Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory: 20th Century Military Blunders

by Wragg, David

• ISBN13: 9780750924740
• ISBN10: 0750924748
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Trafalgar Square

Summary

At many points in the 20th century, failures in command or political direction have resulted in military campaigns and operations failing to achieve their objectives. This text explores a selection of such instances including Pearl Harbor, the Bay of Pigs, the Falklands and Serbia in 1999.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	v
Introduction	vii
Collision Course, The Far East: Battle of Tsushima, 1905	1	(14)
Tragedy of Lost Opportunities: Gallipoli, 1915--16	15	(17)
Stalemate: the Western Front, 1914--18	32	(9)
When the Royal Navy Lost the Plot: the Convoy War, 1917	41	(5)
Handing Russia to the Bolsheviks: Allied Intervention in Russia, 1918--20	46	(21)
Resisting the Bear: the Winter War, 1939--40	67	(6)
No Plans for the Real War: the Fall of France, 1940	73	(10)
Squaring Up to the Invader: the Norwegian Campaign, 1940	83	(8)
A Bad Start for the Aircraft Carrier, 1939--42	91	(8)
When the Luftwaffe Gave Up: Failure of the Blitz, 1940--1	99	(8)
Ignoring the Lessons of History: Barbarossa, 1941	107	(11)
Empty Gestures: Petsamo and Kirkenes, 1941	118	(4)
Fighting the Weather and the Germans: the Arctic Convoys, 1941--4	122	(7)
The Victory that Never was: Pearl Harbor, 1941	129	(7)
The Price of Complacency: the Fall of Singapore, 1942	136	(9)
Mediterranean Crossroads: the Failure to Invade Malta, 1940--3	145	(7)
An Unclosed Door: the Panama Canal, 1941--5	152	(4)
The Danger of Secrecy: the Channel Dash, 1942	156	(11)
The Day Japan Lost the War: the Battle of Midway, 1942	167	(10)
A Lost Opportunity: Japan's Failure to Understand the Submarine, 1941--5	177	(8)
No Accident: the RAF Raid on Nuremburg, 1944	185	(5)
No Deterrence Encouraged Invasion: the Korean War, 1950--3	190	(7)
Making a Hero of Nasser: Suez, 1956	197	(5)
Counter-Revolution Doomed to Failure: the Bay of Pigs, 1961	202	(5)
A War Lost Far from the Battlefield: Vietnam, 1964--75	207	(10)
Bad Timing: the Falklands, 1982	217	(10)
Unfinished Business: the Gulf War, 1990--1	227	(6)
Victory without Peace: Serbia, 1999	233	(6)
Bibliography	239	(1)
Index	240