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Wellington's Guns

The Untold Story of Wellington and his Artillery in the Peninsula and at Waterloo

Format: Hardback
Language: English
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom
Imprint: Osprey Publishing
Published: 6th Sep 2013
Dimensions: w 152mm h 244mm d 38mm
Weight: 820g
ISBN-10: 1780961146
ISBN-13: 9781780961149
Barcode No: 9781780961149
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Synopsis
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, the often stormy relationship between Wellington and his artillery, how the reluctance to modernize the British artillery corps threatened to derail the British push for victory and how Wellington's views on the command and appointment structure within the artillery opened up damaging rifts between him and his men. At a time when artillery was undergoing revolutionary changes - from the use of mountain guns during the Pyrenees campaign in the Peninsular, the innovative execution of 'danger-close' missions to clear the woods of Hougomont at Waterloo, to the introduction of creeping barrages and Congreve's rockets - Wellington seemed to remain distrustful of a force that played a significant role in shaping tactics and changing the course of the war. Using extensive research and first-hand accounts, Colonel Nick Lipscombe reveals that despite Wellington's brilliance as a field commander, his abrupt and uncompromising leadership style, particularly towards his artillery commanders, shaped the Napoleonic Wars, and how despite this, the ever-evolving technology and tactics ensured that the extensive use of artillery became one of the hallmarks of a modern army.

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'A very timely landmark book in a much neglected field. This is a scholarly and meticulous examination of one of the great puzzles of military history. Why did one of Britain's greatest commanders think so little of his gunners? Nick Lipscombe presents us with a fascinating analysis of Wellington's treatment of men who deserved better.' Peter Snow, journalist, broadcaster and author of To War with Wellington 'Though ever present and ever more efficient, the artillery that supported the British armies that fought in the Peninsula and at Waterloo has not figured strongly in this historiography. In this fine work Nick Lipscombe remedies this want and in the process provides us with much fresh information on the internal workings of the British military machine.' Professor Charles J. Esdaile, University of Liverpool 'A remarkable and masterly account of Wellington's gunners that is unlikely to be surpassed.' Ian Fletcher, author of The Peninsular War - Wellington's Battlefields Revisited