Featured battle : Breitenfeld 1631

Part of The Thirty Years War

Date : 17 September 1631

King Gustavus ll headed the Swedish/Saxon army which outnumbered the Catholic League army under Count Tilly. However the Saxon contingent were raw inexperienced troops. Tilly chose the ground and arranged his force in a traditional way. Gustavus was an innovative commander who brought a new arrangement to the battlefield. The battle looked lost to the Swedes when Tilly's men broke the Saxons who fled the field. But the flexibility and all-arms set up enabled the Swedes to counter attack successfully, now against superior numbers, and to win a decisive victory.

Into Battle with Napoleon 1812. The Journal of Jakob Walter

Jakob Walter. Edited & Annotated by Bob Carruthers
This is a re-presentation of the jounal which was first translated and published in America in 1938. Bob Carruthers has done a really good job in bringing this wonderful work up to date. His inspired selection and inclusion of the watercolours of Albrecht Adam, who witnessed many of the same events as Jakob Walter, makes the book even more enjoyable. That is if the brutal reporting of such a train of harrowing events can ever be enjoyed. The reader is left with an understanding of the life of a soldier in Russia in 1812 and thankfulness that Jakob kept a jounal. A must read.
Pen & Sword Military, Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2013