Great Military Blunders (Documentary, English)
Genres: War, History
Status: Ended
Premiered: 2000-02-24
Ended: 2000-03-30
Network: Channel 4
Country: GB
Airs on: Thursday
Runtime: 60 minutes
We have long saluted military genius and bravery. But the other side of the coin is military incompetence – a largely preventable, tragically expensive, yet totally absorbing aspect of human behaviour.From the Crusades to Vietnam, history is littered with examples of stupidity, obduracy, brutality and sheer breath-taking incompetence. Lack of communication, technological failure and a misplaced sense of superiority have led to the deaths of thousands of ordinary soldiers, let down by their masters and betrayed by arrogance. Using a combination of history, human interest and archive footage underpinned by powerful story-telling, Great Military Blunders charts man's folly and cruelty in a series of stunning debacles, spanning almost a thousand years of conflict.