Featured battle : Tannenberg

Part of First World War

Date : 26 August 1914 - 30 August 1914

Leaving a small cavalry div. to slow down the Russian 1st Army under Rennenkampf, the rest of the German 8th moved against Samsonov's 2nd. After intercepting Russian radio messages, Hindenberg knew where each unit was and resolved to encircle them. The German XVII Corps and I Reserve Corps hit the Russian right while von Francois' I Corps hit the left. The XX counter-attacked the centre. Successfully turning both flanks, the Germans caused the Russian to fall back in dissarray, further confused by poor communication and lack of appreciation of the situation. The trap was closed when von Below's 1st Reserve and von Francois' 1st Corps extended to complete the encirclement and the Russian 2nd was effectively destroyed. Samsonov, after ordering the retreat on the 29th dissappeared, thought to have committed suicide. Rennenkampf's 1st Army made no move to assist.

Napoleon's Imperial Guard

Gabriele Esposito
This is a fairly slim volume to cover such a large topic but what it does it does very well. From the book as a whole two things come out very clearly. The first is how personal to Napoleon the Imperial Guard was and secondly how complete an army, albeit a small army, the total guard was. At its core was the infantry added to which were the cavalry, heavy and light including lancers, foot and horse artillery, engineers, sailors and Gendarmerie. The development of this special body of troops is traced from the pre-revolutionary Royal guard through the Consular guard to its final Imperial title. This includes the ebb and flow of its composition always with Napoleon’s personal stamp upon it . The creation and nature of the Old, Middle and Young Guards is clearly spelt out. The use of foreign troops within the Guard e.g. Poles and Mamelukes, continues to draw out the personal connection of Napoleon with his soldiers. The strong focus of the book is on the uniforms which are described in detail and supported by superb illustrations of many of them.
We recommend this book as an eye opening introduction to this special element of the Napoleon myth.

Pen & Sword Military, 2021