Featured battle : Siege of Port Arthur

Part of Russo-Japanese War

Date : 01 August 1904 - 02 January 1905

The Japanese Army attacked then laid siege to the important Russian sea-base of Port Arthur where the Pacific Fleet was stationed. The over-estimated the ease with which the position could be taken and suffered heavy casualties, but once the heights overlooking the town were taken, the Japanese could use heavy artillery to sink the ships in the bay and destroy the Fleet. Once the fleet was gone, Maj-Gen Stoessel saw now point in holding out (even though he possessed plenty of stores) and surrendered. The siege pre-figured the coming world war, in that it saw the use of heavy artillery, trench warfare and barbed-wire entanglements, and machine guns.

The Light Division in the Peninsular War 1808-1811

Tim Saunders & Rob Yuill
Our opinion of this book is best summed up by imploring the authors, Tim Saunders and Bob Yuill, to let us have volume two as soon as possible. This book about the Light Division is well focused and doesn’t drift off into writing about the wider campaign more than is necessary to tell the Division’s story. Of particular interest are the many insights into the lives of the officers and ordinary infantry soldiers between the battles. The story flows easily along the timeline from the Division’s inception to its fruition.
There are a large number of maps and photographs interspersed throughout the text. Many photographs are of the locations today which would be a big help to anyone visiting the battlefields and marching routes.
We highly recommend this book and look forward to volume two.

Pen & Sword Military, 2020