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Incidently, all the blurb comes directly from the Pen & Sword website, and does not necessarily reflect the views of CWRS reviewers. For those reviews, the War Correspondent should be referred to.
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The Battle of the Alma 1854. First Blood to the Allies in the Crimea. Hardback. ISBN: 9781844156726. Published: 29 October 2008. £19.99. On 20 September 1854 the combined British and French armies confronted the Russians at the river Alma in the critical opening encounter of the Crimean War. This was the first major battle the British had fought on European soil since Waterloo almost 40 years before. In this compelling and meticulously researched study, Ian Fletcher and Natalia Ishchenko reconstruct the battle in vivid detail, using many rare and unpublished eyewitness accounts from all sides - English, French and Russian. Their groundbreaking work promises to be the definitive history of this extraordinary clash of arms for many years to come. It also gives a fascinating insight into military thinking and organization in the 1850s, midway between the end of the Napoleonic era and the outbreak of the Great War. |
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Despatches from the Crimea. William Russell. Hardback 288 pages. ISBN: 9781844157082 Published: 7 January 2008. £19.99. William Russell's despatches to The Times revolutionised war reporting, and hence the public's perception of war. Each piece was written with a bludgeoning honesty, a refusal to compromise and with the meticulous detail of someone who cared deeply for what they were doing. From the first sailing of the expedition, to the final surrender of Sebastopol, Russell witnessed the battles of the Alma, Inkerman, Balaklava and the Tchernaya. He saw the tragic charge of the Light Brigade and the carnage at the Malakoff and the Redan. His descriptions are graphic, and still come across as extraordinarily modern. The despatches allowed the public to read about the reality of warfare, diminishing the distance between the home front and remote battlefields. Within the space of just a few months, Russell became a national figure in Britain. Shocked and outraged, the public's backlash from his reports led the Government to vastly improve soldiers' living standards and inspired Florence Nightingale to lead 38 volunteer nurses to Balaklava to improve sanitation for the wounded soldiers. |
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A History Of The British Cavalry 1816-1919 Volume 2: 1851-1871. By the Marquess of Anglesey FSA Hardback. ISBN: 9780850521740. Published: 1 August 2007. £45.00 Volume II covers the traumatic experiences of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. Of the battle of Balaklava, Lord Anglesey writes as fully as has ever been done before. This volume also covers The Persian War of 1856-57, the China War of 1860 and the Ambela and Abyssinian campaigns. |
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The Crimean War. By Colonel Robert Lifford Valentine ffrench Blake. Hardback. ISBN: 9781844154494. Published: 1 August 2007. £amp;16.99 When this book was first published in 1971 the opening paragraph of the blurb read: 'You could fill a library with books about the Crimean War, and that, paradoxically, is why this book has been written. For in this library you would find exhaustive histories, some reaching to several volumes; you would find biographies, commentaries, diaries and treatises written from this angle and from that 'but you would not find a single concise volume, a straightforward and objective account of the war covering the peripheral theatres as well as the Crimean itself, giving all the fundamental facts, yet pleading no special cause. This book aims to fill that gap.' Now, over thirty years later, that remains substantially true. The next paragraph began: 'The battlefields round Sevastopol are at present inaccessible, even to Russian tourists.' Happily this is no longer true, and a number of agencies take tours to the battlefields of the Crimea. As the illustrations in this book were originally selected with the intention of making the reader familiar with the topography of the siege and the battles of Balaclava, Inkerman and the Chernaya, it will prove an invaluable asset to anyone visiting the Crimea. |
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Conflict in the Crimea. British redcoats on Crimean soil. By Don Richards. Hardback. ISBN: 9781844153435. Published: 1 August 2007. £19.99 The author relies to a great extent on contemporary accounts of a large number of British men - and women - who were unwittingly caught up in this appalling war. As well as surviving the efforts of their determined enemy, the Russians, they had to overcome the harshest weather, rampant disease and woefully inadequate administrative support. As revealed to a shocked nation by the first war reporters, medical care was largely non-existent and wounded faced the trauma of being left for days without medical attention. This was where Florence Nightingale came in. Battles were prolonged, desperate and hugely costly. The Crimean War was the catalyst for the modernisation of the Army, due to the disgraceful injustice of conditions and lack of leadership and care by many in authority. |
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Messenger of Death. Captain Nolan and the Charge of the Light Brigade. By David Buttery Hardback. ISBN: 9781844157563. Published: 22 August 2008. £19.99 Captain Louis Nolan delivered the order that produced one of the most famous blunders in all military history - the Charge of the Light Brigade. Nolan's conduct and the Charge itself have been the subject of intense, sometimes bitter debate ever since. Yet there has been no recent biography of Nolan. He remains an ambiguous, controversial figure to this day. In this fresh and perceptive study, David Buttery attempts to set the record straight. He reassesses the man and looks at his military career, for there was much more to Louis Nolan than his fatal role in the Charge. This sympathetic account of his life throws new light on the Victorian army and its officer class, and on the conduct of the war in the Crimea. It also offers the reader an inside view of the most notorious episode of that war, the Charge at Balaklava on 25 October 1854. |
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The Pocket Hercules. By M. J. Trow Hardback. ISBN: 9781844153787. Published: 1 August 2007. £19.99 William Morris was in the front rank during the Charge of the Light Brigade. He was one of the first horsemen to reach the Russian guns. This is his story. M.J. Trow's vivid biography of this typical Victorian soldier gives a fascinating insight into the officer class that fought the Crimean War. In recording Morris's experiences during a notorious campaign, the author reveals much about the hidebound character of the British army of that era. The portraits of Morris's fellow officers and commanders - men like Nolan, Raglan and Lucan - are telling, as is the contrast between Morris and his incompetent superior Cardigan. The author meticulously recreates Morris's life and, through him, the lives of a generation of professional British soldiers. |
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The Guards Brigade in the Crimea. By Michael Springman Hardback. ISBN: 9781844156788. Published: 27 October 2008. £19.99 The Guards Brigade consisted of three battalions, the 3rd Grenadier Guards, 1st Coldstream Guards and 1st Scottish Fusilier Guards (as the Scots Guards were then known). The book opens with a resum' of the causes of the War and an analysis of the woeful disorganization of the Army, in contrast to the efficiency of the Royal Navy. The Brigade's performance in the major battles (Alma, inkerman etc) is examined. The author describes the Russians' plans, the ground and conditions experienced by the long suffering troops. The roles and abilities of the various commanders, often found wanting, is fascinatingly treated. After the war was over, the return home and parades are described. |
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A Cavalryman in the Crimea. The Letters of Temple Godman, 5th Dragoon Guards. By Philip Warner Hardback. 224 pages. ISBN: 9781848841086. Published: 5 October 2009. £15.99 Among the British troops bound for the Black Sea in May 1854 was a young officer in the 5th Dragoon Guards, Richard Temple Godman, who sent home throughout the entire Crimea campaign many detailed letters to his family at Park Hatch in Surrey. Temple Godman went out at the start of the war, took part in the successful Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava and in other engagements, and did not return to England until June 1856, after peace had been declared. He took three very individual horses and despite all his adventures brought them back unscathed. |
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A Bearskin's Crimea. Colonel Henry Percy VC and his Brother Officers. By Algernon Percy Paperback. ISBN: 9781844156436. Published: 30 November 2007. £12.99 Using much previously untapped source material A Bearskin's Crimea is a blow-by-blow account of the Grenadier Guards' experiences in the Crimean War. The principal character, The Honourable Henry Percy, a member of the distiguished and powerful Northumberland family (known as 'The Kings of the North'), was present at all the major battles of that appalling conflict: The Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman and the Seige of Sebastopol. Percy was no ordinary soldier: not only was he a shrewd observer with a skilled pen but a thoroughly capable and courageous officer. This is borne out by his winning the Victoria Cross and his rapid promotion. |
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Sharpshooter in the Crimea. By Michael Springman Hardback. ISBN: 9781844152377. Published: 1 August 2007. £19.99 The letters home to his family by Gerald Goodlake, a young officer in the Coldstream Guards, make remarkable reading. They vividly describe the ill-preparedness of the British Army and the dire conditions experienced by all ranks in the Crimea. Goodlake's views on senior officers were frank to say the least! Most important, Goodlake's initiative and courage in organising and leading what were 'Special Forces' were rewarded by the award of one of the first Victoria Crosses. Goodlake served in the Crimea from early 1854 to the end two years later.. |
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