Featured battle : Albuera

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 16 May 1811

Beresford was laying siege to Badajoz when he heard that Soult's corps was moving to its relief. Beresford moved his force to Albuera, a position previously selected by Wellington. Beresford had just over 10,000 British troops, nearly the as many Portugese and around 14,000 poorly disciplined Spaniards. The battle was a series of disastrous misfortunes caused by incompetence and disobedience by his subordinates. Only the magnificent fighting qualities of his British infantry, the Portugese and a few of the Spanish, manged to save the day. Soult withdrew with heavy casualties. Wellington remarked that another such victory would ruin us.

Tank Attack at Monte Cassino

Jeffery Plowman
The action to take tanks up the mountain rarely gets a mention in most books about the battles for Monte Cassino. When you read this book you will understand why. In conception it was a brilliant idea and had it been properly directed could have been an important event towards hurrying the end of the fight. The lower echelons fought with skill, tenacity, ingenuity and bravery trying to make something of the attack. Poor cooperation, coordination and communication between senior officers brought about a failure which cost a lot of lives and tanks. Tanks sent in without artillery and infantry is Ney at Waterloo and the senior officers broke their own pre-set conditions to do just that.
The author, Jeffery Plowman, has divided the book in three parts, setting the scene, the action, and the site today. The first two parts are superb and, although I haven’t used the site visit section, the up to date photographs would be of great help to anyone who does.
The maps are most helpful with both scales and Northings. The photographs scattered through the book support the text. The extensive bibliography points the way to further reading.
This is a book which is an enjoyable read although the story it tells is, once again, one of lions led by donkeys. We thoroughly recommend it.

Pen & Sword Military, 2020