Featured battle : Agincourt

Part of The Hundred Years war

Date : 25 October 1415

Henry V army was significantly outnumbered by the French but after a long pursuit was forced to give battle. Henry was able to select the battle ground and chose wisely. His 5000 longbow men on the flanks and his 900 men-at-arms with 1800 retainers held the centre. The French [20,000] were overconfident and poorly organized, all of their greatest lords led the first battle of 8000 dismounted men-at-arms. The battle evolved into a bloody hand to hand melee before the French finally broke and ran.

Artillery Warfare 1939-1945

Simon and Jonathon Forty
This book is about big guns and their use from 1939 to 1945. As with their book on Tank Warfare Simon and Jonathan Forty [book reviewed on this site] have given us a super insight into that period. Both theory and practice are covered using original reports on actions, training documents and technical instructions for a wide range of topics. There are useful comparisons, many shown diagrammatically, between weapons and ammunition of different nations. Included also, as very long range artillery, are the V1 and V2 rockets.
A superb eight page Abbreviations and Glossary section at the beginning of the book clarifies all the technical terms and delivers a basic understanding of the fundamentals of artillery.
There are hundreds of photographs and an extensive bibliography.
This book is made special because it is almost encyclopaedic in scope and because of the amount of contemporary material reproduced here without the clutter of ‘wisdom after the event’. From mountain warfare with guns on mules to V2 rockets and everything between makes it well worth a place on anyone's reference shelf.
We highly recommend this work to all levels of readers.


Pen & Sword Military, 2020