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Napoleon at Dresden: The Battles of August 1813
This work is the second in a three-volume series on the 1813 campaign; it is the first significant study on the 1813 campaign since Petre. Unlike the other English works on the campaign, it was prepared using French archival and published sources, as well as German, Danish, and Russian published sources.
It discusses every battle and significant action in all parts of Germany - including various sieges. Detailed color maps support the major battles and a large collection of orders of battle drawn from the French Archives, as well as period-published documents, support the discussion of the campaign, complemented by a large selection of images. Both images and maps are new to this edition of the work.
It discusses every battle and significant action in all parts of Germany - including various sieges. Detailed color maps support the major battles and a large collection of orders of battle drawn from the French Archives, as well as period-published documents, support the discussion of the campaign, complemented by a large selection of images. Both images and maps are new to this edition of the work.
- GenresHistory
386 pages, Paperback
Published August 26, 2021
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August 18, 2020
“A bigger defeat of a book that the battles of Leipzig and Waterloo together”—Me
“Run away from this book faster than Uncle Nappy from Moscow”—Also me
“I am glad we did not read this book while working on our game”—the designers of “La battaille de Dresde” (Apocrypha)
After all these snarky comments, and before I get to more awful ones I should mention that most of my interaction with Le Petit Caporal comes through Osprey books—which have very nice maps—and David Chandler’s monumental work—rather readable and concise considering the scope and the age of his book. So yes, this is my first “Adult Napoleonic” book.
I felt defeated after the third chapter, “The battles on the Bober” and things did not much better until the Battle of Dresden proper. With all due respect, Nafztiger is a dull writer. Maybe all detailed battle books are like this, but I found this boring as f***. Battalions move right and left, take positions in villages and hills, and fight the enemy. There is very little emotion in the narrative, we hardly ever find infantry taking “heavy pounding”, or a “bloody engagement”—Dresden proper gets a bit better in this regard, and Kulm too—Maybe I need a more novelized version of the events, but this felt a bit like reading the abbreviated version of a chess game. I do not particularly like chess, but one of the reasons I got this book was to have it as a companion to the wargame “La Bataille de Dresde”. So maybe I did not get an engaging book, but at least got a good walkthrough.
Except someone did not read the books while working on the maps.
First, considering that a number of places have changed names since the battles took place, it would have been useful to have the Czech/Polish names of some of these places somewhere. It would have also been nice if the operational maps where associated with a given chapter—as it is the case with the color ones. It is hard enough of a book without having to check multiple maps, on top of the text and the order of battle. Finally, I would add “dynamic” maps to the wish list. Even in the smaller battles, the troops moved enough that at some point having only their initial position becomes useless.
What is not only nice, but necessary is that all locations mentioned in the text appear in the maps, which does not happen. This might be a small inconvenience when it comes to the operational ones—towns tend to show on Google Maps—but it is crucial when it comes to battle maps. Forest, hills, and the like might not be there anymore.
Attention should have also been given to spelling. I am the first one who butchers Germany at the first occasion—usually when I go for bread in the mornings—and the one who gets lost while hiking “because all those Teutonic names are the same.” This is partially the pedantry of someone who painfully and slowly is learning the language of Bülow, but it does not make it any less true. There is a difference between “ü“ and “u”, and my funny neighbors like to name places in close proximity with the same word, except for those two dots. There is also a difference between-burg and –berg. It would not be the first time I encounter places with those name in very close proximity.
There are also inconsistencies between the text, the map, and its legend. There are numerous enough that what follows is only a sample:
- In the map of the battle of Gross-Beeren there is a mysterious “t” allied unit that is no identified in the legend.
- In the text it is repeated several times that during the battle of Hagelberg? Hagelburg? Who knows! a certain von Bornstead was in charge of the 4/3rd Kurmärk Landwehr regiment, but in the legend of the map we see him in charge of the second battalion—and von Schönholz of the fourth. In the legend for the map of such battle, there are two terrain features, the Thiergarten, and the Birken Woods that do not appear in the map.
- In the map for the first day of the battle of Dresden, the initial position of three French Divisions—3rd and 4th Young Guards, 10th Light Cavalry—plus that of the Old Guard and the Guard Cavalry is missing. The same can be said of the Austrian’s 2nd Reserve and 4th Divisions.
If Helion ever updates the maps, it might be worth your money, if you do not mind the dispassionate narrative. As it is, it is only good to hit Landwehr and old Guards in the head.
“Run away from this book faster than Uncle Nappy from Moscow”—Also me
“I am glad we did not read this book while working on our game”—the designers of “La battaille de Dresde” (Apocrypha)
After all these snarky comments, and before I get to more awful ones I should mention that most of my interaction with Le Petit Caporal comes through Osprey books—which have very nice maps—and David Chandler’s monumental work—rather readable and concise considering the scope and the age of his book. So yes, this is my first “Adult Napoleonic” book.
I felt defeated after the third chapter, “The battles on the Bober” and things did not much better until the Battle of Dresden proper. With all due respect, Nafztiger is a dull writer. Maybe all detailed battle books are like this, but I found this boring as f***. Battalions move right and left, take positions in villages and hills, and fight the enemy. There is very little emotion in the narrative, we hardly ever find infantry taking “heavy pounding”, or a “bloody engagement”—Dresden proper gets a bit better in this regard, and Kulm too—Maybe I need a more novelized version of the events, but this felt a bit like reading the abbreviated version of a chess game. I do not particularly like chess, but one of the reasons I got this book was to have it as a companion to the wargame “La Bataille de Dresde”. So maybe I did not get an engaging book, but at least got a good walkthrough.
Except someone did not read the books while working on the maps.
First, considering that a number of places have changed names since the battles took place, it would have been useful to have the Czech/Polish names of some of these places somewhere. It would have also been nice if the operational maps where associated with a given chapter—as it is the case with the color ones. It is hard enough of a book without having to check multiple maps, on top of the text and the order of battle. Finally, I would add “dynamic” maps to the wish list. Even in the smaller battles, the troops moved enough that at some point having only their initial position becomes useless.
What is not only nice, but necessary is that all locations mentioned in the text appear in the maps, which does not happen. This might be a small inconvenience when it comes to the operational ones—towns tend to show on Google Maps—but it is crucial when it comes to battle maps. Forest, hills, and the like might not be there anymore.
Attention should have also been given to spelling. I am the first one who butchers Germany at the first occasion—usually when I go for bread in the mornings—and the one who gets lost while hiking “because all those Teutonic names are the same.” This is partially the pedantry of someone who painfully and slowly is learning the language of Bülow, but it does not make it any less true. There is a difference between “ü“ and “u”, and my funny neighbors like to name places in close proximity with the same word, except for those two dots. There is also a difference between-burg and –berg. It would not be the first time I encounter places with those name in very close proximity.
There are also inconsistencies between the text, the map, and its legend. There are numerous enough that what follows is only a sample:
- In the map of the battle of Gross-Beeren there is a mysterious “t” allied unit that is no identified in the legend.
- In the text it is repeated several times that during the battle of Hagelberg? Hagelburg? Who knows! a certain von Bornstead was in charge of the 4/3rd Kurmärk Landwehr regiment, but in the legend of the map we see him in charge of the second battalion—and von Schönholz of the fourth. In the legend for the map of such battle, there are two terrain features, the Thiergarten, and the Birken Woods that do not appear in the map.
- In the map for the first day of the battle of Dresden, the initial position of three French Divisions—3rd and 4th Young Guards, 10th Light Cavalry—plus that of the Old Guard and the Guard Cavalry is missing. The same can be said of the Austrian’s 2nd Reserve and 4th Divisions.
If Helion ever updates the maps, it might be worth your money, if you do not mind the dispassionate narrative. As it is, it is only good to hit Landwehr and old Guards in the head.
Displaying 1 of 1 review