Edmund L. Blandford

This a collection of incidents from WW II which led to death, destruction or defeat of men and military units because of errors in planning or execution. Some will be familiar with some of the incidents such as Hitler's command to the 6th Army not to retreat from Stalingrad which led to its destruction; but others such as the collection of scrap metal in England early in the war which ended up going to the dump because it would have been too expensive to sort it and remove unusable parts may be less familiar.

There are the usual mistaken bombings of one's own men or sinking friendly ships and the incidents are from both sides.

One can dabble anywhere in this volume as many of the articles are only a few paragraphs long with the longest being about three pages in length. Or you can do as I did, read it cover to cover.… (meer)

Although one might think that from the title of this book, the main focus would be on the events of 6 June, 1944. That action however is only covered for less than a quarter of the books length, the remainder dedicated to subsequent operations up to Falaise. It is this aspect that I found the most disappointing. I can understand focus on the campaign for and about Caen since that was an horrific and brutal exercise, but it seems to me that actual invasion involving Commonwealth forces is being given short shrift.
The interviews were quite well-balanced and grouped effectively. It was also quite astounding to read of malingerers and deserters. I think the author was effective in getting across the feel of the actions following D-Day, but the title of the book is quite misleading.… (meer)