Ian Fletcher (1) (1957–)

A good thorough account of an extraordinary, long and fierce siege under Wellington, and a thankfully short space devoted to the horrific sacking of Badajoz afterwards. The numbers of dead and wounded are hard to take in, but the way Fletcher unfolds the elements, from Wellington's sneak up on the town, through the gradual entrenchments, Soult's and Marmont's delay and then to day after day of horrendous conditions and prolonged attacks from the defending French, it comes chillingly to life. show more A real eye-opener to the realisties of this bloody siege and the crazed troops who lived and fought through 21 days of what must have been sheer terror. show less

A solid well-balanced book on a battle which tends to be neglected in favor of Balaklava and the "Light Brigade". This is jointly done by English and Russian authors and contyains good perimary material from both sides; it also includes French material and gives fair credit to the French share in the battle (most account in English focus oon the British). Reading it at the same time as an account of the Indian Mutiny, I was struck by the way at the Alma the Russian relied on the bayonet and show more the British on their new Enfield rifles, while in the Mutiny the mutineers relied on the good musketry (though with older model weapons) while the British used the bayonet, show less