Featured battle : Saafeld

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 10 October 1806

Prince Louis positioned his Prussian-Saxons with the unfordable Salle river at their backs. Lanne's [V Corps] rapidly assessed the situation and decided he could handle Louis without support. While he pinned the Prussian-Saxon front with energetic skirmishing he brought his lead division to turn their right flank and drive them into the Saale. Prince Louis was killed leading a desperate cavalry charge to retake the Saale river bridge. No more than half the French force had been in the action which destroyed the Prussian-Saxon force and gained the valuable river bridge.

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