Warfare in News

Posted on Wednesday 1st October

Bestselling novelist Bernard Cornwell has written his first non-fiction book, Waterloo – A History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles ahead of the bicentenary anniversary of the battle in June 2015.

Hearing of the project, fellow Waterloo author David Buttery, contacted Cornwell about his own Waterloo Battlefield Guide. Cornwell went on to include a personal endorsement of Buttery's guide in the acknowledgments for his book:

'The best guide, by far, is David Buttery’s Waterloo Battlefield Guide, which not only leads the visitor around the locations of the campaign, but tells the story of those four momentous days. The book is an essential companion for anyone visiting the battlefields of the campaign.'

Waterloo Battlefield Guide is available in hardback, paperback and eBook formats from publisher Pen and Sword Books.

Further Reading

Waterloo Battlefield Guide

Only £15.99

Waterloo Battlefield Guide

(Paperback - 291 pages)
by David Buttery

'The best guide, by far, is David Buttery's Waterloo Battlefield Guide, an essential companion for anyone visiting the battlefield.' - Bernard Cornwell

The defeat of Napoleon's French army by the combined forces of Wellington and Blücher at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 was a turning point in world history. This was the climax of the Napoleonic Wars, and the outcome had a major influence on the shape of Europe for the next… Read more...

Of further interest...

View Product

Unwelcome Guests in Portugal

Thu 9th June

David Buttery writes for Warfare Magazine about his 'Wellington Against' series. Read article...

View Product

Peter Stone - How I wrote My Book

Mon 25th September

In writing my new book The History of the Port of London – A Vast Emporium of All Nations I could explore aspects of two of my passions: the development of London as a city, as well as waterborne transport. Read article...

View Product

Bairnsfather, Bullets and Billets

Fri 13th December

Battlefield guide authors Major and Mrs Holt have begun a campaign for the nation to formally honour First World War cartoonist Captain Bruce Bairnsfather. Read article...

View Product

Greenhill Books Relaunch

Wed 9th November

Greenhill Books and Pen and Sword Books have announced a joint project to relaunch the Greenhill Books list. Read article...

Dates in History

German forces cross the Somme River

24th March 1918

On March 24, 1918, German forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front. Operation Michael, engineered by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Ludendorff, aimed to decisively break through the Allied lines on the Western Front and destroy the British and French forces. The offensive began on the morning of March 21, 1918, with an aggressive bombardment. The brunt of the attack that followed was directed at the British 5th Army, commanded by General Sir Hubert Gough, stationed along the Somme River in northwestern France. This section was the most poorly defended of any spot on the British lines, due to the fact that it had been held by the French until only a few weeks before and its defensive positions were not yet fully fortified. Panic spread up and down the British lines of command, intensified by communications failures between Gough and his subordinates in the field, and German gains increased over the subsequent days of battle. On March 23, Crown Prince Rupprecht, on the German side of the line, remarked that The progress of our offensive is so quick, that one cannot follow it with a pen. The next day, German troops stormed across the Somme, having previously captured its bridges before French troops could destroy them. Despite having resolved to concentrate on weaker points of the enemy lines, Ludendorff continued to throw his armies against the crucial villages of Amiens (a railway junction) and Arras—which the British and French were instructed to hold at all costs—hoping to break through and push on towards Paris. By that time, German troops were exhausted, and transportation and supply lines had begun to break down in the cold and bad weather. Meanwhile, Allied forces had recovered from the initial disadvantage and had begun to gain the upper hand, halting the Germans at Moreuil Wood on March 30. On April 5, Ludendorff called off Operation Michael. It had yielded nearly 40 miles of territory, the greatest gains for either side on the Western Front since 1914. He would launch four more offensive pushes over the course of the spring and summer, throwing all of the German army’s resources into this last, desperate attempt to win the war. (www.history.com)

Further Reading

The Somme
(Paperback - 355 pages)
by Richard van Emden

The offensive on the Somme took place between July and November 1916 and is perhaps the most iconic battle of the Great War. It was there that Kitchener’s famous ‘Pals’ Battalions were first sent into action en masse and it was a battlefield where many of the dreams and aspirations… Read more at Pen & Sword...

Only £14.99 at Pen & Sword Books.

Read more from this day...