Featured battle : Toulon

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 18 September 1793 - 18 December 1793

The major French Mediterranean port of Toulon was held by the Royalists supported by British, Neapolitan, Sardinian and Spanish troops. There was also close support from a strong Britsh squadron of 12 ships of the line under Admiral Hood. The battle was particularly significant in that Napoleon Bonaparte played an important role in the victory. The British destroyed 14 French ships of the line and took 15 others reinforcing their mastery of the Mediterranean.

Battle Understanding Conflict Hastings to Helmand

Graeme Callister & Rachael Whitbread
This is a rather different sort of book in not being about a war, campaign or battle but rather about all battles. It gives the reader a framework through which to assess any particular battle or conflict. The authors make the case that every conflict has a number of contributing factors which add or subtract from the outcome. Their approach is to give each of these factors a chapter which concludes with an account of one or two battles in which the particular factor was significant. They do stress that all the factors have a part to play to a greater or lesser degree in every battle. They also point out the ever present difficulty of finding accurate information about these matters.
The aim of the book is to aid in the understanding of battles and in this it succeeds very well indeed.
We highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to understand battles of any place or period.

Pen & Sword Military, 2022