Days of Infamy : Military Blunders of the 20th Century

by Coffey, Michael; Wallace, Mike

• ISBN13: 9780786865567
• ISBN10: 0786865563
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-25
• Publisher: HYPERION

Summary

A companion volume to the forthcoming 26-episode History Channel series, this fascinating book takes a look at more than 50 of the most historic military blunders of the 20th century. of photos.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
Mike Wallace
Part I EUROPE LOSES ITS WAY---THE FIRST WORLD WAR FROM SARAJEVO TO VERSAILLES	1	(48)
The Assassination of the Archduke	3	(6)
Disaster in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli	9	(10)
The Sinking of the Lusitania	19	(6)
British Battle Cruiser Disaster at Jutland	25	(8)
French Mutiny in the Trenches	33	(7)
The Treaty of Versailles and the Seeds of World War II	40	(9)
Part II THE WORLD GOES TO WAR AGAIN---FROM THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION TO PEARL HARBOR	49	(40)
Stalin's Purges, Hitler's Putsch	51	(7)
Blunders of Hitler's Luftwaffe	58	(7)
German Hesitation at Dunkirk and Operation Sealion	65	(8)
The Pilot Who Bombed London	73	(6)
Hitler's Declaration of War on the U.S.	79	(10)
Part III WORLD WAR II DEEPENS---DISASTERS AT SEA AND DEATH IN WINTER	89	(30)
The Sinking of the Graf Spee	91	(8)
The Gray Ghost of the Queen Mary	99	(4)
The Scattering of Convoy PQ17	103	(7)
Death at Stalingrad: The German Army Gets Trapped	110	(9)
Part IV THE TURNING OF THE TIDE IN WORLD WAR II---FROM THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY TO THE North African Desert	119	(40)
The Sinking of Force Z	121	(8)
Japanese Bungling at Midway	129	(6)
Naval Night Fighting at Guadalcanal	135	(6)
The Disastrous Raid on Dieppe	141	(8)
The Bombing of Monte Cassino	149	(4)
The Last Flight of the Lady Be Good	153	(6)
Part V BRINGING WORLD WAR II TO AN END	159	(42)
Bomber Harris and the Bombing of Berlin	161	(6)
Operation Cobra and Friendly Fire at Saint-Lo	167	(6)
A Bridge Too Far	173	(7)
The Battle of the Bulge	180	(7)
The Bomb Plot to Kill Hitler	187	(7)
USS Indianapolis in a Sea of Sharks	194	(7)
Part VI OF COLD WARS AND HOLY WARS---SUPERPOWER STANDOFFS AND DESERT STORMS	201	(68)
Yalta and the Seeds of the Cold War	203	(13)
From Korea to Dien Bien Phu to the Tet Offensive	216	(10)
The Bay of Pigs	226	(10)
The Spanish H-Bomb Crash: Collision in the Air	236	(7)
The Failed Gorbachev Coup	243	(10)
Disaster in the Desert: Operation Eagle Claw	253	(7)
The Invasion of Kuwait	260	(9)
Index	269