Great Military Blunders

Season 1

TV-G
In war, defeat often comes from mistakes that have lead to disaster. These errors can include making bad plans or not following good ones or underestimating the enemy. This series examines how these kinds of errors have been made in in the history of war where blunders of various types have lead to major, and often humiliating, defeats in times of war.

Where to Watch Season 1

6 Episodes

  • Gods and Monsters
    E1
    Gods and MonstersLooks at three sins which drive great military leaders - arrogance, ambition and vanity and looks at how these attributes manifested themselves in the WWII leadership of Field Marshall Montgomery and General MacArthur.
  • Tin Soldiers
    E2
    Tin Soldiers20th Century beliefs that a new military technology would bring about cleaner wars and reduce casualties are confounded in this look at modern warfare from the Battle of the Somme to the Gulf War.
  • Best Laid Plans
    E3
    Best Laid PlansHistorical examples of grand military plans failing either because they were unrealistic, not followed properly or were created with too much influence of political considerations and interservice-rivalries.
  • Who's Sorry Now?
    E4
    Who's Sorry Now?During the Second World War, the British commander of Singapore believed it to be an impregnable fortress until a numerically inferior Japanese Army overran it. Similarly, 12 years on, the French lost the mountain garrison at Dien Bien Phu after failing to anticipate the resourcefulness of General Giap and his Vietmanese peasant army.
  • Politics by Other Means
    E5
    Politics by Other MeansExamining the strategic failures of politicians. Included: the defeat of the Crusaders at the battle of Hattin in 1187. Also: Fascist Italy led by Benitto Mussolini invades Ethiopian territory in 1935; and Ronald Reagan orders the invasion of Grenada in 1983.
  • Unfit to Lead?
    E6
    Unfit to Lead?Discusses General Elphinstone who led the disastrous British retreat from Kabul in 1839, General Redvers Buller who led men at Spion Kop in the Boer War, and Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering who let the British off the hook at Dunkirk. The programme also looks at the story of General Julian Thompson, commander of the British land forces in the Falklands Campaign in 1982. He blames himself for the death of Lt Colonel H. Jones who died commanding the second battalion of the parachute regiment at Goose Green.

 

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