One of our most distinguished military historians tells the story of six defining battles . . .Every battle is different. Each takes place in a different context - the war,the campaign,the weapons. However,battles across the centuries,whether fought with sticks and stones or advanced technology,have much in common. Fighting is,after all,an intensely human affair; human nature doesn't change. So why were battles fought as they were What gave them their shape Why did they go as they did: victory for one side,defeat for the other In exploring six significant feats of arms - the war and campaign in which they each occurred,and the factors that determined their precise form and course - The Shape of Battle answers these fundamental questions about the waging of war.Hastings (1066) - everyone knows the date,but not,perhaps,the remarkable strategic background.Towton (1461) - the bloodiest battle to be fought on English soil. Waterloo (1815) - more written about in English than any other but rarely in its true context as the culminating battle in the longest war in'modern'times.D-Day (1944) - a battle within a larger operation ('Overlord'),and the longest-planned and most complex offensive battle in history. Imjin River (1951) - this little known battle of the Korean War was the British Army's last large-scale defensive battle. Operation Panther's Claw (2009) - a battle that has yet to receive the official distinction of being one: an offensive conducted over six weeks with all the trappings of 21st-century warfare yet whose shape and face at times resembled the Middle Ages.The Shape of Battle is not a polemic,it doesn't try to argue a case. It lets the narratives - the battles - speak for themselves.
Publisher: Transworld Publishers LtdISBN: 9781529177015Number of pages: 416Weight: 306 gDimensions: 198 x 127 x 25 mm
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There is no finer military historian.His prose is light and engaging; this is a detailed factual account but it is as pleasurable and easy to read as any well written novel. The maps are excellent,the pace is a brisk canter...there are some utterly joyfully arid asides and footnotes that made me laugh aloud...this book is simply superb. Buy it. Read it.Mallinson writes with an exciting pen and a cool head and he understands war.It is such a relief to read something by a professional who really knows his stuff.
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