Featured battle : Sorauren Part 1

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 28 July 1813

On the 26th July Soult's forces moved slowly and cautiously. d'Erlon moving south west from the Maya pass had been shaken by the flank attack. Clausel's corps only made contact with the rearguard of Cole's force at 4 pm. Cole had linked up with the Third Division under Picton and they had selected a a strong position to defend. Soult had about 25,000 men available on the morning of the 27th outnumbering the two British divisions. While considering his next action Wellington appeared only accompanied by his military secretary, on a ridge to the right flank of the French army. This theatrical gesture, which raised a great cheer from the Portugese and British, caused Soult to postpone the attack until the next day. By 12.30hrs on the 28th, when the attack started the British had been reinforced, although still outnumbered, and were better prepared to meet the French. Attacks to the front of the line and to the flanks failed and towards the end of the day Soult saw additional reinforcements joining the British lines he withdrew to his start position. [For numbers and casualties see Sorauren Part 2]

The Destruction of 6th Army at Stalingrad

Ian Baxter
Like other books in the Images of War series this book is packed full of superb photographs. A huge amount of detail of the 6th Army’s equipment and people is shown in a set of rare, many previously unpublished, photographs. The annotations are most informative and the supporting text, only ten of the hundred and fifty five pages, gives a brief overview of the campaign. What I found particularly interesting was the different slant on the causes of the defeat. In this book the strength and organization of the Soviet army is given more weight than the Russian winter. There is a distinct absence of the usual crop of photographs of grotesquely frozen German soldiers.
Anyone, even those with only a passing interest in World War Two, would enjoy this book and for re-enactors it could prove a gold mine. We highly recommend it.

Pen & Sword Military, 2020