Featured battle : Polotsk 1

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 16 August 1812 - 18 August 1812

An uneven battle with fierce fighting for some troops very little for others e.g. the Russian left wing was scarcely engaged. High casualties on both sides [Russian lost a quarter of their men the Franco-Bavarians lost a third] was in part due to the high concentration of guns [Russ 135 Fr-Bav 120] .Every officer of the Grodno Hussars was a casualty on the 18th.

The Eighth Army in North Africa

Simon Forty
This series of Images of War is intended to be all about the pictures and this book is a very good example of that genre. There are photographs taken on both sides of the conflict showing the men and their equipment. Almost every type of armoured vehicle used in the desert campaign is shown some in pristine others in a well battered state. There is sufficient text to give the photographs a context but most usefully the bulk of the writing is as captions to the photographs. A few maps and schematic drawings fill out the story. Particularly informative in an easily understood way are the comparisons between Axis and Allied guns in both range and penetration on pgs. 36 & 37. The further reading list guides the interested reader to fuller explanations of the to and fro of the North African campaign. One tiny criticism is that on page 87 the captions for the two men have switched left to right.
We thoroughly enjoyed looking at this book and recommend it to you.


Pen & Sword Military, 2019