A quest nears completion

I received another of the Tranie-Carmigniani series of books of the Napoleonic era this week, Napoleon 1813--La Campagne d'Allemagne, and it is, of course, glorious. I was particularly pleased to get a copy of this one as it is amongst those that are difficult to find and which tend to go for 'collector' prices. I found one that was more reasonable, albeit at the upper end of what I am prepared to pay for such books.

Jean Tranié and Juan Carlos Carmigniani, teaming initially with Baron Louis de Beaufort for the uniform plates and using the notes of Commandant Henry Lachouque, produced a set of books about the campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars under the series title of "Les Grands Moments de Notre Histoire" (Great Moments of Our History). There is a fascinating and really useful chronological history and overview/review of all of these books by Yves Martin on the Napoleon Series website (in English).

It began with "Waterloo" (one of only two translated into English) and, after a dalliance into the Great War with "La Marne", progressed in an ad-hoc fashion to "Napoleon et la Campagne d'Espagne 1807-1814" (the other one that was translated into English), "Napoleon et l'Autriche: La Campagne de 1809", "Napoleon et la Russie: Les Annees Victorieuses 1805-1807", "La Campagne de Russie, Napoleon 1812", "Les Guerres de l’Ouest 1793-1815", "Napoleon et l’Allemagne, Prusse 1806", "La Patrie en Danger 1792-1793: Les Campagnes de la Révolution", "Napoleon 1813 La Campagne d'Allemagne", "Bonaparte: La Campagne d’Egypte", "Napoleon: 1814 La Campagne de France", "Napoleon Bonaparte: La Premiere Campagne d'Italie 1796-1797", "Napoleon Bonaparte: La deuxième campagne d'Italie 1800" and "Napoleon et l'Angleterre". The first two volumes were published by Stock, the next four by Copernic. Martin tells us that, "In 1981, Copernic was not doing well and the series is picked up by the prestigious military publishing house: Charles Lavauzelle." From "1813" onwards the books were published by Editions Pygmalion (who also reprinted several of the earlier volumes) with uniform plates by Courcelle, Rousselot, Bidault, Coppens, as well as originals by Louis de Beaufort coloured by Jean-François Ardellier.

In 1982, after the publication of "1812", they 'side-tracked' and produced two volumes about famous units/corps of the period, namely "Les Polonais de Napoleon", about the 1st Polish Lancers of the Guard, and an edited and illustrated version of "La Garde Imperiale" by Henry Lachouque (translated into English by Anne SK Brown as "The Anatomy of Glory").

In putting together this post I found out that Jean Tranie is no longer with us, having died on 8th October 2001 and Juan Carlos Carmigniani followed in 2008. I am really pleased to have a copy of his last book "Napoleon and Italy: A military history of Napoleonic Italy, 1805-1815" co-written by Gilles Boué (English translation by Marie-France Renwick).

I now have the entire 'set' of those dedicated to specific campaigns and which begin the title either with 'Napoleon' or 'Bonaparte'. They are marvellous tomes all, with plenty of pictures, which I always like! Mine are mainly the Éditions Pygmalion titles and/or re-releases of the originals. These are beautifully produced with a lovely faux-leather cover beneath the dust jacket. The English version of "Waterloo", by Arms and Armour Press, was originally purchased for me by my father in the late 70s. I have mentioned "The Anatomy of Glory" above and in a previous review. In addition, I managed to get hold of "Les Polonais de Napoleon" and a couple outside this series "Napoléon et son entourage" (a text-only book with brief biographies of members of Napoleon's family, female loves, children, selected social 'enemies' (e.g. Mme de Stael), household, ministers, marchals, recipients of the Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honour and companions at St Helena), as well as "L'épopée Napoléonienne: Les grandes batailles" (an excellent introductory volume to the period, but also with much for those already well "into it", including lavishly illustrated descriptions of 25 major battles on land and sea, illustrated biographies of the Marshals of the Empire and appendices of tables of the battles (forces and losses), generals of the Grande Armée killed or wounded, flags and battle honours of French regiments and armaments of infantry, cavalry and artillery of the Grande Armée).

Despite the titles nearly all featuring the keywords (from a publishers point of view) 'Napoleon' and/or 'Bonaparte', the books do not focus only on Napoleon and the activities of and around him. Each covers the period of the campaign in its entirety, presenting a balanced and complete (as possible within the page-limit) account.

The books run to around 200–300-odd and are 'sumptuously illustrated' as Chandler says in his foreword to "Waterloo". There is a marvellous mix of text, reproductions of paintings, lithographs and cartoons of battles, people and events (some in colour, others in black and white, all reproduced clearly and with detailed captions), detailed maps (though most without a scale—aaahhh!!), contemporary photographs of sections of battlefields and lovely plates of some of the uniforms (with captions only and no text). Strangely, and quite rudely, Martin says that, "The text, however, is poor to very poor (with the noticeable exceptions of Lachouque’s Waterloo and Garde Imperiale)...". I need to be careful in challenging this conclusion as I have not read them all and not even read one book in its entirety, but what I have read was interesting, easy to read and edifying and is enhanced by lots of eyewitness quotes. I am supported by other reviews such as one that said:

le texte de Tranié est particulièrement bien écrit, dans un français classique, riche, épique ; le récit des opérations militaires est précis et explicatif et il est émaillé de nombreuses anecdotes dramatiques ou croustillantes ; enfin, le travail de recherche iconographique de Carmigniani est d'une richesse incroyable et est mis en valeur par un art très accompli de la légende qui fait mouche pour les accompagner.

My translation: Tranie's text is particularly well writen, in classic French, rich and epic. The account of military operations is precise and explanatory and is enhanced by numerous anecdotes. The reviewer continues with remarks about Carmigniani's wonderfully researched images and detaild captions.

The books "Napoleon 1813 La Campagne d'Allemagne" and "Bonaparte: La Campagne d’Egypte" received le Grand Prix du Souvenir Napoléonien 1988.

A picture tells a thousand words, as the old adage goes. This is certainly the case with these books. Carmigniani's choice of images, his detailed captions and the composition of the pages enable the images to be an essential part of each book, complementing the text by adding further information and detail.

I hope that these randomly selected photographs from some of the pages of the books will serve to give a sense of how lovely these books are, how well the images are reproduced and how well they stand alone (despite the poor focus of some of my photos that were quickly snapped!) .

La Patrie en Danger 1792-1793: Les Campagnes de la Révolution

This was the only book of the set uniform plates per se., instead having these lovely reproductions adapted from the work of Albert Gregorious.

 Napoleon Bonaparte: La Premiere Campagne d'Italie 1796-1797

 

Bonaparte: La Campagne d’Egypte

Napoleon Bonaparte: La deuxième campagne d'Italie 1800

Most of the books include orders of battle, generally to the brigade or divisional level.

Napoleon et la Russie: Les Annees Victorieuses 1805-1807

Napoleon et l’Allemagne, Prusse 1806

 Napoleon et l'Autriche: La Campagne de 1809

La Campagne de Russie, Napoleon 1812

Napoleon 1813 La Campagne d'Allemagne

 Napoleon: 1814 La Campagne de France

 Napoleon's War in Spain: The French Peninsular Campaigns, 1807-1814

 

 

 

  

  

Waterloo

"The asides of glory" always brings a smile!

Several of the lovely line drawings of Jean Auge are used in the book (see Footnote).

Several sections of the Waterloo panorama are reproduced in the book.

 

Napoléon et son entourage

This interesting and useful book is all text, so only the cover shown here.

L'Épopée napoléonienne

 

Sample page. Unfortunately, my copy suffered bad water damage in transit from the vendor to me. Every page is wrinkled at the top and has mould stains. It is still useable, but it detracts from the impression. The vendor apologised sincerely, gave me a full refund and said to keep it (to expensive to return).

 

 Les Polonais de Napoleon

 

 

Footnote

 

In 2018, I sought to find the original source of the drawings of Jean Augé that are reproduced in "Waterloo". This lead me to the "Le Champ de Bataille de Waterloo" by Louis Garros, illustrated by Jean Augé and Denyse Franck. I was able to get a digital copy from our National Library. The 88 pages of this packed little book provide a brief description of the preliminaries and opeing engagements (including Ligny and Quatre Bras), before covering Waterloo in some detail. The dispositions of the armies are describe and the battle narrated, aided by Augé's beautiful drawings. This is followed by a detailed order of battle and description of the battlefield, with vignettes of each location by Franck. Marvellous and another yet to be read in full! :)

This is one of only two of the drawings in the book by Augé that are coloured.

I have produced a command stand of d'Erlon based on this drawing, for a bicentennial game of Waterloo. Like so many of my figures, I got them 'okay' for the occasion and they have awaited the finishing touches ever since!

References

Garros, LFP, Augé, J and Franck, D (1952) Le Champ de Bataille de Waterloo. Editions Beaudart, Paris. 88 pp.

Lachouque, H (1975) Waterloo. Arms and Armour Press, London, England. 202 pp.

Lachouque, H and Brown, ASK (1978) The Anatomy of Glory. Arms and Armour Press, London, England. 564 pp.

Lachouque, H, Tranie, J and Carmigniani, J-C (1982) Napoleon's War in Spain: The French Peninsular Campaigns, 1807-1814. Translated by JS Mallender and JR Clements. Reprinted 1993. Arms and Armour Press, London, England. 191 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1979) Napoleon et l'Autriche : la campagne de 1809. Copernic, Paris. 239 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1980) Napoleon et la Russie. Les annéees victorieuses (1805-1807). Copernic, Paris. 245 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1982) Les polonais de Napoleon l'épopée du Ier régiment de lanciers de la garde impériale. Copernic, Paris. 179 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1984) Napoléon et l'Allemagne Prusse 1806 Lavauzelle, Paris. 255 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1987) La Patrie en Danger 1792-1793: Les Campagnes de la Révolution. Tome 1. Lavauzelle, Paris. 223 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1987) Napoleon 1813 La campagne d'Allemagne. Éditions Pygmalion, Paris. 311 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1988) Bonaparte: La campagne d'Egypte. Éditions Pygmalion, Paris. 315 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1989) Napoleon 1814 La campagne de France. Éditions Pygmalion, Paris. 312 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1990) Napoléon Bonaparte, 1ère Campagne d'Italie. Éditions Pygmalion, Paris. 265 pp.

Tranie, J and Carmigniani, JC (1991) Napoléon Bonaparte : la deuxième campagne d'Italie, 1800. Éditions Pygmalion, Paris. 266 pp.

Tranie, J, Carmigniani, JC and Beaufort, Ld (1981) La Campagne de Russie. Napoléon 1812. Les Grands Moments de Notre Histoire Ed. G Devautour. Lavauzelle, Paris. 302 pp.

Tranie, J (1999) L'épopée Napoléonienne. Les grandes batailles. Editions Tallandier, Paris. 176 pp.

Tranie, J (2001) Napoléon et son entourage. Pygmalion, Paris. 458 pp.

 

Books, glorious books

I really, really like books; particularly those about military history, most particularly if to do with the Napoleonic era, even more if about campaigns or uniforms and especially when beautifully presented, hard-bound tomes!

I have bored readers previously by noting that, if forced to chose, I'd take my books over my figures. Any time. Of course, I am in the fortunate position of not having to, so it's a bit like the 'game' of considering which sense you'd 'prefer' to lose (although far, far more trivial, of course). But then, loss of any of the senses would impact my ability to enjoy books or figures to the extent that I can at present. Enough of that digression...

I recently had a quadruple dose of material delight when I ordered two special books, published by Le Livre Chez Vous (Éditions du Quotidien)#, which, due to an 'administrative error', became four. More on doubling later, but firstly to the two that I ordered:

(#Le Livre Chez Vous publish a range of titles, including a large catalogue on the Napoleonic period and the magazines 'Gloire & Empire' and 'Soldats Napoleoniens'. Sadly, their website has been being renovated for some months now. They provide links to resellers stocking their books, which is how I came to the shop of L'Est Républicain and these books).

Napoléon en Pologne- La campagne de 1806-1807, and
Napoléon en Autriche - La campagne de 1809 - Les opérations du 24 avril au 12 juillet.

These are particularly glorious, beautifully presented, hard-bound tomes.

The visual and tactile first impressions are sheer delight, thanks to the A4 format, heavy stock, beautiful layout and plethora of colour pictures. Examples of the latter appear on every page. The text includes a description of events of the campaigns/phases indicated by the titles with numerous quotes from eyewitness accounts (based on reports and memoirs—more on that later too). I have leafed through the pages, reading sections here and there so cannot yet comment in detail on the text. I can say that they are both well-written, in an interesting, story-telling style and in French that is easily comprehensible to me with my intermediate level.

Some sample pages from "Napoléon en Pologne" will serve to illustrate.

Three examples of the pages showing layout and illustrations. Every page includes illustrations. The majority of these are in colour and show personalities, actions, units, photos of locations and items of uniform from museums. I had only seen a handful of the illustrations previously: the 'famous' ones and some from the issues of  'Gloire et Empire' magazine covering this campaign.

Several pictures are presented as a double-page spread.

I found this view of Friedland and associated contemporary photos really interesting and they will be useful the next time I attempt to recreate the battle.

The book includes numerous maps of two types: some showing the distribution of forces and key geographic points at different stages of the campaign and others illustrating battles. The maps are colourful and clear, but only those of the overall campaign have a scale indicated. This is so frustrating. Why do publishers/authors do this?!!

I particularly liked the 'snow' landscape of this map of Eylau!

Orders of battle are provided for the three armies, French-Allied, Russian and (where appropriate) Prussian at the outset of the campaign and for each of the key battles (Golymin, Pultusk, Eylau, and Friedland).

I learn something everyday, even about topics of which I think I have a reasonable grasp.
I have read a lot about the campaign of 1807, but was not previously aware of this incident at Friedland of fire from horseback from the French dragoons against the charge of the uhlans (and one squadron of Lifeguard Cossacks). In the book there is a quote from Grouchy praising the action of the dragoons, but, unfortunately, no great detail. I found more about the incident on the 'Napoleon, His Army and Enemies' website which quotes cornet F. V. Bulgarin of Grand Duke Constantine Uhlans who says that the "...French dragoons halted and stood motionless like a stonewall [kak kamennaia stiena] waiting for the enemy... the second rank grabbed their muskets and began firing while those in the first rank drew sabres and waited. The charging uhlans first slowed down and then halted. The French sounded massive “En avant ! Vive l’Empereur!” and advanced forward en masse. The uhlans and Cossacks gave way before the sheer weight of the column."

In the foreword to the book, the authors, Natalia Griffon de Pleineville and Vladimir Chikanov, note the paucity of material about the 1807 campaign in Poland. They highlight the challenge of relying on 'eyewitness' accounts that were often written long after the events and as justification for the author's actions, in the politics of the day and/or simply with the reminiscence of older age. Their approach has been to utilise official publications of the day (which also have their limitations, as they note), along with selected quotes from French, Polish, German and Russian sources. The result, from my skimming, is a rich and vibrant description that was/is a great addition to available books about the campaign prior to its publication.

The book is organised in forty, brief/shortish chapters (a format that I like as it suits my 'bite-sized' approach to reading) plus several, detailed appendices covering military decorations and awards, a reproduction of Victor Hugo's 'Cimetière d'Eylau' (his father was an officer in the French army in the time of Napoleon), place names in 1807 and today, all of the proclamations and bulletins of the Grande Armée during the campaign, the acts signed at Tilsit, bibliography and index of names. It's a beauty!

I look forward to reading it in detail.

Error in my favour

I had been interested in "Napoléon en Pologne" since first seing in on the Le Livre Chez Vous website a few years ago. It sounded great, but the list price of €145 was far outside my budget! I took the plunge when I followed the link on the 'under construction' website of Le Livre Chez Vous to the website of L'Est Republicain and saw that the price had been reduced to €45 . I enquired about it along with the volume covering the second part of the 1809 campaign. It would still be a big purchase, since postage was near the price of the books, but the description of the quality of the publications, the involvement of Natalia Griffon de Pleineville and past experience with publications for Le Livre Chez Vous convinced me they'd be worth it.

I was super excited when, early in July, just eleven days after making payment, my wife said that she'd collected a large, heavy package for me. My delight changed to confusion when I opened the package and saw neither of the books that I'd expected. Instead, two of the others that I'd considered were contained therein:

"La bataille de Taroutino" and "La bataille de Polotsk".

I contacted L'Est Republicain immediately. They replied promptly. The books had been sent in error. Mine would be sent to me, although there would be a delay as they were taking holidays from Bastille Day until early August. What to do with the ones that I had received?

I had not opened them (they were wrapped in plastic), as they were not mine. There was a bit of toing and froing. They offered to me to purchase them at cover price only (i.e. without the cost of postage). I thought about it, but since I had already made a big purchase I was not keen on another. So, I offered to return them if they sent me the cost of postage. They declared that the cost of returning them was prohibitive and so I could keep them. It was then that I removed the plastic covering and looked inside.

Wow! They were beautiful. Some pages from La bataille de Polotsk will illustrate.

The books come in a rigid case and have a lovely, textured, pseudo-leather (vinyl) cover.

Like "Napoléon en Pologne" and "Napoléon en Autriche" (which, of course, I saw later) they are lavishlly illustrated with the same range of quality images (most not seen previously by me).

Not every page has illustrations, but the text is a clear and pleasing font, written in French that is accessible to me, providing a lot of detail and including quotes from Bavarian, French and Russian eyewitness accounts.

Several, beautiful illustrations of uniforms by A. Yejov are presented.

This painting by Peter von Hess, which graces the cover of the case and is an example of the few, known to me, more 'famous' ones that are in the book, is reproduced inside with a detailed and useful description.

Some paintings are reproduced as double-page spreads, in equsite detail/quality.

Another beauty by Yejov. The caption for this one erroneously notes the cuirassiers as being from the 2e regt. The Russian hussars are indeed the Grodno regt and it is pleasing that the artist has shown them in dolman only. While I prefer my wargaming Russian hussars in all their splendour of dolman and pelisse, it is more accurate to them in dolman only. The pelisses were left at the depot to make the weilding of the lances easier.

Numerous maps illustrate the series of battles that comprised the campaign within a campaign that was the first and second battle of Polotsk. Like "Napoléon en Pologne" above, there two types of maps: those showing the overall campaign and those showing battles, but only the former have scales—arrrrrgh!!

Orders of battle are presented in the appendices

"La bataille de Taroutino" follows the same format and is equally fabulous.

These were a real windfall and it was like that "bank error in your favour" card in Monopoly. Having opened them and seeing how lovely they were, it felt a bit strange to have received them for free. It did not sit well with me and felt dishonourable. So, I have paid for them and now feel that I have legimitate copies.

Painting progress—not much, but...

I posted on my non-Napoleonic blog about the lack of much progress with painting over the past couple of months. I expect that to change over the next two to three months, so reckon I'll have the early Austrians illstrated below, and a few others, marching out the other side of my 'active' painting queue.

All of the horses need painting on these early Austrian uhlans (Mészáros regt) and grenz hussars (along with the Polish-Italian legion lancers); then all colours for the base coat will be completed.

The Gyulai Freikorps (made from converted Airfix and Esci Royal Horse Artillery gunners) are ready for basing material, black-wash and then highlights. The early grenz, converted from Hat later grenzer, need mobs of white since "even the black bits [belts] were white" in 1796.

References

Bessonov, V (2010) La bataille de Taroutino. Translated by N Goutina. First Published 2008. Le Livre Chez Vous, Paris France. 165 pp.

Cavalry Tactics and Combat Napoleonic Wars (Parts 2 and 3). Napoleon, His Army and Enemies website. http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/cavalry_tactics_2.htm#_and_cavalry_battle_at_Friedland_2

Griffon de Pleineville, N and Chikanov, V (2008) Napoléon en Pologne- La campagne de 1806-1807. Le Livre Chez Vous, Paris France. 610 pp.

Molières, M (2004) Napoléon en Autriche - La campagne de 1809 - Les opérations du 24 avril au 12 juillet. Le Livre Chez Vous, Paris France. 600 pp.

Popov, A (2013) La bataille de Polotsk : opérations sur la Dvina occidentale, août 1812. Translated by N Goutina. Le Livre Chez Vous, Paris France. 173 pp.

Mini Book Review: Chargez! La cavalerie au combat en Espagne, Première époque, 1808-1810 by Natalia Griffon de Pleineville

I pre-ordered this book on spec. Prior experience with recent publications from Editions Soixante (L'Esprit du Temps) and of previous works by the author lead me to have no hesitation in placing an order prior to publication—with have high expectations about it. The book having arrived yesterday, I am really pleased to have made that decision—my expectations have been exceeded greatly!

Natalia Griffon de Pleineville was the editor-in-chief of the marvellous magazine Gloire & Empire and has written several books about the Napoleonic wars. I have an English-language version of Chiclana-Barrosa 5 March 1811: The Eagles in Andalusia from Les batailles oubliées (Forgotten Battles) published by Historic’One, which is a small, but detailed and really useful book. Those two threads of her past work—quality and visually beautiful work about topics that are less-well covered in the general Napoleonic literature—are in clear evidence here.

My first, wonderful surprise on opening the book was this dedication, handwritten by the author. Presumably, included for purchasers of the pre-order version.

In Chargez!, Dr Griffon de Pleineville describes and discusses major battles, small actions and skirmishes of the first three years of the Peninsular War from the perspective of the role and actions of the cavalry. Units of cavalry of French, Polish, German-allied, Spanish, British, King’s German Legion and Portuguese all feature; sometimes in victory, other times in defeat, in advance and retreat, as advance-guard or rear-guard, charging across a battlefield or supporting infantry.

The book begins with an overview of the cavalry of the Peninsular war, both French-allied and their opponents. Subsequent chapters are divided into campaigns and/or theatres of the war between 1808 and 1810, viz.: Vimeiro; Cabezon and Medina de Rioseco; Gamonal and Somosierra; Sahagun; Mayorga, Benavente, Mansilla de las Mulas; Ciudad Real and Medellin; Talavera; the bridge at Arzobispo and Almonacid; Tamames, Ontigola, Ocaña and Alba de Tormes; Gallegos and Barquilla. Each chapter covers the battles and actions of its title as well as other, smaller actions in the same period/theatre of the war.

The text of each chapter is supported by copious illustrations (the majority in full-colour), maps, photos, side-bars and orders of battle. The former are quite glorious and include both older and more contemporary prints by the likes of Bucquoy, Rousselot, Detaille, Dighton, Kossak, Job, Wollen, Gros, Philippoteaux, Knötel, Martinet, Girbal, Courcelle, Churms, Rocco, Hook, Jouineau as well as loads of assorted prints and artists from the Anne S.K. Brown collection. Many of the prints that are reproduced are now in the public domain, but I always appreciate quality, printed versions over digital. A real treat for me are the sections of a diorama of Somosierra by Wojciech Kossak that I have never seen before and are present as two-page spreads.

Above and below: examples of the copious illustrations in the book

Best of all for me are two reproductions of sections of a diorama of Somosierra by Wojciech Kossak.***

The maps in the book are numerous and clearly reproduced. These good aspects are completely undermined by the lack of a scale on most of them. This is despite the original maps having one. Why, oh why do books so often stuff up with the maps? It is so frustrating!

Above and below: some of the maps presented in the book. Clear reprints, but sadly most of them lacking a scale, despite one being present on the original!

 

Each chapter includes several of the author’s excellent photographs of the battlefields today. These are interesting, edifying and really useful if one wishes to reproduce the terrain on the tabletop. Fortunately, they show sections of battlefields that are relatively intact, so one can translate them to the early nineteenth century, rather than of modern forests, roads or other constructions that leave it all to the imagination.

Two examples of the author's photos of battlefields that are included.

Side-bars about personalities, units and actions are dotted throughout the text. I enjoy these as they provide the sense of ‘bonus’ content!

One of several side-bars; and related illustration.

Each chapter also includes orders of battle for the cavalry formations involved in the actions described. Again, these are really useful for wargame purposes since they are at unit level and include numbers of combatants.

A sample of the orders of battle included in the book.

Since opening the package earlier yesterday, I have leafed through the book, back and forth, reading captions of images and a paragraph here and there. I also read one of the chapters, in order to give this mini-review more ‘meat’ and to avoid it being focussed entirely on the ‘pretty pictures’ and look and feel of the book.

I selected the chapter entitled ‘Talavera Juillet 1809’, since the battle and campaign of Talavera is one of several in the Iberian Peninsula that I have a strong background knowledge about. I have read about it in numerous books about the war overall, relatively recently read and reviewed Andrew Field’s excellent book on the subject and have designed and helped to design scenarios so as to play it out on the tabletop twice.

If this chapter is indicative of the rest of the book, then I am in for a treat when I read it in its entirety. Griffon de Pleineville’s tells the story of the battle (and more besides) with engaging, detailed and eminently readable prose. Quotes from the memoirs of participants form both sides are weaved in beautifully with her text. While the focus is on the cavalry, she describes the battle in its entirety, including the French night attack of 27th July on Cerro de Medellin. The cavalry actions of the battle (which were few in number) form the bulk of the chapter, beginning with the skirmish between Milhaud’s dragoons and the Spanish in Talavera on the 27th, moving to the 28th with the charge of the Spanish Rey Cavalry Regiment “…often cited as the best exploit of Spanish cavalry in the entire war” (p. 215, my translation) and the charge of the British/KGL light dragoons against the French outflanking manoeuvre in the north. Dr Griffon de Pleineville includes details of regiments, numbers of troopers, movements, casualties and results—all excellent grist for a wargamer’s mill. Similar detail is provided earlier in the chapter, which begins with the second French invasion of Portugal under Soult. In describing their ejection by Wellesley’s army Griffon de Pleineville includes quite detailed descriptions of the rearguard/vanguard actions around Grijo and Tage before telling of subsequent events leading to the battle of Talavera.

One pre-orders a book based on the description provided at the time, but not actually knowing the content. Such was the case with this book which experienced a few delays in publication and some changes to the content.

I pre-ordered my copy in August 2021. At that stage publication was scheduled for the end of the year. It was initially delayed until January and then eventually completed in February 2022, with printing in March. Of course, changes from projected to actual publication are not surprising, and additional factors in recent years have only added to likely delays. This was of no matter to me, as I was confident of delivery and of the quality of the final product.

The original book was expected to cover the years 1808–13, but was later contracted to 1808–10. A second volume, is planned covering the years 1811, 1812 and 1813 with “..des grandes batailles de Fuentes de Oñoro, d’Albuera, des Arapiles [Salamanca] et de Vitoria…” (translated from the precis on the back cover). This is only good news to me as I expect a more detailed coverage of the subject over the two volumes—a conclusion supported by what I have before me and the fact that this book increased from the 240 pages originally planned to the 290 pages of the published item.

If, like me, collecting, owning, reading and enjoying books is a big part of the hobby for you, then you’ll get a real joy from this book. It’s is a top quality, dense, beautifully printed and presented tome. Having had my high expectations exceeded by this book, I will be watching excitedly for the second volume and will have no hesitation in pre-ordering it when the time comes!

(***Follow-up note:

I found a website (http://www.pinakoteka.zascianek.pl/Kossak_W/Kossak_W_2.htm) with all of the sections of the panorama reproduced and there it notes (Google translate version):

Panorama of "Somosierra" (sketches) The panorama was never painted due to the lack of consent of tsarist officials to exhibit the work in Warsaw. He created 4 large oil sketches, painted together with Michał Wywiórski (he painted the landscape) and several paintings inspired by the theme of the battle.

From the citations on the website it seems that they are now held in the Muzeum Ziemi Przemyskiej, Przemyśl.)

 
Rating


Breakdown
First impressions 10/10 (weighting 0.1)
Presentation 10/10 (weighting 0.1)
Content 9/10 (weighting 0.3)
Supporting content—pictures, maps, appendices 7/10 (weighting 0.2)
Sources 10/10 (weighting 0.2)
Value for money 10/10 (weighting 0.1)

References

Field, AW (2006) Talavera: Wellington's First Victory in Spain. Pen & Sword, Barnsley, South Yorkshire UK. 184 pp.

Griffon de Pleineville, N (2022) Chargez! La cavalerie au combat en Espagne, Première époque, 1808-1810. L'Esprit du Temps, Paris. 290 pp.



Griffon de Pleineville, N and Vincent, F (2012) Chiclana-Barrosa 5 March 1811: The Eagles in Andalusia. The Forgotten Battles Historic'One, Fontaine-L'Évêque, Belgique. 111 pp.