A valuable edition to the library, with caveats

Book Review: The Peninsular War - Wellington's Battlefields Revisited by Ian Fletcher

(Images courtesy of the publishers. Please do not reproduce without first seeking permission)

In a break from my 1812, Russian Campaign reading theme for this year, I read this book by Ian Fletcher in which he presents photographs of some of the battlefields of the Peninsular War. I have not seen Fletcher’s original book on the subject “Fields of Fire”. This book is a ‘revisiting’, some eight years later, enabling him to present a photographic record of the battlefields of the Peninsular War and to show how some features have changed or nearly disappeared.

While not the intention, this is a book in two parts; ‘The Peninsular War’ and ‘Wellington’s Battlefields Revisited’. The former is covered by the text, while the latter is provided by the pictures. Sadly, there is a disconnect between the two. As the inside sleeve summary of the book states “this book is not intended to be any groundbreaking account of the Peninsular War but simply shows Wellington’s battlefields in full colour...”. It is a shame that the author did not leave it at that.


The photographs in this book are a visual feast. There are 123 photographs, all beautifully reproduced in full colour, featuring key aspects of the Peninsular War battlefields at which British forces participated, from Roliça to Toulouse. The photographs range from views across a battlefield, to key features of a section of a battlefield, to buildings and bridges (often now in ruins), to commemorative plaques and grave sites. One picture, described as “Three planes from the Spanish Air Force fly over the battlefield memorial on the Greater Arapil at Salamanca”, is a particularly impressive, poignant shot. All of the photos are clear and have been taken at the same time of year as the original battle, so that we have, for example, snow-covered terrain in the photos from the Coruña campaign. 


The photographs range in size from less than a ninth of a page (for a two pages of photos of gravestones at Toulouse) to full page views of a battlefield, such as those of Salamanca. The majority of the photos are about a third of a page or larger. The full-page images allow the reader to look over them in detail, identifying key aspects of the terrain. The photographs are a great resource for wargamers to use when designing table-top terrain, but are also of great interest to any ‘student’ of the period. They are especially of benefit to those of us who, at around 15 000 km from Spain and Portugal, are unable to easily ‘flit’ over to the Iberian Peninsula to look over the landscape!

Full-page photos such as this one of the battlefield of Salamanca (“...looking north-east towards the Greater Arapil...”) allow for detailed inspection of features.

While the photographs are marvellous, the text is of less value. It begins with a four-page biography of Wellington and then provides a brief summary of the Peninsular War, from a British perspective. As stated in the inside sleeve, Ian Fletcher’s description of the war is not a “groundbreaking account”, but rather the standard, accepted Anglo-version, drawing principally on sources such as Oman. The writing improves, becoming more objective and describing events in greater detail as the book goes on, but there is not scope for it to be anything more than a ‘potted history’. While the photos show locations mentioned in the text, the potential for complementarity is not exploited to the full. I would have much preferred a brief history of the campaign—for those new to the period—with the majority of the text describing each battlefield in some detail and, of course, some accompanying maps.


I am going to sound like a broken record to regular readers of my reviews, but... where are the maps?! An overall map of the Peninsula, with more detailed maps of some of the key stages of the war and further maps of each of the battlefields featured in the photographs, indicating where each photograph was taken, would have been ideal. So, if you are reading Mr Fletcher, that is my wish-list for the third edition!


The book itself has all the fine publication qualities that we, spoilt as we are, have come to expect as ‘standard’. The hard-back binding, high quality, gloss paper, beautifully reproduced pictures and pleasing font (presented as clear white type on a black background in this case) all lend to a lovely book to hold and to read.


Leaving aside the text, this is a fine picture book and one that I know that we will use frequently—commencing with our game of Salamanca later this year—to provide tips regarding terrain. A valuable edition to the library; with some caveats.

Great text, shame about the maps

Book Review 1812: Russia's Patriotic War, by Laurence Spring

This book combines quotes from various participants in the 1812 campaign, both civil and military, to provide a ‘Russian’ perspective of the campaign. The sources are principally Russian, but also include Poles, French, British and American.

The author’s text is skilfully interspersed with quotes to produce a smooth flow and an engaging read. The quotes are not the usual one or two liners either, but several lines and often even several paragraphs long; thus painting a word picture of what people actually experienced, thought and observed. This combination of the author’s text and quotes works well and, in the case of the chapter about Borodino, produces an account that is vivid and harrowing. One can almost smell the powder and feel the intensity of that dramatic, terrible struggle.

“The maps, why is it always the maps?” (apologies to Rod Steiger and H.A.L. Craig for the mis-quote).

While the text is excellent, the same cannot be said of the maps. Why is it that authors/publishers produce such great books with such poor-quality maps? This is one of the worst examples that I have seen recently. There are a total of five maps—plan of the battle of Smolensk, plan of the battle of Lubino, plan of the battle of Borodino, plan of the battle of Krasnoe, plan of the battle of Berezina—all reproductions, presumably from the British Library collection “Plans etc of the French campaign in Russia”. None of the maps are referred to directly in the text and the source of them is not cited anywhere in the book (that I could find at least). The maps themselves are almost works of art, but each of them is far too small (about 120 mm x 90 mm) to make out the details; besides which no key is provided! This is most disappointing and detracts greatly from the fine text.

The appendices (Russian Army—June 1812, Opolychenye Forces at Borodino, French Losses (a table listing them day by day) and Russian Army—December 1812) are an interesting and useful addition to the body of the book. The bibliography provides evidence of a range of sources consulted and leads for the serious student to follow-up.

The publication quality, as with most books nowadays, is excellent. My copy of the book is hardcover on relatively thick stock. The print is an easily legible, rounded font that is pleasing to the eye. The central plates—paintings of officers, battle scenes, cartoons and famous incidents—are all reproduced clearly in black white.

The combination of clear text, many extensive quotes and the clear plates make for a fine book; it’s just a shame about the maps.

Same great presentation, with limitations and a few surprises

Book Review: Borodino-The Moskva: The Battle for the Redoubts by François-Guy Hourtoulle and André Jouineau

I’ll begin with a confession; to me the books of this series are the best value for money, most useful and beautifully produced uniform books on the market. I much prefer them to the Osprey titles, which, to me, are so often a disappointment. It begins with the look, feel and handle of the books, the hardcover format, the quality of the glossy paper stock and continues, as one turns each page, with the all important content. They are not perfect, and I will point out the limitations from my perspective, but you know the temper of the review you are about to read!

The books of this series from Histoire et Collections are predominantly uniform books. The uniforms are presented in detail, with nearly every unit from every division in both armies shown, in colour, and in an array of uniforms from full dress to greatcoats. This means that you get, for example, not one but ten representations of Russian cuirassiers from various guard and line regiments. Examples from the ranks, officers, trumpeters, fifers and drummers are represented for many of the units and/or troop-types, along with the flags or guidon’s for many of them. The standard representation, and limitation no. 1, is profile for cavalry units and front-on for the infantry. There are exceptions to provide guidance on other details of the uniforms, but this is not true for all types. This leads us to limitation no. 2, and the more important one. As with all of the books of the series, there is little description of the uniforms beyond a simple one-line caption. This means that, while they are beautiful books and a great resource, they are not capable of answering your questions about some of the finer details of uniforms. I tend to use them in conjunction with other books and internet resources, such as the wonderful Histofig website.

As it’s predominantly a book of uniforms, limitation no. 3 is that you’ll not get a detailed description and analysis of the battle. That said, the text is interesting, if a little quirky. Hourtoulle (through Alan McKay’s translation) describes the background to the 1812 campaign, the lead-up to Borodino, gives a reasonably detailed description of the Battle of Shervardino and of course of the epic battle itself. This latter includes specific exploits and events which are described in some detail; and not just all the ‘famous’ ones. Finally, there is an assessment of losses, of the outcome of the battle and its place in the campaign.

The orders of battle (OBs) are well above average and more than one has come to expect in a ‘uniform book’. This is particularly the case for the French-allied army, which is superbly detailed. Hourtoulle used the Vincennes archives to produce OBs that list, for Napoleon’s household and every corps, division, brigade and unit of the Grande Armée present at Borodino, the names of generals, staff officers and unit commanders, with a one-line to one-paragraph brief history for each person. In addition, to the information about the commanders for all of the units in every brigade, there are estimates of the number of men present at the battle and/or key stages of the campaign. While still useful, less information is provided for the Russian army. Hourtoulle used the history of the campaign by the Russian historian Buturlin, published in 1824. Kutuzov’s staff along with that of each of the two Western Armies are listed, along with corps and divisional commanders. The units in every division are listed, with an indication of the number of battalions of infantry, squadrons of cavalry or companies of artillery.

A section of Robaud's magnificent panorama (Saxon v Russian cuirassiers near the grand redoubt) that is reproduced in the book (Source: Wiki Commons)

Once again, as with all of the books in the series, all of the above is accompanied by luscious illustrations and reproductions of paintings, maps and other pictures—the majority in full colour. A feature of this volume for me are the detailed diagrams of the grand redoubt in aerial and side-on view, including a representation of the fox-holes and the layout of the Russian grand battery within. These are supported by large-scale reproductions of sections of the wonderful Borodino panorama by Roubaud and of paintings by other artists depicting scenes from the battle.

Limitations aside, these books are hard to beat as a single volume that provides so much. When combined with other books from a personal or public library and the vast content available on the internet for free, you have all that you require to research the battle, paint the figures, organise the troops, design a wargames scenario and stage a great, historically-based game for part of the Battle of Borodino, or perhaps even the battle in its entirety.

Wargaming Borodino 2012 (5)

Terrain Completed

Our terrain for Borodino is now complete, save for adding the redoubt at Shevardino and the Borodino church. We are attempting to scratch-build the latter. Our version currently comprises the two ‘storeys’ complete with roughly shaped rooves, the bases of the domes and the sides of the stairs—it currently resembles a paddle-steamer! I am confident that some further touches, a bit of moulding with putty and some paint will transform it.

Photo of the Borodino church taken by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky in 1911

Above and below: two views of our completed Borodino battlefield—these photos also look like they were taken in 1911 as I did not have my camera that night, so used the one on the iPad. Utitsa is in the foreground, looking towards the line of the flêches, redoubt and Borodino (sans church). Note panel from the Borodino Panorama in the background.

At our next ANF ‘gathering’ we will complete our scratch-built Borodino church and will begin to place the troops on the table. For now the battlefield, as it likely was in July 1812, is a peaceful and serene place, with people going about their business while the campaign rages hundreds of kilometres to the west. That is all set to change and, by 3rd September 2012, it will again mimic the historical version:

“all nearby heights... glittering with the steel of our bayonets and the copper of our guns. The air... filled with the voices of hordes of men and the neighs of horses” (Avraam Norov, a lieutenant of artillery in the Second Western Army, 3rd September 1812; cited in Mikaberidze 2010)

A Russian battery tries out the flêches for size. We have represented them as a straight line of fortifications for simplicity, so that they will accommodate a battery or unit of infantry at our scale (approx. 1 figure to 50 men, 1 gun model to 20 guns).

View of the grand redoubt from Shevardino.

Borodino village and bridge looking towards Gorki. The village will be represented by this building and the church.

As we all know, wargames are won off the table. A fun part of all this preparation time is that it has allowed for heaps of “psychological warfare”. The battle has been ‘fought’, ‘won’ and ‘lost’ several times already, whilst we have been developing the scenario and building our terrain. All done in jest and in the best spirit, of course!

Comments sought from our e-friends

I am seeking comment and advice from our wargaming and blogging e-friends, especially those with a strong interest in the Napoleonic Wars.

Have any of you read (or own a copy) of Brent Nosworthy's "Battle Tactics of Napoleon and His Enemies"? What is your assessment of the book? It is the case that it became the 'new standard' in the mid-nineties, but has now been surpassed (in English) by tomes such as Nafziger's "Imperial Bayonets", or do they complement one another?

I am thinking of purchasing a copy and have done my usual quick research (i.e. checked for reviews on Amazon and The Napoleon Series). Most of the reviews there are pretty glowing. They suggest that it is detailed and very much for the devotee of the period and/or wargamer. That sounds like me/us to a tee! It is readily available and reasonably priced. However, I don't want to get a copy if it won't add much beyond our easily accessible sources (personal library, internet or public library) for uses like scenario development, discussion about rules and general knowledge and understanding.

Your thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

An invaluable source and a good read

Book Review: The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon versus Kutuzov, by Alexander Mikaberidze

(Images courtesy of the publishers. Please do not reproduce without first seeking permission)

This book has everything that you’d expect from the best of the ‘Campaign Chronicle’ series and one written by a man who is one of the leading ‘young bloods’ of Napoleonic history, Alexander Mikaberidze.

Mikaberidze’s lucid writing style enables the reader to easily follow the key events and to understand causes and effects. For example, in the 'Background', which covers causes of the war and the opening manoeuvres, he clearly describes what are often a confusing series of marches, retreats, separate armies and wings and failed enveloping manoeuvres.

The bulk of the book is the ‘Campaign Chronicle’ which details the campaign in small, detailed sections, beginning with the unification of the Russian armies in early August and the manoeuvring to the battlefield of Borodino. Particularly pleasing, and somewhat of a bonus, are the 19 pages dedicated to a description of the Battle of Shervardino that preceded Borodino and gave a clear indication of the struggle that was to come two days later. This is followed by a detailed section on the armies and leaders, which includes a listing of various estimates, from a range of sources and authors, of the numbers present in the two armies, plus tables and graphs of the ages and years of experience of the officer corps of the two adversaries.

The next section ‘Eve of the Bloodbath’ describes the battlefield, the plans of the commanders and distributions of the armies. It also includes detailed descriptions of the fortifications that were built by the Russians, complete with accompanying diagrams, which are particularly useful for wargamers and modellers.

The epic battle itself is broken into three phases (6 am to 12 am (sic), 12 am (sic) to 6 pm, 6 pm to 12 pm (sic)), in all comprising 114 of the 276 pages. Mikaberidze describes all of the key aspects of the battle, providing an overview of the action down to the detail of the units involved in specific combats. The text is interspersed, as is the entire book, with quotes from generals and soldiers (and civilians) which add greatly to the description and combine to provide a clear, detailed and impactful description.

The final part of the book ‘Aftermath’ deals mainly (and appropriately) with the direct aftermath of the battle, observations of the survivors, assessments of the outcome, the terrible casualty lists on both sides and the grisly charge of burying the dead. It is rounded off by seven pages on the remainder of the 1812 campaign and the legacy of Borodino.

The text throughout is clear and readable. Where appropriate and particularly early on in the book, Mikaberidze includes clarifying text in parentheses. Such text includes information such as who a particular person was, or the alternative names for a location or a battle, or the background to a statement in a quote. This provides clarity for the reader and I found it particularly helpful and useful.

The appendices comprise orders of battle (OBs) for the two armies and a glossary of terms. The OBs list the higher level commanders in each army, corps, division and brigade and the units in each of the latter. More complete versions of the OBs are freely available on the Napoleon Series website. These OBs there also include details of each unit and unit commander, plus numbers of battalions or squadrons. There are also estimated totals of troops for each corps, plus the staff for the armies, corps and divisions.

Example of one of the maps of the battle

The front pages of the book contain six excellent, detailed maps of Borodino showing the terrain, initial dispositions, positions at early afternoon and a detailed look at the attacks on the grand redoubt. There are two, less detailed maps that provide an overview of the early stages of the campaign and of the troop movements from Borodino to Moscow. Unfortunately, there is not a separate map to support the description of the Battle of Shevardino.

Twenty four pages of plates provide a selection of portraits of commanders, troops, reproductions of paintings and photos of sections of the battlefield. All are in black and white, but are reproduced clearly and vividly.

This is an invaluable source and a good read. We used this book as one of the main sources in designing our Borodino scenario and will use it as the main source for a Shevardino game.

ANF Benefactors

The three amigos of the ANF consider ourselves fortunate to have ‘discovered’ one another. None of us alone would have been able to put together a game such as our Borodino 2012 scenario. Julian and I, who allowed ourselves to be ‘led astray’ with other periods and scales are playing catch-up to Mark’s consistent focus on 1/72nd and productive painting effort on, chiefly, Napoleonics. Complementary to our combined efforts are the contributions from those whom we call our “benefactors”; Ralph Fisher, P.T. Hine and Jason Soffe, three people who have helped us immensely in our ability to plan and to stage our games thus far—and into the future.

Benefactor 1: Ralph Fisher

Our first benefactor is my father, Ralph Fisher (RAF) who, during the mid- to late-90s, when in his seventies, decided to have a go at painting some of the numerous unpainted 1/72nd figures that we (chiefly I) had collected. He had previously left the painting to me, not having confidence in his own ability to do it. Well, not only did he find that he was able to paint them easily, he enjoyed the task and, in my opinion, did a fine job! He rapidly expanded the division-sized French and Anglo-Allied armies that I had managed to paint as a teenager to corps-sized armies of French, British, Spanish and Portuguese troops that he used in solo-games and occasional games that we had when able to catch up. Now, since his ‘retirement’ from the hobby, these figures have come to me and have formed the basis of much of the armies for our larger Peninsula battles, Tamames, Fuentes de Oñoro and Albuera and were also used in our games of battles from the 1807 campaign—especially the white-coated French regiments.

RAF's white-coated French and Loyals of Ferdinand VII at Tamames 

His French infantry at Eylau...

... and again here

Albuera featured figures from both RAF and P.T. Hine. The former's British and Loyal Lusitanian and the later's Portuguese are seen here

Benefactor 2: P.T. HIne and the NWS

Our second benefactor is someone we know only as P.T. Hine. This generous man donated his entire collection of 1/72nd French, British, Spanish and Portuguese figures to the Napoleonic Wargaming Society in Perth. They, not having anyone in the club who uses that scale, immediately thought of us and asked me if we’d like them; “absolutely”, I said. I expected to get a box with a heap of unpainted figures. Imagine my surprise when they handed to me two tool-boxes filled with beautifully painted Airfix 1/72nd figures (in need of a bit of sorting, re-gluing and minor touching-up) plus several old shirt boxes filled with unpainted Arifix 1/72nd Napoleonic figures. it was Christmas in July last year! These figures were also invaluable for Tamames, Fuentes de Oñoro and Albuera and to bolster our French army, especially for Eylau.

P.T. HIne's French chasseurs à cheval at Eylau

Oudinot's grenadiers (c/- P.T. HIne) at the battle of Nehrung

Benefactor 3: Jason Soffe

Our final benefactor is Jason Soffe, an Englishman abroad in France. Like me, Jason had tried unsuccessfully to sell figures through eBay. In my case it was 15 mm ACW, in his case over 5 000 unpainted Zvezda figures (Napoleonic, mediaeval and Great Northern War (GNW)). By an amazing bit of serendipity, I happened to see Jason’s post on the Hät Forum, asking if anyone was interested in buying the figures, the day that he put it there and in the few hours before it was taken down and he was black-banned—a bit heavy handed there HatBlogger! I contacted him, we exchanged a few emails, he quoted us his extremely reasonable price, I checked with Mark and Julian and we decided to purchase the lot (French Nap for me, Russian Nap & mediaeval for Mark and GNW for Julian)! We now have luxury amounts of Zvezda 1/72nd figures, some of the best cast plastic figures available, for our Napoleonic games and, once we let Julian off the ‘Napoleonic bicentennial leash’, games of GNW (and War of the Spanish Succession). Jason’s figures will feature strongly in our Borodino game, especially the Russian grenadiers and Cossacks and the French-allied artillery and infantry.

The eagerly awaited packages arrive from France

Inside one of the boxes, part of Jason Soffe's collection

French (in blue) and Saxons (in yellow) sorted (over 1 000 figures), plus a few GNW Russians in grey

Napoleonic Russians and mediaeval figures sorted (~1 500 there)

Enough GNW figures for any battle!

So gentleman, here’s a great big thank you to the three of you. Hopefully it gives you some pleasure to know that the figures that you collected and/or painted are ‘riding again’!