military operations that were doomed to fail because of flaws in the planning stage; misplaced confidence - catastrophes brought about by a fatal underestimation of the enemy; a failure to perform - battles and campaigns lost because of the poor performance of the ordinary soldier.