It is with a great deal of pleasure that I have been able to read for the first time in English this translation of an account of Frederick the Great,s first campaign of the Seven Years War. Neil Cogswell has just made available the first in a planned series of trandations covering the Austro-Prussian theater of operations.

This book, encompassing 67 pages of text and 21 plates, is a firsthand account of the war in Bohemia as described by Horace St. Paul, an English ax-patriot and soldier of fortune, who fled England after killing an older man in a duel over a woman (shades of Barry Lyndon!) and enlisted in the Austrian army. The book includes an account of the Battle of Lobositz and the Saxon surrender at Pirna as well as numerous other skirmishes and details relating to the composition of both armies.

There are many orders of battle and sufficient information to make it possible for the wargamer to duplicate the entire campaign. There is also, as a supplement, a Prussian account of the Battle of Lobositz. In addition, there are numerous parenthetical clarifications included in the text which are believed to have been provided by the Austrian commander Field Marshall von Browne himself. If true, this would indicate that the journal was definitely written at the time that the events were taking place since von Browne was to die the following year shortly after the Battle of Prague.

The 21 plates at the end are very nicely done, consisting of maps ably redrawn from the original by Mr. Cogswell, as well as supplementary drawings of Mr. Cogswell's impression of how the battle of Lobositz may have looked to an observer on the field of battle. These latter views, based on the author's own drawings made on the spot during the 1994 Christopher Duffy tour of Frederician battlefields, exhibit a high degree of accuracy in capturing the lay of the land. As a participant on the same tour, I can vouchsafe that they provide an accurate rendering of the terrain as I saw it in all particulars.

The book is bound in a fashion similar to the binding found on the Pengel & Hurt series of books, with a sturdy white tape binding, cardboard covers, and clear plastic front cover protector. It is printed on high quality 8-in by 11-inch paper and has an overall pleasing appearance. At a price of only $20.00, it offers good value for the money. Anyone with an interest in this aspect of the Seven Years War owes it to himself to acquire a copy. It is available directly from the author in the UK at:

Nell Cogswell
10 Latimer Lane
Guisborough, Cleveland TS14 8DD
United Kingdom

Or it can be purchased in the USA from

Daddy Warbooks
Division of Old Battlefields Press
5 East County Road 600 North
Valparaiso, IN 46383
Phone: 1-219~46S 7518

Those ordering should remit $20.00 plus $3.00 shipping for domestic orders. Overseas orders add $5.00 surface mail.

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