An exceptionally good read with lots of detail (often harrowing) of the Grand Armee and its advance into Russia and the grim reality of the battles and the fabled Retreat from Moscow. Lots of personal accounts interspersed among the historical overview of events. I found it nicely balanced between stories from both the French & her 'Allies' and their Russian opponents.
Gripping and highly readable.
This is simply an astounding read which often had me close to or in tears at times. Much like 1812 its chocked full of personal accounts and anecdotes and brings home the grim reality of WWI warfare for the British Army on the Western Front (no coverage of Mid-East or Dardenelles). Great insight into the stresses and strains put onto the mainly Colonial army in early stages and its vast and rapid expansion and its change from a army of Regulars and volunteers into a massive Conscript citizen force. A nicely balanced, reasoned and objective approach to many highly subjective aspects, not least the 'Lions lead by Donkeys' quote (not exactly dispelled but certainly well diluted). Holmes covers just about every aspect of the soldiers lives you could think off and so many passages are full of such pathos, humour, horror and reality I found the book hard to put down. Maybe its my upbringing (full blown Ulsterman) and family connection to war (my great grandfather served and his three service medals hang proudly on my wall) but as I said above I found myself often deeply touched by some of the stories and wiping a tear or two aside (only Ken Touts excellent Tank has affected me similarly). Not a book to reveal the ebb and flow of great battles but very much a narrow focused worms eye view. I cannot recommend this one highly enough even if like me the 'appeal' of WWI was/is limited.
If 1812 is 10 out of 10 this scores 11 !!
Thanks! Will put these both on my to read list.
ReplyDeleteChristopher
I agree with your review of "Tommy" wholeheartedly - an excellent book by an author who will be sorely missed. My granda was at the Somme and it's great that books like this keep his memory and others like him alive. I envy you on the medals - his ended up in Canada.
ReplyDeleteNorman
1812 is an excellent read. I would go as far as to say one of the top two books on the era I have read. Never read Tommy but it is bound to be good-just look who the author is!
ReplyDeleteI've had Tommy in my hand and put it back on the shelf...will have to look for it again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation - I have added 1812 to my wish list.
ReplyDeleteI love it when bloggers do book reviews as sometimes it is the only way I learn about a book's existence.
They could be another two things to go on my Christmas list, thanks for the heads up!!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more! Both books are brilliant. Holmes is one of my favourite authors. V.sad he died this year.
ReplyDeleteZamoyski has also written another corker about the Soviet-Polish war of 1920. Title escapes me though...
I also agree on Zamoyski's book. For military details, Nafziger is far more useful, but for the broad sweep of the story, the quality of the prose, and the horrors of the details of campaign from the standpoint of the men,it is a great read.
ReplyDelete