Battles of the Crimean War

by William Baring Pemberton

Warfare to the fighting troops is almost always chaotic. Eye-witnesses accounts, some of them here printed for the first time, prove that for the participants in the Crimean War this rule certainly held true. In this book W. Baring Pemberton shows convincingly why the war between Russia and England and France took place in the remote Crimean Peninsula in 1854 and why militarily, medically and logistically the campaign was so disastrous for all three contestants. The five principal engagements - Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and the two attacks against The Redan - are described in close-up, yet without confusing the reader with excessive detail. The author shows, through a knowledge of the wider picture, not only how and why each battle took place, but what course each followed from hour to hour. Here the maps and particularly the contemporary illustrations, as for example the drawings of Constantin Guys and Henry Clifford complement the written records and provide a visual counterpart to the reports of the war correspondents.

Genres: Military History

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1968

Reviews

[Emma Hollingworth]

I knew very little about the Crimean War so bought this book to educate myself on the subject. I do think that it has given me a good grounding understanding and I can appreciate the amount of research that has gone into this book.

It wasn't always easy to follow but there are maps to help with the explanations. This book is very human focused, giving direct quotes from letters and journal entries from soldiers who were involved which made this book not only factual but very hard hitting. I think this is necessary in this sort of book to remind the reader that these isn't 'just history' but peoples lives and drill home the realities of this war.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad a bad insight into the main battles of the Crimea. The book itself is full of information with little in the way waffle but shows it's age in the notes the section when it's showing what regiments at the Crimea formed into as "modern" regiments all of which have now been disbanded or amalgamated further.
Glad I read it as I knew very little about the Crimea campaign and this has eased me into the subject matter.