Any fool can lose a battle. All you need to have is a weaker army than your opponent. What takes a special talent is to lose a battle when you start off with all the advantages in your own hands.
Some commanders have managed to throw away the power of greater numbers, strong positions and superior weaponry with blunders of such awesome scale that they have ended up losing a battle that, logically, they should have won with ease. Here are the most impressive military blunders in history…
1
Changping
By July 260 BC the Chinese state of Qin had been besieging the strategic Zhao fortress of Shangdang for three years. Determined to break the deadlock, Zhao Kuo led an army of 450,000 men to break the siege. The Qin army of Bai Qi was smaller than expected and began to retreat. Eager to crush the enemy, Zhao Kuo raced ahead, leaving his supply train behind. That allowed Bai Qi's cavalry to fall upon the Zhao supplies and destroy them.
