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Kenneth Macksey

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MILITARY ERRORS OF WWII (Cassell Military Paperbacks) Paperback – June 19, 2004

by Kenneth Macksey (Author)

4.7 10 ratings

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Wars and combats without mistakes are unknown. This collection of sixteen specific blunders from the Second World War includes Hitler’s postponement of the ‘invasion of Britain’, ineptitude in the Western Desert, the Arnhem debacle and Japanese errors in the Pacific. Here Kenneth Macksey shows how greed, arrogance, and complacency contributed to some of the worst defeats of the war.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cassell; Reprint edition (June 19, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0304350834
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0304350834
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,973,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #33,736 in World War II History (Books)

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4.7 10 ratings

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4.7 out of 5

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Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2017

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Brilliant condition well written highly recommended

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John Matlock

Good Start on an Interesting Topic

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2006

The only trouble with writing a book on the errors made in WW II, is deciding which ones to throw out. The amazing thing is that after all was over, we won.

The book is well organized and tries to apply some structure to the errors, but it could easily be twice its size. For instance where is Kasserine Pass, the Hurtgen Forest, the whole strategic bomber campaign (well, part of that is covered here), Operation Cobra (where the highest ranking American officer, Lt. Gen. McNair, was killed by our own Air Corps).

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Bryan Tagas

Imperfect in many ways

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2012

As other reviewers have noted, Macksey provides a starting point for an analysis of some of the errors made in WWII, but by no means is this book comprehensive, either in terms of the important military mistakes or with regard to the full scope of the global conflagration. The book is both British-centric (with a lot of unnecessary discussion of the sideshow in North Africa) and Euro-centric (with very little time spent on the war in the Pacific). The bibliography provides a clue as to why the author spends so much time (perhaps a quarter of the book) on the air campaign over the Continent, especially the British night-bombing efforts. He read three books on the subject, and apparently did very little research concerning the Japanese or American air efforts in that other major theatre of the war. While HItler's political/military decision to invade Russia is given some analysis, there is scant discussion of Hitler's equally crazy decision to declare war on the United States simply because he had earlier promised Japan he would do so if they did. He certainly went back on other promises, and it is unclear that a German war with America was the inevitable outcome of Pearl Harbor. Macksey, however, does have some good insights, so if you're interested in the subject you can start here.

One person found this helpful

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Simon Andrews

A Good place to start

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2000

Whilst other reviews might criticise this book for not going into enough detail, it does work out as either a good foundation for further study, or simply as an interesting insight. It covers most aspects of the war, providing unbiased and clear points, with summaries to help simplify the arguments. It demonstrates the sudden changes and shocks that this new, technological world war presented each of the powers, particularly the stubborn Japanese Imperial code, and how the ordinary soldier was affected, often fatally. The book presents a range of careful individual personal profiles, mirroring the events, that so-often suffered from similar flaws, and in turns leads to an intriguing summary of the simple problems that were magnified into major flaws in planning and procedure. This is a good textbook, or a good read.

6 people found this helpful

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Ferenc KOLONITS

A short question to the Author

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2000

I read the book in Hungarian translation (ed. by Alexandra, Pécs, Hungary) and have found it interesting and informative. However:
1. the vacillating behaviour of Adms Inouje&Takagi in Coral Sea Battle is compared with that of Nagumo in Pearl Harbor action and this all is said to be well beyond to the example set at Tsushima by late short-sighted Adm. Togo. Well, everybody has the right to like or dislike Japanese of near or late past, I were, however, grateful to the author for giving even a piece of evidence of vacillating or short-sightedness of Togo(Last but not least: a good one-third of enemy ships succeeded in taking the leeway at Trafalgar, while at Tsushima no capital Russian ship remained afloat. What about Nelson, then?)
2. The picture presented here as VAdm Fukudome, had been published elsewhere (in an excellent overview on Great Sea Battles of XX. Century)as VAdm Kurita.
Sure, they could be consequences of translation, but such a valuable book is worth to a closer look. Just this is I tried to do. Sincerely: KF.

4 people found this helpful

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