Mark Urban

To write an engaging book about wars fought two hundred years ago is no easy task, but Mark Urban is up to the challenge. Using primary sources, he brings, along with the information, the personalities of the officers and men of the 95th, their virtues and vices, quirks and kindnesses into focus, and even sometimes, into one's heart. Urban brings the time and the place and even this 'new' method of fighting (learned, ahem, from fighting in North America) to life also. It helps that I had show more first read the less well organized book on the history of the founding of the 95th which begins in Pennsylvania with George Washington and his youthful battles, fighting alongside the British during the French and Indian Wars. He and many other Americans tried to convince the British officers to fight differently but they wouldn't. . . . and were, of course, slaughtered. Decades later new ideas have filtered in and become a reality. The military is allowing an experimental unit to prove itself. In this new regiment the men are treated with a little more respect, taught to aim (long story, wasn't worth it with muskets) and given freedom when in battle to make their own decisions about what to do. The 95th even encouraged the common soldiers to learn to read. This was revolutionary! Anyway, the focus here is on the Peninsular Wars and Waterloo and the role the 95th played in both. If you read Georgette Heyer you may know that Napoleon extended himself in many directions including trying to conquer all of the Iberian peninsula, which likely he would have done if he hadn't ALSO tried to conquer Russia. (So so crazy). Many of her male characters have been in the army and therefore were either on the Peninsula and/or at Waterloo. The project I am now focussed on made me want to actually know more so there is a foundation even to a few casual or maybe not so casual references I might make. I have some further reading to do -- some primary sources, memoirs by soldiers who survived (and about whom I already know quite a lot from this book) and I am looking forward to reading them. I felt surges of emotion here and there as I read about these men and their doings. As always mystified and unsettled by this aspect of human beings, but also in awe of acts of courage and determination. This period, one to which we are still closely connected, was one of immense changes, new ideas, new inventions and the military, while often very resistant (disastrously so, once again, in 1914) to change, did change as this regiment proved their value. ****1/2 show less

In view of the prominent Peninsular War book and TV series Sharpe (starring Sean Bean), I resisted reading Mark Urban's account of the 95th Rifles. I feared a further lionization of Wellington's redcoats and greencoats, downplaying the Spanish and Portuguese contribution. In fact, my fears were wrong. Not only does Urban point out that British successes were often due to French voluntary force reductions, he also treats many aspects of war that are often ignored in conventional military show more history. His discussion of corporal punishment, desertion, drunkenness, promotion and demotion as well as a darker topics such as rape is outstanding. The poor Spanish civilians had to endure the depredations of two foreign armies on overstretched logistics.

The 95th Rifles as part of the Light Brigade/Division was fortunate in having both colorful protagonists and writers who captured their adventures. Given their prominent role in Wellington's tactical approach, the Rifles were in the thick of many of the classic battles of the Peninsular War. Skirmishing and aimed fire in the best Jäger tradition, the 95th were both modern and un-British. They remain a greencoated exception to the "their's not to reason why" tradition of the British Army, probably one of the causes why they still are admired. A great read. Highly recommended. show less

Urban brings a journalists eye to the story of special forces activities in Northern Ireland during the 1970's and 80's, and concludes that their deployment resulted in systemic abuses, mostly directed against Nationalist groups such as the IRA and INLA. Urban's careful and persuasive research suggests that there was (at times) a deliberate policy of ambushing suspects and shooting to kill in preference to either deterring crimes or making arrests. The results of this policy, Urban argues, show more was increased support for terrorists within the community, and a corruption of the processes of law and order - both in the concealment of information from the Courts, and in turning a blind eye to criminal and terrorist activity undertaken by informers. Even if all of this was an inevitable cost of fighting terrorism, Urban asks whether the the fact that one in five of the people killed by the SAS in such operations were innocent civilians could ever be acceptable.

Urban notes that this abuse was largely confined to particular periods during the SAS's deployment in Northern Ireland. There were extended periods where the SAS appeared to operate in a restrained manner, focussing on their special skills in surveillance in support of regular police operations. Rather than detracting from his argument, Urban suggests that this shows that the SAS was at different times operating under different leadership and rules. Urban gives considerable background into the long running argument between the use of military and civil forces in bringing law and order to Northern Ireland. He argues that the use of overt military force and the suspension of normal civil rights played into the hands of the terrorist organizations.

In addition to giving what appears to be a very 'inside' account of operations in Northern Ireland which reflects very little credit upon any of the players, Urban also asks what this has done to the SAS. To the extent that the military involvement in Northern Ireland is 'over' this is a matter of history and long past. But the lingering question is whether in some new conflict the SAS traditions of detached professionalism and measured discipline could again be subverted by confused political direction and sometimes poor local leadership, and by a recruiting policy that at times appeared to favour an aggressive 'shoot-first' culture among new recruits.

'Big Boy's Rules' isn't an outright condemnation of the SAS, but it is a cautionary tale about how it doesn't always live up to its own traditions. In making this judgement, Urban brings to bear not only the perspective of 'liberal' journalism, but also that of a former regular soldier in a traditional Army unit (the Tank Corps). The SAS under the pressure of operations in Northern Ireland at times forgot that they were answerable to civil society for their actions. Urban's choice of the title for his book is deeply ironic, and a slap in the face of gung-ho soldiering. He took it from a quote from a serving SAS soldier 'If they (the IRA) want to play with big boy's toys, then they'll have to expect to play by big boy's rules'." Bringing military force to bear to attempt to resolve domestic terrorism should not, Urban points out, ever be considered a game. And not something that little boys, or big boys have any business being involved in. show less

If you want to know what this book is really about all you need to do is read the dedication: "To those who serve honorably in unpopular wars." That said, what Urban does best is to give you the flavor of what service was like in a British regiment of foot serving in the American Revolutionary War, through the lense of the 23rd Welch Fusiliers. This then ties into his wider goal of examining the evolution of the British Army in the second half of the 18th century, as it oscillated from the show more strict linear tactics of the Seven Years War, to meeting the demands of the American environment for flexibility, to relearning all those lessons again at the beginning of the new, long struggle with France.

Where I mark down the book a little is that there are times when Urban glosses over the frictions that provoked colonial fence-sitters into taking up arms against the King's government. Little examples such as the mass expropriations that provoked spontaneous guerrilla war in New Jersey before Trenton & Princeton, or how forcing South Carolinians to void what they thought was parole in the wake of the fall of Charleston drove men into the ranks of the partisans. While it doesn't negate my enjoyment of the book, it does make me want to know more about the author's politics. Let's just say that defending the honor of the British Army from the contempt of Cousin Jonathan is a high priority on Urban's list. show less