Book excerpt: This atlas shows the decisive battles that changed the tide of war. It reveals how the upper hand was gained through a twist of fate, when US aircraft carriers were at sea on manoeuvres when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1942. With detailed strategic and battle plans it explains how superior forces were overwhelmed by a small well-trained army - the Turkish defence of Gallipoli agains the Allies in 1915. The atlas covers 200 years, from Napoleon's conquest of Europe through the first and second world wars to the Gulf War and the disintegration of Yugoslavia.