The deadly matter of waging war is no precise science. No matter how skillful the commander, the sheer unpredictability of battle, compounded usually by fear and uncertainty, is a guarantee of unrehearsed chaos. In this fascinating book, noted historian Kenneth Macksey shows how every high command involved in the Second World War suffered variously from unpreparedness, complacency, delay, over-confidence or plain ineptitude, among other sins. No theatre of operation was exempt from major error. The sixteen specific examples featured here range from Hitler's failure to take Britain in 1940, the troubles in the Western Desert campaign, the political interference in the air war over Germany, the allied failure at Arnhem and the extraordinary Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944.