With Eagles To Glory Napoleon and his German Allies in the 1809 Campaign Author: John H. Gill Publisher: Greenhill Books, Lionel Leventhal Ltd, London Price: £ 25.00 ISBN 1-85367-130-4 I received this work for review in February of this year, I had intended to skip quickly through it and knock out a review for issue 11. Unfortunately, this was not to be, time constraints being what they are around here, instead of writing the review I found myself picking up `Eagles' and reading and even rereading the various sections of this fascinating and excellent book. `Eagles' contains 534 pp with over 80 maps and tables, plus many line drawings and black and white photographs of personalities and action scenes. This book looks at the extensive involvement of the `Confederation' troops in the 1809 German campaign. The format is rather unique in that it effectively devotes a chapter to each state. Each chapter contains the `Army list' for the subject state, together with the detailed organisation of the units and uniform descriptions. There are many `eye-openers' contained therein, many correcting the impressions given by other authors, who rely on the maxim that after 1806 the ..... adopted the French organisation, by the book and find out how wrong they are. Details of the actions in which the subject fought are then given. This does mean that many combats are covered repeatedly. Although seeming a little odd at first, is in fact the strength of `Eagles'. Many books of this genre, outline a battle giving a general account of the action. `Eagles' , however, gives you an in depth study, for example; if the Hessians and Badeners fought at a particular battle, you get an insight and a detailed Hessian/Baden perspective of the action. The detail is tremendous, naming and relating the actions of various officers and corps, recounting many `tales' from the regimental legends of the various units. This gives `Eagles' a real flavour for era and encourages you to plunge further into its depths. `Eagles' is actually composed of two part, the first being `The Campaign of The Danube Valley, the second `The War in the Tyrol and Other Theatres. Where Gill finds the information and the time to research the contents of both these sections staggers the imagination. Even the notes that follow at the end of every chapter are worth reading on their own. Here lies my only criticism, although becoming more prevalent in this day and age, may I call on book publishers to refrain from putting `foot notes' at the end of the chapter and stick them where it matters, at the foot of the relevant page! In conclusion `Eagles' is a well written, an easy and entertaining read, packed with good solid information. If you haven't got a copy, buy one, if you can't buy one, borrow one. This is one of those books that really deserves to be owned by every `fantassin'. UNIFORMEN DER ARMEE FRIEDRICH WILHELMS III With text (in German) by Klaus-Peter Merta of the Zeughaus (Royal Prussian Arsenal) in Berlin and colour photos by Jean Molitor, this fabulous work consists of full page colour reproductions of 76 of a total of 142 hand coloured copper plates of the uniforms of the Prussian Army from the work of A.L. Ramm dated 1797. The uniforms shown include generals, infantry, cavalry and artillery. The text includes further uniform details of each unit of the Prussian Army at this time including changes to 1806 along with organisational details. This is a primarily source of high quality printed on art paper and hardbound and comes at £ 32.50 including P&P from: Peter Hofschroer, Postfach 1427, 56174 Vallender, Germany. SAECHSISCHE FAHNEN UND STANDARTEN 1810 BIS 1813 With the (German) text produced by means of a computer and laser printed together with hand coloured plates reproduced by means of a high quality colour photocopier, this privately produced manuscript covers in detail the colours and standards of the Saxon Army carried in the fateful years of 1810 to 1813. The author, Dr.Eckehart Kelterborn, has clearly gone to a lot of trouble to produce this labour of love. The price of £ 19.95 (incl. P&P) for 25 A4 pages is somewhat expensive, but where else can this information be obtained? Available from: Peter Hofschroer, Postfach 1427, 56174 Vallendar, Germany. Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #12 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com