The Waterloo Campaign

Great Campaigns

by Albert A. Nofi

Albert Nofi has used his many years of research to produce an account of the battle of Waterloo that has all the grandeur and military detail one could want, but which never loses its interest in individual human experience. Here Napoleon rides forward to take personal command of a small detachment of French Marines to fight his way across the Sambre river on the way to Waterloo. Hanoverian exiles who have been fighting Napoleon for a decade under English command are surrounded and wiped out in a classic "last stand" at the hour of victory. The Waterloo Campaign also covers the death of the Duke of Brunswick, the reconciliation of Napoleon and his estranged brother Jerome in the crucible of battle, and the tragic loss and miraculous delivery of many ordinary people.

In addition to its popular appeal, Albert Nofi's The Waterloo Campaign has found favor with the most demanding of military enthusiasts. Waterloo is a Military Book Club Main Selection in the U.S. and has been selected for a special European edition. Special features of The Waterloo Campaign include the most complete orders of battle available for the British, French and Prussian armies, a detailed comparison of artillery and musketry capabilities, sidebars profiling many of the personalities of the campaign, weather conditions for each hour of the battle and the best-informed estimates available on unit strengths and casualties, for horses as well as humans, during the campaign.

Genres: Military History

335 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 1993

About the author

An American military historian, defense analyst, and a designer of board and computer wargame simulations.

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author Albert Nofi provides an inconsistent and at times compelling story of the account of the Battle of Waterloo. Needless to say I won't be reading other books in this series on other battles. The most disappointing thing was the inconsistency in the story of the battle. At times he had me wrapped and then would drop off the cliff with an inability to keep the prose moving. There were a total of 16 maps (the book was published in 1993) and the maps have not stood the test of time. The battle lines are at best difficult to follow and I could not read the subdued areas surrounding the battle field. Ironically there is no bibliography and no sources sited within this work but the Nofi makes it a point to provide a suggestion for further readings. One of the suggested further readings is "Face of Battle" by Sir John Keegan that I read previously; however, he calls it "a most unusual treatment of Waterloo". The reality is that Sir Keegan gives a detailed account of the Battle and keeps the reader entwined with the historical activity and has the decency to site his source material (something Nofi should have done here).

Throughout the book there are 7 photos and nearly 45 reproduced paintings by my count - again, none of this is sited. No reference to where the paintings were currently housed at the time of publishing adds to my general complaint.

Lastly, with more nearly 45 "sidebars" it becomes a big distraction as one is reading along. The "sidebars" should have been incorporated to the story - at least 35 of these could have added to the general story in an interesting account of the Battle of Waterloo. In this I have read all of it and I admit I feel I know something "more" than before. However, without having a place to go to specifically on source material I find this sort of book a waste of time. I will take Sir John Keegan's account of history and forgo any other work by this author in the future.

[Bill Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A introductory overview of one of the most famous military campaigns and battles in modern history. Full of factual information and provides a straight-forward narration of events in a manageable number of pages.