I will admit that the Peninsular War would normally only hold a passing interest for me compared to, say, the 1807 campaign in Poland or the Russo-Swedish War of 1808-09. That said, I was more than keen to delve into this, for Helion, quite monumental (over 500 pages) volume. I was not to be disappointed.
The book is as it says on the inside cover, a highly detailed narrative of Wellington’s (Wellesley as was) first Peninsular campaign. The author has used a vast range of sources; memoires, letters, and previously unpublished British, French and Portuguese primary sources. The parameters for the book are from Junot’s invasion of Portugal in 1807, the British expedition to counter this move, the battles of Rolica and Vimeiro, the somewhat controversial and for some career damaging Convention of Cintra, to the expulsion of the French from Portugal.
The author takes us on a step-by-step journey through the campaign in tremendous detail. He takes a look at the journey of the English from embarkation to the landings in Portugal; not an easy journey nor task. There are chapters outlining the armies of the three nations involved in the campaign, all of which leads us to the skirmish at Obidos and the battles of Rolica and Vimeiro, each with a mixture of riveting narrative and informative quotes from various primary sources.
The book contains a good number of orders of battle for all sides at different stages of the campaign, together with associated charts and tables. The maps are excellent, especially those accompanying the chapters on Rolica amd Vimeiro, which give very clear information regarding the terrain, deployment and subsequent troop movements. There are also a good number of black and white pictures, many of which are of the terrain fought over as it is today which I found especially useful. There are also several contemporary black and white images.
Of course no book on this campaign could ignore the Convention of Cintra and the resulting fallout which descended upon the heads of most of the senior British officers, and the details of the official inquiry are both detailed and very revealing, again peppered with extracts of contemporary correspondence.
The narrative really sucked me in and blew my ambivalence for the campaign out of the window very early on. It is well written and clearly very well researched and is a subject about which the author is intimate with. An excellent book. One I can recommend most highly, especially as it has sparked off my interest in what was a fascinating campaign, with some participants and leaders.
ISBN 978-1-804514-39-9 Hardback 515 pages.
The author takes us on a step-by-step journey through the campaign in tremendous detail. He takes a look at the journey of the English from embarkation to the landings in Portugal; not an easy journey nor task. There are chapters outlining the armies of the three nations involved in the campaign, all of which leads us to the skirmish at Obidos and the battles of Rolica and Vimeiro, each with a mixture of riveting narrative and informative quotes from various primary sources.
The book contains a good number of orders of battle for all sides at different stages of the campaign, together with associated charts and tables. The maps are excellent, especially those accompanying the chapters on Rolica amd Vimeiro, which give very clear information regarding the terrain, deployment and subsequent troop movements. There are also a good number of black and white pictures, many of which are of the terrain fought over as it is today which I found especially useful. There are also several contemporary black and white images.
Of course no book on this campaign could ignore the Convention of Cintra and the resulting fallout which descended upon the heads of most of the senior British officers, and the details of the official inquiry are both detailed and very revealing, again peppered with extracts of contemporary correspondence.
The narrative really sucked me in and blew my ambivalence for the campaign out of the window very early on. It is well written and clearly very well researched and is a subject about which the author is intimate with. An excellent book. One I can recommend most highly, especially as it has sparked off my interest in what was a fascinating campaign, with some participants and leaders.
ISBN 978-1-804514-39-9 Hardback 515 pages.
thanks for this Colin, always a strong interest of mine.
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