Featured battle : Retiro

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 13 August 1812

This fortress was on the western side of Madrid and was meant to hold up the Allied entry to the city. It did not delay them at all as the commander surrendered and all his men were taken prisoner.

Hitler's War in Africa 1941-42

David Mitchelhill-Green
This is a quality read which I am sorry to say, by ending just after Alamein, finishes too soon. It is clear from the massive bibliography and extensive footnotes that a great deal of research has gone into the writing of this book. There is sufficient information about the strategic position of the North African theatre to give context to the tactical events. However the real life of the book is in the quotations from individuals on both sides of the conflict. The reader isn’t spared from the truth about war and some of the more gruesome passage make quite uncomfortable reading. One British soldier’s comment on burying German dead has stuck with me he wrote ‘apart from the uniform they are just like us.’
There are a few useful maps most of which have scales and keys. There are sixteen pages of appropriate photographs but incidentally there are many more in David Mitchelhill-Green’s Images of War books from this same publisher.
This book is both informative and gripping, a jolly good read, which we highly recommend and hope that a further book, Alamein to the end, is on the way.

Pen & Sword Military, 2021