Featured battle : Würzburg

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 24 October 1813 - 26 October 1813

Wrede's Bavarian Corps stood a chance of blocking Napoleon's escape route [see Hanau 30/31 October 1813] but Wrede chose to waste time and precious ammunition on the impregnable fortress of Würzburg [the Marienburg]. The fortress actually held out until 2 May 1814.

In Action with Destroyers 1939-1945

Commander J.A.Dennis/Ed: Anthony Cumming
This book is the personal account of one man’s war. One of that particular special breed who are destroyer men. The language is not jingoistic not egoistic Commander Dennis never looked upon or wrote of himself as a hero choosing to attribute his survival to luck rather than his skill or his bravery. But hero he most certainly was. He saw service in the English Channel, the Eastern Mediterranean the Red sea, and with the Arctic convoys. Every tough assignment written up in the same low key factual manner. He calmly lists off colleagues, friends lost as ships were sunk. In one action near Crete his ship was the only survivor of a group of four destroyers. In the course of his story we hear about every kind of destroyer action from shore bombardment, anti-aircraft fire, submarine hunting, escorting convoys to attempts to torpedo enemy capital ships. There are also some appropriate photographs.
The whole book flows with the action like a good novel but this is fact and it is difficult to put down.
After the diary the editor has added a very good thirteen page summary of the wider picture of the war which places the actions in their context.
We thoroughly recommend this book to all.

Pen & Sword Maritime, 2017