Andrew Uffindell
Författare till The Eagle's Last Triumph: Napoleon's Victory at Ligny, June 1815
Om författaren
Andrew Uffindell is the author of On Fields of Glory: The Battlefields of the 1815 Campaign, and was a contributing author to The Napoleon Options and Dixie Victorious. Andrew Roberts is one of the world's leading Napoleonic authorities and is the author of Napoleon the Great.
Verk av Andrew Uffindell
Associerade verk
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Autumn 1999 (1999) — Author "Glory Costs Too Much" — 11 exemplar
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Statistik
- Verk
- 14
- Även av
- 3
- Medlemmar
- 241
- Popularitet
- #94,248
- Betyg
- 3.8
- Recensioner
- 1
- ISBN
- 33
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- 2
This is a guidebook to the battle area; I don’t generally write reviews of travel guides unless I’ve actually been to the area in question. However this one includes a lot of military history and descriptions of the battle – and, frankly, there’s not too much to see except lots of monuments to the dead of both sides.
The attack got off on schedule, but the Germans dispersed their defensive positions so the artillery barrage did nothing but churn up the ground and make it difficult for the infantry to advance, and even more difficult for the Schneider tanks deployed in support – most ditched, broke down, or just outpaced the infantry and wandered around the battlefield until finally hit by field artillery. The attackers did display élan, to the extent that astonishing numbers of officers were killed – 70% in some units – as they “lead from the front”. There were modest gains, but nothing even close to the huge hole in the German lines that Nivelle predicted he would punch in 48 hours. Another bloodbath for a few meters of French soil.
The battle was noteworthy for prompting a series of mutinies in the French army. Soldiers refused orders for further offensive action, although they remained on the defensive rather than deserting. There were thousands of arrests and court martials, hundreds of death sentences, but only 49 executions. The mutinies are apparently still controversial in France; monuments that mention some of the executed mutineers as “victims” were criticized.
Author Andrew Uffindell notes this is the first English battlefield guide to the area. (The was some very minor English and American involvement in the campaign). Lots of photographs of the area, often “before” and “after” and “now”; but only a few of actual action, understandable given the state of photographic technology at the time. Very good maps, as befits a tour guide. The index seems a little sparse as I couldn’t find some things I wanted to look up; the bibliography is extensive, although most of the references are French or German.… (mer)