How to Lose a Battle: Foolish Plans and Great Military Blunders
, . . HarperCollins, $13.95 (325pp) ISBN 978-0-06-076024-3
The publisher bills this effort as a "tongue-in-cheek" and "humorous" analysis of the world's worst military disasters. But aside from wry chapter titles (e.g., "Austerlitz: They Fell for It? Austria, 1805"), these are generally straightforward accounts of some of the deadliest carnage in human history. That includes the Civil War's Battle of Antietam—the bloodiest single day in American history, during which some 6,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed and more than 16,000 were wounded—and the three-day Battle of Gettysburg, which resulted in 51,000 casualties on both sides. There's also the WWII Battle of Okinawa, during which more than 12,000 Americans were killed and nearly 32,000 wounded, along with 142,000 estimated Japanese casualties (military and civilian). Fawcett (
Reviewed on: 04/17/2006
Genre: Nonfiction
Other - 336 pages - 978-0-06-197694-0