Strange But True Military Facts
ISBN: 9781848844353
Pen & Sword Books, 2010
This book was great fun to put together. It contains 500 individual entries concerning the lesser known aspects of military history. A collection of the crazy, insane, bizarre, ridiculous, most bloody, inept, strangest, and hilarious military facts. These include the British general whose troops were massacred by the Ashanti in 1824 because, during the battle, he mistakenly supplied them with boxes full of biscuits instead of ammunition. Then there was the war between Modena and Bologna in 1352, a conflict caused by the theft of an old oak bucket. The fighting lasted for 12 years and cost thousands of lives. Crazy but true.
“Strange But True Military Facts by Steve Crawford, though its title may sound less than eccentric, actually represents a well arranged and illustrated informative collection of some of the most eccentric and peculiar facts from the human history of military conflicts.Despite the gravity of the subject, the book makes a splendid afternoon reading, more entertaining than encyclopaedic: it is not just dry facts and figures, it is an amazing story of human character, the mistakes made through generations and the examples of outstanding courage and heroism.But overall, the book’s presentation and the author’s well placed accents on various details make it into a good table book suitable for both private reading and discussions within a company of friends. It will be equally enjoyed by the teenagers and the retired folks and is a definite must for those compiling intelligent and tricky quiz questions.Over 500 stories and facts eventually bring the reader to a conclusion that there is no war without the world-old problems of miscommunication, misunderstanding, unjustified ambitions and disrespect for the fellow humans, lots of which root, regrettably, in the dark side of human eccentricity bordering with madness.But to study these bizarre examples of human behaviour today seems to be surprisingly timely, so that we would understand better the mistakes done before us and make sure we avoid them in the future, for the sake of us all.It could be justly said that along with the entertaining value of the book, it also serves an important humanitarian purpose.”The Eccentric Club
“This is an amusing and remarkable compendium of little-known anecdotes from military history. Divided into themed chapters that cover commanders, actions on the battlefield, military blunders, the logistics of warfare, and the history of weaponry, this book tells the stories that are often overlooked. It also contains information boxes throughout that provide the reader with intriguing, thought-provoking and unfamiliar, but true, facts from the annals of warfare.”
Classic Arms and Militaria
