On 16 May 1811, the small town of Albuera was the setting for one of the Peninsular War’s most bloody and desperate battles. A combined Spanish, British and Portuguese force of more than 30,000 men, under the command of Lord Beresford, stubbornly blocked the march of the French field marshal Soult, who was trying to reach the fortress of Badajoz, 12 miles north.Beresford, who defended himself with his bare hands against a Polish lancer, was victorious, but at the cost of 6,000 Alli...

On 16 May 1811, the small town of Albuera was the setting for one of the Peninsular War's most bloody and desperate battles. A combined Spanish, British and Portuguese force of more than 30,000 men, under the command of Lord Beresford, stubbornly blocked the march of the French field marshal Soult, who was trying to reach the fortress of Badajoz, twelve miles to the north. However, after suffering losses of up to 7,000 men during the fighting, Wellington declared that, 'Another such battle...

This superb and comprehensive book details the foreign units which formed such an important part of Napoleon's forces. It examines each non-French unit in turn, giving an overview of the unit's origins, its organizational and combat history, its uniforms and standards, and details of the unit's eventual fate. Colourful accounts, taken from contemporary reports and memoirs, emphasize the qualities of the unit and throw light on what life was like for many of the foreign soldiers recruited i...

The author of Wellington at Waterloo delivers an in-depth history of the military commander's tactics and strategy in the Peninsular War.After gaining strategic and tactical experience in Colonial India, Arthur Wellesley went to battle against French forces in the Peninsular War. With his decisive victories there, he ascended to the peerage of the United Kingdom as the 1st Duke of Wellington. In this volume, historian Jac Weller delivers a complete account ...

The struggle between Rome and Carthage in the Punic Wars was arguably the greatest and most desperate conflict of antiquity. The forces involved and the casualties suffered by both sides were far greater than in any wars fought before the modern era, while the eventual outcome had far-reaching consequences for the history of the Western World, namely the ascendancy of Rome. An epic of war and battle, this is also the story of famous generals and leaders: Hannibal, Fabius Maximus, Scipio Af...

As part of the Light Division created to act as the advance guard of Wellington's army, the 95th Rifles are the first into battle and the last out. Fighting and thieving their way across Europe, they are clearly no ordinary troops. The 95th are in fact the first British soldiers to take aim at their targets, to take cover when being shot at, to move tactically by fire and manoeuvre. And by the end of the six-year campaign they have not only proved themselves the toughest fighters in the ar...

In this compelling book, Richard Holmes tells the exhilarating story of the Duke of Wellington, Britain's greatest ever soldier.Seeing Wellington as a remarkable figure, Holmes follows his career from the ruins of his family seat in Ireland to the plains of India where Wellesley first gained his reputation as a brilliant commander, to the horrors of the Peninsular War and Waterloo.Combining his astute historical analysis with semi-biographical examination, Holmes artfully i...

From the author of Talavera, an extensive history of the Battle of Waterloo from the losing side's point of view.The story of the Battle of Waterloo—of the ultimate defeat of Napoleon and the French, the triumph of Wellington, Blücher, and their allied armies—is most often told from the viewpoint of the victors, not the vanquished. Even after 200 years of intensive research and the publication of hundreds of books and articles on the battle, the French pers...

The leading Wellington historian's fascinating reassessment of the Iron Duke's most famous victory and his role in the turbulent politics after Waterloo.For Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, his momentous victory over Napoleon was the culminating point of a brilliant military career. Yet Wellington's achievements were far from over: he commanded the allied army of occupation in France to the end of 1818, returned home to a seat in Lord Liverpool's cabinet,...

Written in the same engaging style of Mark Urban's Fusiliers and Rifles, this is a brilliant study of the Gunners who revolutionised warfare during the course of the Napoleonic Wars despite the opposition of their commander-in-chief.Dismissive, conservative and aloof, Wellington treated his artillery with disdain during the Napoleonic Wars – despite their growing influence on the field of battle. Wellington's Guns exposes, for the very first time,...

Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle was one of the greatest narrative writers in English history.Most famous for his Sherlock Holmes stories, he was incapable of penning a dull word.Nowhere is that more true than in his 'History of the Great War', now re-published as a series of e-books, with an introduction by the leading historian of the First World War, Nigel Jones.The first volume of his magisterial history of the war deals with the events of 1914, and covers the British war...

One of the Duke of Wellington's officers once remarked, We would rather see his long nose in the sight than a reinforcement of ten thousand men. Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769û1852), was one of the greatest military commanders in history and is best known as the successful opponent at Waterloo of arguably the leading general of all time, Napoleon Bonaparte.Although Waterloo is the battle most associated with Wellington, his career was much wider. He gained his fir...