Loose Cannons: 101 Myths, Mishaps and Misadventurers of Military History (General Military) - Tapa dura

"Loose Cannons exposes many long-held myths about military leaders and operations, from the idea that Hitler was a vegetarian obsessed by occult to the invention of the 'Mau-Mau' organization and the fact that the Japanese were trying to complete their own nuclear warhead when the Americans beat them. An outstanding trivia fact book for any military library." --The Midwest Book Review (February 2010) "Frequently amusing, often silly, and on occasion interesting, Graeme Donald's Loose Cannons: Myths, Mishaps, and Misadventures of Military History offers a distracting romp through a series of historical myths relating to military history... Donald's dry wit contributes mightily to what makes Loose Cannons a fun, breezy read. It isn't scholarship (and the more persnickety at times will wail about his lack of footnotes or corroboration), but this won't detract from the enjoyment one gets from romping through these distracting, myth-busting vignettes." --Jordan Magill, San Francisco Book Review (March 2010) "A funny, often irreverent look at two thousand years of lies, inaccuracies, progaganda, deceit, downright foolishness, and little-known facts from the world of militaria... Military mishaps and misconceptions are explored in this entertaining expose of long-held myths that we generally hold to be the unvarnished truth." --History Magazine (April/May 2010)

Who tried to bomb Japan with bats? Who invented the air-gun in 250BC? Which stories should we believe? The so-called Dambusters raid was all but ineffective; the Hurricane not the Spitfire was the champion of the Battle of Britain; Singapore did not fall because all the guns were pointing the wrong way' and who would go to war over a game of football, a pig, or an old bucket? Oppenheimer fluffed his lines after the first atomic test; virtually every well-known quote attributed the Duke of Wellington is wrong; Churchill had a BBC voice impersonator record all his famous WW2 speeches as he was invariably too busy or too 'tired and emotional' to do it himself and no-one at the time called WW1 'The War to end all Wars'. Will you believe the truth?