WATERLOO ARMIES, THE: Men, Organization and Tactics | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip Haythornthwaite
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 227409
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 1844155994
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.27
EAN: 9781844155996
ASIN: 1844155994
Publication Date: April 2008
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Product Description
Waterloo is one of the most famous battles in history and it has given rise to a vast and varied literature. But the organization, structure and fighting strength of the armies that fought in the battle have received little attention, and this is the subject of Philip Haythornthwaite's detailed, authoritative and engaging study. REVIEWS "For anyone looking for a wealth of details on the fateful three-day battle of Waterloo in 1815, this is the book... required prefatory reading for reading any other account or analysis of the battle."Midwest Book Review 05/2008
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| Customer Reviews:
 specifics of formations, weaponry, casualties, etc., of the crucial battle May 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For anyone looking for a wealth of details on the fateful three-day battle of Waterloo in 1815, this is the book. The big story of Waterloo is well-known and occasionally reexamined--namely, the decisive defeat of Napoleon with the consequence of more or less making for modern Europe as it continues into the present. The military historian Haythornthwaite concentrating on the Napoleonic era relates the countless details behind this big story.
What Haythornthwaite does in this book is relate countless specifics about uniforms, maneuvers, combat formations, weaponry, and tactics of the armies involved in Waterloo. This adds dimension to other accounts of the battle; which in most cases are straightforward, linear accounts of the battle as it unfolded. No matter how well one knows the battle of Waterloo or nineteenth-century European warfare, one will learn something from this work to enhance this knowledge. Knowing such details as what guard duty was like for French soldiers, what options officers had for deploying their units depending on the terrain, the formations and strengths of the units whose maneuverings had a role in the battle's outcome, the organization of the armies, how different kinds of forces such as cavalry and foot soldiers fought against each other, and battlefield communication cannot but add to a grasp of the nature of and appreciation of the battle. Even knowing the statistics such as numbers of officers and enlisted men in each unit, number of artillery pieces in these units, and casualties grouped in the appendices adds to the drama and human toll of the crucial battle.
"One of the most characteristic features of French infantry attacks was that they were usually preceded by large numbers of skirmishers, who could harass the enemy line with sharpshooting while concealing the extent of the following troops from the enemy's view." This tactic, however, put to use only the first two rows of a column of troops. Thus the author reasons that unit commanders would break the column formation to spread the troops out in a line to "maximize their firepower" where there was space to do this. In the Netherlands Army taking part in Waterloo, "Infantry battalions each comprised six companies, of which two were flank companies (sometimes styled 'heavy' and 'light') corresponding to the grenadiers and voltigeurs in French battalions." The book is filled with such specified, interrelated details about early 19th-century armies and warfare giving shape to Waterloo. This makes this distinctive work required prefatory reading for reading any other account or analysis of the battle. For Haythornthwaite's "Waterloo Armies" adds depth to understanding of it.
 Underwhelming March 13, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I am sorry to say that I do not like Philip Haythornthwaite's "The Waterloo Armies: Men, Organization & Tactics" more than I do. It is not that it is a poorly written or inaccurate work, but its scope is more limited than what I had hoped, and it lacks the nitty-gritty kind of details that I prefer. Although each corps and division (and its commander) is described, this same information is already available (and more colorfully presented) in Mark Adkin's "The Waterloo Companion". (I would say that if you are interested in Waterloo and do not have Adkin's excellent book, then Haythornthwaite's "The Waterloo Armies" is probably worth reading.) Like I said, not a bad book, but somewhat underwhelming.
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