Castiglione 1796
Feldzug Series 1
Reader's Review
Reviewed by John Cook
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by Bernhard Voykowitsch Readers of First Empire will have notice the occasional advertisement for this book recently. Unfortunately, Helmet, the publisher, which is also owned by the author, ran into a few problems with the printing. This was part of the 'learning curve' for a new company but, as a result, publication was delayed. I understand, that the lessons having been learned, publication of subsequent volumes in this series will not be similarly affected. I really hope not because this particular volume has been well worth the wait. Feldzug means campaign, and outwardly Castiglione 1796 looks like an Osprey Campaign Series, but larger. The layout is similar, as, in parts, is the content. The production is fully up to professional standards, using quality paper and bindings. It is also worth pointing out that although published in Austria, the book is written entirely in English. The book starts with an introduction to the series. The preliminaries over, we are soon into the preceding events and the siege of Mantua. The next part describes the opposing commanders. This consists of biographical sketches of approximately 50 personalities and is where the author should have been a little more disciplined. My advice would have been to cut this to the most important half-dozen at most. It is interesting to note, nevertheless, that many of the Austrians had been happily giving the French a beating until the arrival of Napoleon. The opposing armies are next described in detail, with some illustrations of the types of troop involved, taken from such as Knötel and Ottenfeld, together with tables showing the disposition of the various forces. This is followed by an examination of the rival operational plans, accompanied by excellent photography of the terrain, some of which is in colour, supported by maps, detailed orders of battle, and the text of the various orders given by the central characters. By approximately half-way through the book, on 29 July 1796, the "whole imperial army set into motion". The scene has been set and the campaign starts in earnest. The minor clashes are described in reasonable detail, though the wargamer might prefer more of the tactical minutiae. There is more excellent supporting photography, together with comp-rehensive orders of battle for each action; I particularly liked the use of late 19th century 25.000:1 and 50.000:1 scale maps with the positions of the various units overlaid. All this will make the task of recreating the various actions on the wargames table very easy indeed. The battle of Castiglione, on 5 August 1795, is covered in only 8 pages, much of which is taken up with more exemplary photography, orders of battle and maps. I would have liked more textual detail of this central action. The final parts describe the Austrian retreat, include a critique of the conduct of the campaign, some of the dispatches of Thomas Graham, the British observer, a description of the battlefields today and finally, a brief, though unnecessary, section on wargaming the campaign. In summary, the space used for unnecessary biographies could have been put to better use; an examination of the differences in doctrine for example, or more tactical detail of the kind wargamers crave. There are also no bibliography or footnotes. These are the provenance of any historical book and without them the reader has to take it on trust. Finally, the author should have had a native English speaker go over the text to remove some of the 'roughness'. Be all that as it may, Castiglione 1796 is an important book because it describes part of the Italian campaign in which Napoleon established his reputation, one which, remarkably, has been largely ignored. As a concise history, clearly consisting of original research, despite the absence of a bibliography, Castiglione 1796 is also the best of its genre that I have seen. More Reviews Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #42 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 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 |