About:
How to Lose a War at Sea: Foolish Plans and Great Naval Blunders edited by Bill Fawcett is a collection of non-fiction essays. Mr. Fawcett wrote and edited many books including several of this genre.
- 368 pages
- Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0062069098
My rating for How to Lose a War at Sea – 4
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Thoughts:
How to Lose a War at Sea edited by Bill Fawcett is a fascinating collection of more than 30 short essays about naval warfare and oceanic disasters. The book spans decades, there are essays ranging from the days of the Spanish armada to naval blunders from the 1960s.
The essays, sometimes sad, sometimes funny but often ironic detail some of the worst gaffes, mistakes and errors to happen to the navies. These stories tell of egomaniacs whose egos didn’t match reality, miscalculations, the effects of espionage and the importance of planning. I especially liked the essays about the outlandish plans which one could immediately tell they wouldn’t work, yet they somehow got a stamp of approval.
I found this book to be entertaining; I’m always amazed by bad military ideas (or ones which are just plain stupid) and how they changed history. The book is not, and is not meant to be, an encompassing history of these events (for those pick up a book like The Hunt for Hitler’s Warship by Patrick Bishop) but it does give one a glimpse into interesting actswhich, if you choose, you can learn more about.
The book is an excellent choice for those interested in history, naval history or even if you are simply reading books in the off chance that Alex Trebek might call you out of the blue to be on Jeopardy.
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Disclaimer: I got this book for free.
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