Publisher's Synopsis
Why was the British force which was sent to recapture Jamaica from the Spaniards in 1654 forced to retreat by the local crabs? Why did Spanish troops in Morocco in 1921 take the extraordinary decision to sell arms to the very men they were fighting? And how could a British tank crew make the ghastly error of machine-gunning one of their own trenches on the Somme in 1916? This second collection of bizarre and baffling examples of military incompetence, from Hannibal to Saddam Hussein, includes detailed case studies which analyze the tactical errors made in battles such as Carrhae, Malplaquet, Omdurman, Passchendaele, the Kasserine Pass and Goose Green.
