A Far-Flung Gamble: Havana 1762

Osprey Raid #15

by David Greentree

At the height of the Seven Years' War, Great Britain made an audacious strike at the heart of Spanish colonial power in the Caribbean. Gathering troops from bases in Britain and Canada and sailing across the Atlantic in secrecy was an incredible feat. The raid on Havana took Spanish colonial forces completely by surprise and following vicious fighting, the city defences at El Moro collapsed. Havana, the jewel in the Spanish colonial crown, now belonged to Britain. The success of the raid influenced British military policy for centuries as the true potential of amphibious warfare was realized. Author David Greentree tracks every aspect of the raid from its origins to the seige and assault of El Morro. Each section is accompanied by full color illustrations from Donato Spedaliere and Giuseppe Rava along with maps, photographs, and period artwork.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published October 9, 2006

About the author

David Greentree graduated from the University of York with a BA in History before completing an MA in War Studies at King's College London and qualifying as a lecturer in Further Education. In 1995 he accepted a commission in the Royal Air Force and has served in a variety of locations, including Afghanistan and Oman. He has written numerous books for Osprey, focusing on British military history and World War II. David is based in the UK.

Reviews

[William Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A far-flung gamble: Havana 1762 by David Greentree is a book published by Osprey that gives the basic rundown of t he British attack on Havana during the 7 years war. The book is short, only about 80 pages, and most of those pages include some form of illustration, map, or photo. The book is a sufficient summary of the siege and raid, but if you want more specific information you would be better off reading one of the first hand accounts from the siege.

The writing itself is not great, and it does not really enhance the story in any meaningful way. It would have been better to just have the primary sources take up the writing, as that is the best history in the book. Osprey has never been known for great writing, but the other Osprey books I have read have had better writing than this one. It’s just bland and generic, like a Wikipedia article.

The one thing this book does have that makes it worth having is the illustrations and maps, which have always been Ospreys strength. There are many maps, with two being full two page layups of the different parts of the siege, as well as other smaller ones detailing specific parts of the battle and buildup. There are also a lot of old illustrations reprinted from the time of the war, which was a nice touch. They only drew one full color art plate, and it was just some British soldiers attacking the Spanish soldiers along the beachhead. A few color photos of the castles around Havana were included as well.

The book contains a decent amount of sources, including a fair bit of primary sources, but does not cite where they got some of the information about the Spanish army from. I don’t doubt the validity, I would have just liked to have read more about it.

Overall, if you know what Osprey books are like, this one is no different. It does what it sets out to do, and is a good beginning point for the subject, or for amphibious assaults at the time. The writing holds it down from being anything more than average though, so it get 3 stars out of 5.

[Sean Chick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull prose even by Osprey Standards. The actual "raid" is covered in two pages. In fact this would be better in a series entitled "siege."