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Title: Napoleon and Austerlitz: An Unprecedentedly Detailed Combat Study of Napoleon's Epic Ulm-Austerlitz Campaigns of 1805 (Armies of the Napoleonic Wars Research Series) by Scotty Bowden, Scott Bowden ISBN: 0-9626655-7-6 Publisher: Emperor's Pr Pub. Date: March, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.15 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best English language study of Napoleon and Austerlitz
Comment: Having read everything I can on Napoleon's 1805 Ulm-Austerlitz campaigns, I have to rank this work as the best. The details about the organization and tactics of the armies, combined with the specifics of the Ulm and the Austerlitz campaigns which include the very detailed tactical description of the fighting (especially the combats around Ulm) simply cannot be found anywhere else. What's more, the text is complimented by a great number of maps and artwork, making the layout what I wish every military history book looked like. It is a splendid work that deserves inclusion in any Napoleonic library.
Oh, yes...a word about some of the "hit reviews" previously posted. I, too, have a copy of Sutterheim's 1807 English TRANSLATED piece on Austerlitz, and Scott Bowden is absolutely correct in his citation. Also, I had an opportunity to hear the author when he spoke in Hawai'i in 2002, and one of those talks included, in part, a detailed presentation on Napoleon. In that presentation, I saw a lot of the archival documents used by the author in putting together NAPOLEON AND AUSTERLITZ---documents that others making "hit reviews" say he never possessed. That speaks volumes about the credibility of those who posted those remarks.
JS
Rating: 5
Summary: Fine book.
Comment: Bowden's Austerlitz is a fine book and I recommed it to everyone. Although author is rather anti-Russian his book is very good. After all he titled it "Napoleon and Austerlitz" and not "Tsar Alexander and Austerlitz". Right ?
The amount of information is breath-taking, the maps are excellent and extremaly detailed showing even the positions of individual battalions and squadrons. This is hard to find in other books where one see only very general positions of troops, and only positions of armies and corps and divisions.
The amount of illustrations and their quality is fascinating !
Rating: 4
Summary: Interesting reading with a strong bias against Russians
Comment: When I read on page 101 a capton "Ochakov - another Suvorov's victory" I thought for a moment that it was a little mistake that could be found even at best-researched books. Suvorov was present at the siege of the fortress under command of prince Potyomkin, but did not take part in the final storm of Ochakov in December 1788 being severely wounded in a Turkish sortie. Author defenitely mistook the storm of Ochakov with the storm of another strong Turkish fortress - Izmail, which was a really great Suvorov's victory. But as read the book more I understood that it was not a chance mistake, because Mr.Bowden demonstrated a lack of knowledge of Russian military history, and a lot of false statements proved it. Just one example - he stated, that Emperor Paul disbanded all jager units of the Russian Army and there remained only several companies. It's just not true, because in 1797 Paul reorganised ten jager corps he inherited from the Catherine the Great (each corps consisted of four battalions) into twenty small regiments. When explaining the reason for ferocity of Russian soldiers Mr.Bowden says it was the heritage of wars with Turkey and "take-no-prisoners" nature of that wars. False statement again - there were excessions in wars of XVII - early XVIII centures, but in later conflicts (wars of 1768-74 and 1787-91) excessins were rare. One example - many Turks, taken prisoner in the 1787-91 war, served at Russian galleys at the Baltic and were decorated for the bravery in actions against Sweden. And only as bad-tasted jokes can be described stories of Inspector of Russian artillery Arakcheev with his hands cutting heads of his unfortunate officers, burying them alive etc. Such anecdotes were very good for XVIII centure propaganda, but in a XXI century historic research they look rather misplaced. Generally speaking, Mr.Bowden gives his readers a picture in the "French heroes against Russian hordes" style. Historians can have their preferences, but solid works shoud not be such one-sided. Author preferred to forget (or may be ignorant of) that in 1799 Russian Army soundly defeated French armies in Italy. In that campaign with great distinction fought the same regiments that fought in 1805 - Apsheron, Butyrsk, Ryazan, Novgorod musketeers, and much maligned by Bowden Russian jagers outfought French infantry in every aspect. I'd like to ask Mr.Bowden a question - if the Russian Army was so bad as he described, how come that just in a year when Russians and French met on the battlefield again, just the same French Army after several months of bitter fighting failed to produce another Austerlitz and had a victory only after a fatal blunder by Russian C-in-C, Hanoverian mercenary Bennigsen at Friedland? "General Winter" again? Definetly not. Russian army had many faults, but it was not a band of bad-disciplined savages, led by ignorant officers as Mr.Bowden tries to convince us.
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Title: Napoleons Grande Armee of 1813 (Armies of the Napoleonic Wars Research Series) by Scotty Bowden, Scott Bowden ISBN: 0962665517 Publisher: Emperor's Pr Pub. Date: July, 1990 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon by Rory Muir ISBN: 0300082703 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Austerlitz: The Empire at Its Zenith by F. G. Hourtoulle ISBN: 2913903711 Publisher: Histoire & Collections Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $37.95 |
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Title: Jena, Auerstaedt: The Triumph of the Eagle by F. G. Hourtoulle ISBN: 2908182769 Publisher: Histoire & Collections Pub. Date: March, 1999 List Price(USD): $37.95 |
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Title: Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armee by John Robert Elting ISBN: 0306807572 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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