This review will look at the third tranche of the Battle Story series books (see here and here for my reviews of the other books in the series). These books are written by experts who have usually far longer tomes on the same battles to their names but here have written a short pithy 150 page introduction to the battle. Published in hard back and about the same size as a small paperback, these are great battlefield study primers - they contain some useful background information about the lead up to the battle, enough detail about the battle itself and even some analysis on the repercussions of the battle.

Bosworth 1485 - Mike Ingram
This book differs a little from most of the other books in the series - as details of the battle are, at best, sketchy and a matter of some speculation, this book focuses far more than normal on the background. In fact this makes for fascinating reading as it is an era that I wasn't completely au fait with - despite attending one of the annual re-enactments of the battle as a small boy (of which my abiding memory was an ambulance trundling onto the battlefield to collect one of the knights who had been dealt rather a realistic blow by his opponent's war mace!). As mentioned earlier, details of the battle remain somewhat contentious - here Mike Ingram presents the various arguments and his version of the battle (backed up by recent archaeological survey of the site).

Hastings 1066 - Jonathan Trigg
Jonathan Trigg is a former infantry officer who has written several books on various elements of Hitler's armies ('Hitler's Jihadis' was reviewed by AlienFTM here). Clearly with this modern military pedigree and publishing repertoire, the Battle of Hastings was an obvious choice to write about! This is actually an extremely well written book with a wide remit covering everything from the weapons of the day, to the background to the battle (did you know Harold had fought for William a couple of years earlier during a campaign against the Duke of Brittany?).


Loos 1915 - Peter Doyle
The battle of Loos is one of WW1's lesser known battles. As such, this volume was a fascinating read. Even better, having been reading it the night before a dinner night, I was able to drop some great statistics into a conversation with my CO about artillery ratios (guns to metres of frontage) in various WW1 battles... The book looks at weapons, uniforms, the use of poison gas and the historical background. Peter Doyle is obviously a man who knows his stuff - he writes eruditely and one is left with a clear image of the battle and the consequences.

Cambrai 1917 - Chris McNab
I have to admit that the limit of my previous 'knowledge' of the Battle of Cambrai was that it was the first tank battle. What this book makes clear is that is a relatively small part of the story - this was an epic that had the potential to be the turning point of the war but which, in the end, fizzled out against a strong German defence. Having stayed in the area (in rather a nice little chateau in Cambrai with a super restaurant in the cellar - however, I digress...), I at least had an image of the local countryside. What this battle did prove was that combined arms manoeuvre was the way forward for modern warfare - it was only a pity that for the Allied forces this was a Lesson Identified rather than Lesson Learnt!


This series continues to impress; the series editor has clearly selected the authors well and all write with clarity and a welcome brevity. These latest books are better formatted than the earlier imprints in the series - the fact boxes are placed in such a way that the main text is still easy to read (a minor complaint in an earlier review). Again I would thoroughly recommend these books: if you are going to visit one of these battle sites and only have room for one book (which you need to read en route), these books are for you.

4 Mushroom Heads (each)

Captain_Crusty


Battle Story Series of books published by The History Press
Click here for all the Battle Story Books on Amazon