Featured battle : Rio Gebora

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 19 February 1811

An utterly incompetent handling of his troops by the Spanish commander, Mendizabal, led to this defeat by a force half the size of his own. Most ofhis cavalry fled the field leaving the flank of his infantry exposed to the French cavalry attack. Many of the Spaniards fled into Badajoz and many others fled over the border to Portugal. This defeat sealed the fate of Badajoz.

The Transformation of British Naval Strategy

James Davey
This is a book aimed more at the specialist rather than the general browser. Having said that it is written in an easy flowing style which makes the subject matter easy to understand. The subject of the book, sub-titled 'seapower and supply in Northern Europe 1808 to 1812' is the logistical problem of keeping a substantial fleet supplied with all its needs far from any base. The story is one of the evolution and development of systems which brought together the different branches of the supply chain to become a very efficient 'machine'. The end user, Admiral Saumarez's fleet, contributed greatly, in terms of the feed back, to the vast improvements made. The text is supported by very few illustrations and maps but with a wealth of tables and graphs.
A book not to missed by students of Napoleonic naval warfare.
I warmly recommend a fascinatingly good read.
The Boydell Press, 2012