<blockquote> <p> An engrossing and fact-filled collection of the great screwups of the Great War </p> </blockquote> <p> Never had there been a war on the scale of World War II?a global conflict so widespread and involving so many different military organizations from such a diverse pool of combatant countries that the consequences of every decision, both the brilliant and the bad, were multiplied one hundredfold. Bill Fawcett, popular chronicler of monumental military mistakes and truly boneheaded battlefield blunders now looks closely at the historic errors that ultimately determined the course of post-WWII history. </p> <p> A cornucopia of catastrophic missteps, including: </p> <ul> <li>An unprepared Poland is caught napping as the Nazis storm in virtually unopposed </li> <li>Germany misses a golden opportunity to take Britain out of the war at Dunkirk </li> <li>Russia plays Goliath to Finland's David </li> <li>Four valuable months are wasted as Allied forces sit trapped on the beaches of Anzio </li> <li>Germany squanders its costly development of jet power</li> <li>The secret 1942 battle Marshal Zhukov lost, along with half a million soldiers</li> <li>Battles lost that should have been won, including Moscow, Stalingrad, and D-Day</li> </ul>