If by Chance: Military Turning Points That Changed History

Could Napoleon have won the Battle of Waterloo? Or suppose Nelson had not destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir, would Napoleon have conquered India and become Emperor of the East?If Lord Cardigan had shown some initiative at Balaklava and exploited the Heavy Brigade's startling success by instantly charging with his Light Brigade there and then, the battle would have been a triumph for both the cavalry and the British army.What if Hitler had not halted his panzer forces before Dunkirk and had entrapped the entire British Expeditionary Force? How would Churchill have then defied the Wehrmacht? Or had Hitler been assassinated in 1944 and the German General Staff taken control, withdrawing their armies to the east and allowing the Anglo-American forces to occupy Germany, would there have been a totally different kind of surrender?In examining these and other contingencies, Major General Strawson brings his experience of command in war and his skill as a military historian to present us with a catalogue of chance and speculation, while emphasizing how profoundly the character of commanders influenced events and how events affected their character.