The Chop

John Bayley

  • A History of Warfare by John Keegan
    Hutchinson, 432 pp, £20.00, September 1993, ISBN 0 09 174527 6
  • How Great Generals Win by Bevin Alexander
    Norton, 320 pp, £22.00, November 1993, ISBN 0 393 03531 X
  • The Backbone: Diaries of a Military Family in the Napoleonic Wars edited by Alethea Hayter
    Pentland, 343 pp, £18.50, September 1993, ISBN 1 85821 069 0

Neither Genghiz Khan nor Stalin was physically brave. Both led from the rear, keeping well out of the way of any rough stuff that might be going on. The habit of directing matters through a staff (the Russian stavka) was probably an important ingredient in the military success of both; though Stalin, at least, had very little tactical sense, and was apt to interfere with the efforts of good generals who possessed it, often with disastrous results.

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