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CAMPAIGN 65
BADAJOZ 1812 - WELLINGTON'S BLOODIEST SIEGE 

by Ian Fletcher 
with colour plates by Bill Younghusband

 

S u m m a r y
Publishers Details: Osprey Publishing, Elms Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP, UK, 
ISBN: 1 85532 957 3
Contents: 96 pages with photographs, colour plates and isometric battle maps
Price: £10.99 / US$17.95
Review Type: Book Review
Advantages: Good and very readable reference to the sieges of Cuidad Rodrigo and Badajoz. Excellent maps and isometric battlefield projections showing the course of both sieges. Good photographs of the ground around both cities, including areal photos taken in 1914 before the modern building sprawl covered the ground. Easily available through the book trade.
Disadvantages: None - unless you count the absence of Richard Sharpe which will upset anyone who thinks he was real!
Recommendation: Recommended to all modellers of the Peninsular War and all those interested in its history.

 

Reviewed by John Prigent

 

FullRead

 

This book covers all that one could hope for in a short account of the two sieges which finally secured the Portuguese border and allowed Wellington to plan his advance through Spain. 

This book is readable, concise but detailed, and as authoritative as one would expect from a researcher and author of Ian Fletcher's standard. The subject matter is dedicated to the sieges, not the whole 1812 campaign, and it covers them in great detail. 

The infamous sack of Badajoz comes into focus and is almost excusable when you've read the horrors inflicted on the assaulting infantry. Shell shock, battle fatigue, call it what you will there's a point at which most men will temporarily lose control and run amok. Hence the then-common practice of surrendering a city with the honours of war when its defences were breached, defied here because the garrison believed it could defend the breaches. In fact they were successfully held, and the defenders only abandoned them when taken in rear after the escalades of unbreached walls.

Figure modellers will find here a fertile source of diorama ideas, though I don't recommend trying to recreate the great breach as the result would be too gory to display. Fans of Bernard Cornwells' Sharpe novels will also find a great deal to interest them, showing how the siege actually ran its course and putting the novels into historical context.

Review Copyright © 1999 by John Prigent
Page Created 24 November, 1999
Last updated 22 July, 2003

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