If By Chance
Military Turning Points
That Changed History

By John Strawson
July 2004
Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 0330492454
260 pages, Illustrated, 5" x 7 ¾"
$18.95 Paper Original

---

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 or 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 surrender?

In examining these and other contingencies, the author 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.


Return to main page of Trans-Atlantic Publications